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Could someone educate me please, or put me right on my rusty knowledge...

Am I right in thinking that the cooper S came with 3.5" steels as standard and that there were 4.5" versions as well? As well as this there were 4.5" reverse rims for the standard cooper?

Could you tell me the part numbers of these wheels? There are a set of reverse rims on the Bay at the moment with part number as LP918.

Are there any fitting issues in fitting the standard cooper S steels to a non cooper S?

Thanks in advance.

Alex

Cooper Ss originally came with 3.5" wheels with 4.5" as an option, possibly only with R6 racing tyres initially. Around 66, the car came as std with 4.5", twin tanks etc for homologation purposes. Iirc LP 883 is the 4.5" wheel number. Reverse rims were never fitted by B(L)MC as std, they were made by Dunlop and sold to the after market by them.

Cooper S wheels can present problems fitting to a non S. On the rear, they will hit the inner wheel arch and on the front will hit the caliper on a non S disc braked car. The reverse rim avoids these problems.

Thank you. It is a non S that it will be fitted too. I do intend to fit the 7.5" S disc brake conversion up front, but the rears will be standard drums.

I'll hunt down some reverse rims.

Put it on S wheels on the front, it will handle better.

If I did use the genuine 4.5" S rims, and ran the S disc setup at the front, would alloy minifins give the required clearance at the rear? I recall they have a built in spacer or bigger offset?

S discs and Minifins will be fine for 4.5 S rims. Reverse rims (unless the rarer 4.5 version) will stick out.

ivor badger wrote: Around 66, the car came as std with 4.5

Not so, 4.5 S wheels were always an optional extra right up to the end of production of the Cooper S.

Pete wrote:

ivor badger wrote: Around 66, the car came as std with 4.5

Not so, 4.5 S wheels were always an optional extra right up to the end of production of the Cooper S.

So how come that they all came with 4.5 from around 66 after the spec was updated for an Australian saloon car race, hence the shortage of 3.5s. In 63 the impression given when ordering the car was that at that time the 4.5s would only be supplied with 5.00Lx10 R6s.

alexm wrote:If I did use the genuine 4.5" S rims, and ran the S disc setup at the front, would alloy minifins give the required clearance at the rear? I recall they have a built in spacer or bigger offset?

Standard Minifin drums will make no difference, super Minifins have the built in spacer the same width as S/1275GT rear drums and those fitted to the rear of all later 12" wheel Minis from 1984 onwards.

After '66 (possibly even before), I thought that 4.5 S rims were a little like heaters, etc

They were listed as options, but in reality they cam as standard on the Cooper S

pdaykin wrote:After '66 (possibly even before), I thought that 4.5 S rims were a little like heaters, etc

They were listed as options, but in reality they cam as standard on the Cooper S

Nope wider wheels didn't come as standard though I'm sure many dealers ordered cars with them but they were always an optional extra on UK built Cooper S's. Even the Police didn't bother with them.

Pete is correct!
They were an option on Mk3's mine came with 3.5 inch check 71 price list below.

Obviously the wide wheels are in the price list dated July 20th 71, but that has to be very close to the end of production and wonder why the car is even in the price list by then. The 2nd last S off the production line was registered ASN100K, but the reg number was possibly reserved. I would have thought the car would have come with 165/70x10 tyres as std by then. I will ask my friend who had a J reg car, he being 2nd owner and knowing exactly the car history when he bought it.

Most police Ss were Liverpool police iirc and were E registrations and possibly special orders. The one I had was originally an E reg, but much hacked about by the time I got it.

My car was purchased August 71 it is on the k (in the last 500 chassis No's) I believe they went out of production June. I did not print the price list British Leyland did, and as I have stated my car came on 3.5" wheels.