13 inch wheel on a 2001 Zetec Birkin

[San Augustine]

Does anyone know if you can fit 13 inch wheels to a 2001 zetec powered Birkin s3? I have seen 13s on the earlier Kent powered cars, but only 15s on the later zetecs. There is a car I am seriously considering but I am a fan of the lighter smaller wheels.

[11Budlite]

Some previous discussion on 13" wheels. Depending on what brakes it has and what wheels you'd be using will determine how easy or hard the fitment will be. I agree that 13" wheels work well with these cars.

 

 

[pethier]

I am a fan of available tires.  I currently believe the best road and autocross tire easily available in the USA for very light cars is the Yokohama 052.  Available in a range of 15" sizes and I have recently learned in a 14" size.  Back in 2008 when I bought my 1979 Caterham live-axle car, I bought a set of Panasports in 7x15.*  My current 1991 deDion car came to me with 6.5x15 Prisoner wheels.  The Yokos come in the Caterham-original 195mm size.

 

I am sure that lighter wheels than either the Panasport or Prisoner are easily-available.  I don't have a 2001 Zetec-powered Birkin s3 (do have a lot of the internal workings therefrom installed in my Caterham**) but if I did, I'd go 15".

 

* The gentleman who has (last I heard) my old Caterham never received the Panasports, but still wore the green original Caterham wheels.

 

** The Birkin which previously contained my Zetec et al is on its way to becoming an all-electric autocross car.

[San Augustine]

Thanks for the replies and the link to the earlier postings. I was able to find in it that Birkins came with two different rear brake setups and short of seeing the car in person it would be hard to tell which one it has. Pethier, I agree that tire selection is important - I have only found a few choices for 185/70s for the 13 inch wheels for my S4. But since I don’t track my cars I just like reducing unsprung weight and having some side wall vs. low profile tires. The first thing I did when I bought my Miata was to replace the 17s with 16s. It dropped three pounds per wheel and the car felt way more lively. 

[11Budlite]

If you're not planning on tracking your car it's probably not as important to go to 13" wheels. My 2001 Birkin originally came with some TSW wheels with 195/50-15 tires mounted. I changed over to 15 x 7" Enkei RPF1's with 205/50-15 Falken Azenis and went from around 38 lbs to 30 lbs per corner. Made a big difference.

 

[San Augustine]

I know, however it is probably more of an aesthetic thing for me. My Miata looked like a hot wheels car before I lowered it and put on the 16s. Sevens seemed more balanced with the smaller wheels. Here is an after and before pic of my Miata. I just think small cars should have small wheels.

[San Augustine]

 Btw the diameter of the tire in both pictures is roughly the same and they are both 205s in width.

[San Augustine]

Here is my S4 which might take awhile to get on the road. Hence my desire for a drivable 7.

 

Edited July 30 by San Augustine
Upside down

[IamScotticus]

Those S4 wheels are nice!

 

[San Augustine]

American racing - the Dukes of Hazard wheels. At some point I am going to take off the spare remove the tire and weigh it without the tire and decide to keep them or not.

Edited July 30 by San Augustine
Poor grammar

[oilteq]

I used 13" wheels on my 2001 Birkin Zetec from Realwheels.com. I think the backspace was 5".  Not sure they were street legal, but since they were available with a bead-lock for sprint cars, I assumed they were strong enough. Wish I had kept them.  I had to rebalance one of the wheels moving the wheel weight inward to clear the bleeder nipple.  I think Toyo Proxies are still available in 225/45/13.