Addressing the Narrow Rear Track of Early Triumph Cars

[davidraw2024]

Looking on-line it would seem the 48” rear track width of the early Triumphs is a hot topic of conversation with many Triumph owners.

The concern for me was that the exhaust on my car runs under the rear chassis rail to exit at the rear bumper and it has always run rather too close to the rear tyre, even lightly touching it when the car is fully jacked up, which is far from ideal.

Wheel spacers would seem to be the sensible solution but I have resisted this as my experience of these goes back to the 1970’s and 80’s with the cosmic “universal” solution! (Pictured). Amazingly these do work but I was never comfortable with all forces being put onto the wheel studs and no longer through the hub as intended.

I was happy to discover that wheel spacer design has moved on so I decided to try “Superforma’s” hubcentric designed spacers and I have nothing but praise for both the company and their product. The spacers are made to order (10 working days turn around) and manufactured in the UK. These impressively engineered 20mm spacers are a reassuringly tight fit onto the wheel hub and once bolted in place the wheel then centres perfectly onto the spacer’s central hub. The company makes bold claims regarding the quality of materials used and they are certainly a far cry from products of old!

As the pictures show this has been a successful solution both functionally and aesthetically with the front and rear wheels now filling the wing space equally.

For reference my wheels are 13 x 5.5J minilites, Tyres 165/70R13’s and the two 20mm spacers equate to a 1.57” width increase now giving a rear Track width of 49.57” (The Mk1 Front Track is 50”).

[TVRFan]

For any other Triumph based owners...... I had similar problem that wide tyres would rub on inside of mk1 bodywork, but discovered that the later 'swing spring' Spitfires had longer half axles, but otherwise are identical. They still fit (just!) with the old style spring and arms. My 2500 eventually broke the diff, but never had trouble with longer axles or handling (but I did change the UJs twice). It did push me to getting the slightly wider marina base wings later on however.

[davidraw2024]

That's interesting, the way manufacturers would revisit the old parts bin during developments has certainly increased donor options. It is something I should have addressed when Spitfires and Vitesses filled the scrap yards however the wheel spacers have been a practical solution. The 13/60 engine is surprisingly lively but I think it's safe to say the UJs and Diff are not under any major torque threat

[daveghunt]

To back up David’s concerns with the cosmic spaces, I fitted a set to an anglia in the 70s.
The extension studs put excess strain on the original studs shearing 3 of them, probably at different times,
luckily I was not travelling at speed (997 Anglia’s couldn’t) it felt like I was running on an eccentric wheel.
My engineering knowledge has improved since then.
Dave H