17" wheels - worth having?

[SGirl]

Just wondering whether anyone has got the 17" Speedlines on their Cerbs? We were thinking of making the switch to these from the standard 16" wheels, but I've heard the Spiders are better from a structural point of view.

Anyone got the 17" Speedlines or the Spiders who can comment? Thanks in advance!

[davidd]

Sgirl

I'm possibly buying a set in a couple of weeks (depending on how much the service is). I must say I like the looks, I'm not sure about spiders, some days I like them others I hate them.

I fancy having them painted black

There were tales of the cracking, I'm not sure if this is due to them being crap or a bad batch, hopefully someone can tell us.

I'd also be interested to know if they are lighter than spiders or the origional 16" ones.

D.

[SGirl]

davidd said: I fancy having them painted black

Funny you should say that, David - that's exactly what we're planning too.

It's the cracking that concerns us... Just wondering whether anyone's experienced this?

[grey42cerbie]

SGirl said:

davidd said: I fancy having them painted black

Funny you should say that, David - that's exactly what we're planning too.

It's the cracking that concerns us... Just wondering whether anyone's experienced this?

I've got 17" RL7's and have had no problems with them. As I understand it there was a bad batch of 18" RL7's which were porous. Most of these were replaced by 18" spiders FOC by the factory / dealers. The early reports on 18" spiders seemed to be that they bent easily. So I think it's the usual TVR myths and wispers at work again. I've never heard anything bad about 17" RL7's (Racelines by the way rather than Speedlines same company though). The only draw back seems to be that they are getting a bit tricky to get hold of. Raceline still make them but to a slightly different design.

In terms of road handling and ride etc... I guess they are somewhere between the 16" and the 18"

Cheers, Steve
Grey 4.2 Cerbie

[RichB]

grey42cerbie said: Raceline still make them but to a slightly different design.

That's not what I thought, in fact I heard they are unavailable these days. Speedline a not Raceline and the chap responsible for Raceline went out of business during the foot and mouth crisis. That said I have 17"/18" RL7's on my Griff and love them. Rich...

p.s. it would be comforting to have confirmation they are available again in case I ever bend one!

[simond001]

I have 17" s on my Cerb. Only difference i nnoticed was the tendency to tramline a little more often.

Nothing negative about them, and to me they look more aggresive than the spiders.

[BCA]

Anthracite 17s

Instantly makes the car look more purposeful IMHO (piccy in profile)

[Grey42Cerbie]

RichB said:

grey42cerbie said: Raceline still make them but to a slightly different design.

That's not what I thought, in fact I heard they are unavailable these days. Speedline a not Raceline and the chap responsible for Raceline went out of business during the foot and mouth crisis. That said I have 17"/18" RL7's on my Griff and love them. Rich...

p.s. it would be comforting to have confirmation they are available again in case I ever bend one!

You might be right, I'm just going by what the tyre monkey at Silverline told me the other week.

Steve
Grey 4.2 Cerbie

[Tam Lin]

Thanks everyone.

I'm with BCA (& his dad..): I do like the anthracite Racelines, but two people at the same TVR dealership mentioned cracking/unspecified problems with them. This may be partially motivated by the fact that (now) they only sell Spiders, but we thought we'd better check..

[tvrslag]

Ive got 17 inch racelines on my 4.2 rather than the original 16" six spokes. The racelines are still available. I picked up a copy of CCC (car and car conversions) :holdsheadinshame: which is a bit like the thinking mans max power, just not as lairy. And they had loads of ads with places selling them.I was considering geting a second set (second hand) to fit some track tires on.
Ive not had any problems with my alloys but front right could do with being refurbished.
I heard the same story about the spiders the other day at a dealer, didn't worry me but I don't think I would choose the spiders myself. Still very nice though.

[flasher]

I swapped the 16" originals on my old Cerb for 17" Racelines, it looked better but I honestly can't say if it had any effect on handling. One bit of advice I would give is if you are fitting 18" spiders then get the rear suspension sorted at the same time or the tyres will rub on the wheelarches when you go over big bumps.

[RichB]

tvrslag said:The racelines are still available. I picked up a copy of CCC (car and car conversions) :holdsheadinshame: which is a bit like the thinking mans max power, just not as lairy. And they had loads of ads with places selling them..

Could you e-mail me the names or web sites of some of these places as the definite information I have from the bloke that made them is that they are no more.. Cheers Rich...

p.s. e-mail address on my web site or send message through profile.

[gazzab]

I had 18inch racelines. They cracked causing 2 high speed blow outs. You cant get em per TVR themselves.