So, I have ordered my kit with MK Sportcars. I have now turned my attention to some of the parts I didn’t include within the main kit order.
One of the main questions areas outstanding was the alloy wheels I was going to use. I had a view in my head of what I wanted. I love the look of the Caterham Seven 6 spoke anthracite alloy wheels which have a reasonable dish to them, not too many spokes and the anthracite grey being a nice contrast to the orange bodywork and the black tyres.
However, the challenge was finding something that would fit the size and hole pattern required for the Mazda as the Caterham alloy wheels are the Ford hole pattern of 4×108 so wouldn’t fit my hubs.
The Specification Required
I am using the Mazda MX-5 as the donor vehicle and want 15″ alloy wheels as this will be more of a road-going car. So the spec I need is:
- 15×7 (or 6.5 – 7.5 would do).
- ET35 (or as close as possible).
- 4×100 hole pattern (standard Mazda).
This narrows down the options available quite a bit. I found several alloy wheel styles that I liked but they started at 17″ upwards or similar. I also wanted them as light as possible which massively improves the handling of the car.
Wheel Options
After probably too much research and too many deliberations with friends and family, the following were the narrowed down options.
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2
- Size: 15×7
- ET: 35mm
- Technology: Heat Treated Cast Alloy
- Weight: 6.2kg
- Colour: Anthracite Grey
- Price: £145 each
So these alloy wheels are a classic mainstay in the Sevenesque kit car world, they are often the #1 choice by many companies. They are light (although not the lightest), strong and used by many racing teams and have a classic style that never seems to age. Because of this, lots of cars have them so they are quite common.
However, the colour choice has become more limited in the last year or so as Team Dynamics have moved their production line to a new facility and are only producing black versions in production quantities at the moment. MK Sportcars confirmed this by stating that they could only get hold of black Pro Race 1.2 wheels at the moment.
I really don’t like black-on-black (black alloy wheels with black tyres) as I think the wheels just disappear when you look at the car. So if I was going to go for these wheels they had to be anthracite grey in my view.
Konig Freeform
- Size: 15×7.5
- ET: 35mm
- Technology: Flow Formed
- Weight: 5.5kg
- Colour: Bronze
- Price: £220 each
The style of these are different but I quite like it with a nice dish and spokes that go right to the edge. They only do it in a Black, Silver or Bronze so no grey, but I think bronze could complement the orange quite well. They are Flow Formed technology so are light.
XXR 527
- Size: 15×7
- ET: 35mm
- Technology: Cast Alloy
- Weight: 7kg
- Colour: Chromuim Black
- Price: £90 each
So overall I like the style of these alloy wheels, they have a nice dish and the spokes are not too thin and connect to the edge nicely. There are still 2 things I don’t like so much though. The first is the colour options. Chromium Black is the closest to the colour I want but it is too chrome for my liking, a bit too ‘bling’. They do then also in a nice Bronze which also could work. The other issue is that they are the heaviest out of the options here, although it is difficult to get an accurate weight from my research as they are not published by the manufacturer.
Konig Dial In
- Size: 15×7
- ET: 35mm
- Technology: Flow Formed
- Weight: 4.95kg (claimed weight)
- Colour: Grey
- Price: £200 each
These wheels are the right colour, are super light and have a style similar to what I’m after. But they are a bit ‘spidery’ with their look. A term that we came up with for a thing that looked like a spider, the spokes are a bit thin and the way the spokes rise up near the rim I’m not completely happy with.
Wheel Comparison
So I did a bit of photoshop work to compare my 3x favourite alloy wheels for the RX-5:
Overall I kept coming back to the Pro Race 1.2 alloy wheels as these were proven for the MK Indy, lightweight, I really liked the look of them and they are a reasonable price. The only issue was could I find them in Anthracite Grey rather than black?
Sourcing The Wheels
So my focus turned to try and find a supplier that either had existing stock or could get hold of the Anthracite Grey version of the Pro Race 1.2 alloy wheels.
MK Sportscars had already said that they were unable to get them from Team Dynamics so that was off the cards. Neil also advised against buying the black ones and trying to powder coat them in grey, they had tried this in the past and the results weren’t good. I could get them sprayed but this would push up the cost considerably.
So I started searching on the Web for suppliers that had them on their website. Many had them but simply stated ‘unavailable’.
I came across www.performancealloys.com and they appeared to have them for sale from the info on their website so I emailed them for clarity. They were very quick at responding and confirmed that they could get them in on special order, but it might take about 6 weeks for them to be made. I wasn’t fussed about the time, as long as I had them before I needed to fit them into the kit. So I confirmed the order over email and ordered the following.
- Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2
- Colour Gloss Antharacite
- Size 15×7
- ET35
- PCD of 4×100
- Centre Bore of 73.1mm and hub centric rings for the Mazda 54.1mm.
- Qty of 4
The total order was £574 which is £144 per wheel.
Wheel Delivery
I was surprised to get an email only 3 weeks later to say that the wheels were ready to be sent out! A few days later they were delivered. I must say they look even better in real life than in photos. The colour is spot on with a nice metallic effect on the anthracite grey gloss. It is only the front face that is actually grey, the remainder of the wheel is actually still black, which I actually quite like. I am really pleased with the choice in the end and I can’t wait to get them on the car. I just need the kit to be ready for collection now!
Unboxing Video
Here is a link to the unboxing video:
Summary of Build Costs and Hours
Here is a summary of the costs and person hours (total number of hours for every person that has helped) for the build so far. This should hopefully help others with the planning of their builds, by providing cost and time actually incurred for this build. A more detailed breakdown of all the costs and hours worked on the build to date can be viewed here.
| Car Build Costs This Post | |
|---|---|
| Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 15x7 Wheel in Anthracite | £574 |
| Totals | This Post | To Date | All Posts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Person Hours Worked | 0 hrs | 161 hrs | 363 hrs |
| Car Build | £574 | £1,299 | £12,342 |
| Tools / Consumables | £0 | £237 | £459 |
| Total Cost | £574 | £1,536 | £12,801 |