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A bit of news I have been keeping under my hat for a week or two.

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The Mighty Magna is back on the Street!

Mention Magna to a Sixties drag racer and it could only mean one thing – monster wheels, and the wider the better.

J A Pearce Engineering originally developed their famous Magna wheel for dragsters and racing cars – often in outrageous widths – but by the mid-Sixties, the word had spread and demand for a roadgoing equivalent prompted the company to launch the Magna road wheel at the ’64 Racing Car

Show at Olympia.

Must-have Magna look

Advertisements appeared regularly in the motoring press of the day – Motor Sport, Car and Car Conversions – and Magna wheels became the ultimate sports car accessory, their unique styling transforming the looks of even the most mundane motor. The wheels were very popular with leading circuit racers of the day, particularly in the ModSports series. The man in the street wanted to sport the same kit as the E-types of Dick Protheroe and John Burbidge; he wanted his MGC to look like John Chatham’s; and thanks to J A Pearce, a whole generation of Mini Coopers, Lotus Cortinas and AC Cobras got the Magna look.

So successful was the Magna road wheel, that sales helped fund Pearce Engineering’s Formula 1 team.

The wheels were available in 10in to 15in diameters, and 5in to 10in widths, for both bolt-on and centre-lock fittings. The centre-lock version was sold as a direct replacement for wire wheels, prefitted with splined adapter plates and married with unique aluminium three-eared knock-off spinners.

Magna makes its triumphant return

Since production stopped in 1973, it has been a long-held dream of Pearce’s directors to make the Magna wheel and centre-lock spinner available to a whole new generation of car enthusiast. And thanks to a major investment of time and money, the company is delighted to announce that it is doing just that and they are now accepting orders for Magna wheels. New tools have been created from original wheels to allow production of both magnesium and alloy cast versions, only now they will be made from even better, more modern materials. They will still look just like those wonderful wheels of the Sixties and Seventies and great effort has been made to preserve the authenticity of the original designs using the latest Cad-Cam technology.

In addition to the wheels, J A Pearce Engineering plans to reintroduce some of their other products, including racing mirrors and steering wheels. And what’s more, every single one of these new products will be made in Britain. In fact, there is only one way to describe this great rebirth of Sixties engineering – Absolutely Fabulous!

Find out more…

If you would like to know more about J A Pearce Engineering’s products or the company’s fascinating history,

or just want to look at some sexy wheels, visit our website at:

http://japearceengineering.com

Telephone Number: 0843 2899 855

Email: info@japearcenegineering.com

Contact: Roger Butt

A customer of mine enquired about these last week for his 'Mini' and Roger quoted end of March for delivery .
I hope my customer may have made a "typo" ,but I was informed they will also be £500 each?????????
Cheers Gareth

From: Roger Butt
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 8:53 AM
To: *************
Subject: J A Pearce Wheel Enquiry

Hi Chris,
Thank you for your enquiry.
Regarding wheels, we’re kicking off with the Mark I 10” wheel first and then we’re rolling out the others (including Mark II 10”) at monthly intervals.
Normally the lead time will be 14 weeks from batch announcement to completion, but we’re allowing more time on the first batch to allow for Christmas breaks and to allow for any teething problems! So first batch will be available end-March at the latest.
Sounds like this might be too far away for you.
If you are still interested, let me know which finish option you want (de luxe – diamond-cut webs - is a bit more expensive) and whether you just want centre caps or dummy spinners.
Also if you want to discuss anything, use my mobile number below.
Best regards,
Roger

Small world. Roger was the MD at the last company I worked at (still trading and mentioned at the bottom of the japearce link) Rotex Developments.

I must get in contact with him and get some discount!!

Great news!

The new JAP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rotex.

I am sure that this will be a pretty niche item, but it is excellent to see people making an effort in supplying long unavailable parts to a high standard.

Agree. Now if we could just get easily available parts made to a high standard...

How much are KAD wheels?

I appreciate that many people seem to really like these wheels, and I agree that it's a welcome development when someone puts together a good quality historic product, but....... I have to say, I don't see the appeal - never liked them. I think it's that they remind me of Dunlop D1's and I don't like them either - I think the webs just look a bit 'spindly' and you'd need arches to fit them, and somehow I always picture them being fitted with those 'orrid 'Cosmic' pressed alloy ones in 'Custom cars magazine' in 1970

Are they eligable for historic racing? or will they just be aimed at the road car market?

Still, I salute the guy for putting in the work, and if we all like the same things it'd get a bit boring, wouldn't it?

Al

Couldn't agree more pandora.

Pandora wrote:I appreciate that many people seem to really like these wheels, and I agree that it's a welcome development when someone puts together a good quality historic product, but....... I have to say, I don't see the appeal - never liked them. I think it's that they remind me of Dunlop D1's and I don't like them either - I think the webs just look a bit 'spindly' and you'd need arches to fit them, and somehow I always picture them being fitted with those 'orrid 'Cosmic' pressed alloy ones in 'Custom cars magazine' in 1970

Are they eligable for historic racing? or will they just be aimed at the road car market?

Still, I salute the guy for putting in the work, and if we all like the same things it'd get a bit boring, wouldn't it?

Al

...Al, so what wheels do u favour.??..i like black mambas and d1,s.. !! always nice to hear what floats peoples boats ?? foxy52

They were to racing wheels what KAD are to mini stuff now. They were much more than fancy tyre brackets, like many of the cosmetic alloys.

I can't remember the actual numbers, but my original "JAP" wheels (not marked magna) were very very light. When you hold one and look at the way it's been made, they are beautiful things. Apart from where the wheel bolts, pretty much all of it is in the order of 5mm thick. Those webs allow them to be very strong. I think they might have been lighter than the KAD wheels.

With that offset, I would not want to run any on a road car, which is why I run 5" tech del minilites.

Totally and utterly amazing of the guy to jump in and start making them, however I think his market research is lacking. There is a real market for rosepetals and minilites and despite them fetching huge prices on ebay, I think there are probably a couple of mad collectors (like Ted) who are just stockpiling the originals like gold.

Those ebay ones are on the up.

foxy52 wrote: ...Al, so what wheels do u favour.??..i like black mambas and d1,s.. !! always nice to hear what floats peoples boats ?? foxy52

I like steels (best without hubcaps), Rosepetals, certain Minilites - the works style ones (definately NOT GBs), Revolution 4 spokes, Cosmic Mk1s
Oh, and I do like Mambas, but never used to.

Don't like anything too 'fancy' or Dunlop D1s, Cosmic Mk2s, anything modern with split rims. Not that keen on polished rims.

Fussy? Yup!

Oh. slot mags - don't get me started on slotmags..........

I thought the Exacton D1 lookalike was a lovely looking wheel, can't say I've ever seen any about though !



I can only see well funded competition drivers buying JAP Magnas and then they'll need arches on which is a pretty niche market I'd guess.

agree pete, really nice wheel,i had one of these i found being used to keep a bin lid on , and no i didnt nick it i swapped it for an old cast flat iron , cant remember what happened to it ,more to the point though, isnt the advert ace !! so cheesy

slowboy wrote:agree pete, really nice wheel,i had one of these i found being used to keep a bin lid on , and no i didnt nick it i swapped it for an old cast flat iron , cant remember what happened to it ,more to the point though, isnt the advert ace !! so cheesy

I second that! That advert is pure cheesy class, all that's missing is a Movember Tash! Haha

Pandora wrote:

foxy52 wrote: ...Al, so what wheels do u favour.??..i like black mambas and d1,s.. !! always nice to hear what floats peoples boats ?? foxy52

I like steels (best without hubcaps), Rosepetals, certain Minilites - the works style ones (definately NOT GBs), Revolution 4 spokes, Cosmic Mk1s
Oh, and I do like Mambas, but never used to.

Don't like anything too 'fancy' or Dunlop D1s, Cosmic Mk2s, anything modern with split rims. Not that keen on polished rims.

Fussy? Yup!

Oh. slot mags - don't get me started on slotmags..........

mmmm slotmags,starmags.... yuk.. ! i had a set of gb alloys in the late 70,s they were ok at the time...u cant beat any orig design.. vortz,minilite,mamba,s,revo,s and d1,s not the copies cos they r not the same....foxy52

..and if you couldn't afford some new wheels there were always these :



Loads more of this stuff in the next MCR magazine.

Hi Pete,
What is the date of the mags the two Cosmic adds are in. Trying to work out when the mk2 Cosmic wheels became available.
Cheers
Nev

great period pics... right up my alley....or ali lol..??!!..yes the exactons are cool to.....all these older manuf just seemed to have it right with design ??!!....tks for posting adds.... foxy52

All I say is; Mag Caps wanted