Flygirl,
I wanted the Pinto to be kind of period-dated, so the Minilites were my first and only serious choice. I contacted John Targett at JBRITCARS.com. You can find him by searching for "Minilite USA" pretty easily.
Just looked it up: the link is
www.minilitewh eels.us/ .
So the site is still there, even if he's retired. He's a British fella, quite fun to talk to.
He handled all the process and was a great help. The wheels cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $250-$300 apiece.
I found that 7 inches was just about as wide as I dared to use, considering backspacing (chassis rub) and outside offset (sticking out from under the fenders). Mr. Targett and I mulled over the choices we had with the casting dies at Minilite and came up with the specs I posted to you earlier.
This size/configuration of wheel gives you room for 225/50 tire size and no interference with chassis or suspension unless the car is lowered too much in the front (earlier mention, too). I might have had enough room for 15x8 wheels in back, but I didn't want to have two different sizes of wheels on the car. I couldn't see any advantage that would have offset the hassle. Anyway, the tires don't rub and they don't stick out.
I considered 16 inch wheels, which would have given me more room for larger brake rotors, but the ones I have fitted (10.5 inch with Wilwood Dynalite calipers) are plenty big enough. Again, diminishing returns don't make much sense for larger (and heavier) brake rotors on a car this light. Besides, 16 inch wheels might have taken away from the "vintage" look even more.
Thanks for your kind words about the front air dam. A friend and I came up with that idea and he was the one who designed the opening to get more air in to the oil cooler. The brake ducts break up the front a bit, too. The dam follows the contour of the original Pinto filler plate that goes between the bumper and grille. He did a nice job!
I'm adding a pic of the car from the rear, taken the same day I rolled it out to get it rhino-lined. This will show how well tucked-in the rear tires are...no sticking out! You can also see the mini quick-change rear end up under there, since the fuel cell isn't installed.
Regards,
Paul