BRE 240z Wheels and tires

[J Shara]

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone had any info on the wheel and tire size used on John Morton's BRE 240z. I just think the amount of side wall and the overall stance just looks so good on that car. I found that VTO retro 4 rims are close look alike to the magnesium racing wheels on the BRE car. Thanks! 

[Patcon]

@SteveJ

[NVZEE]

Check with Dave Patten at Futofab.com. He's in this group - also a VTO dealer and Datsun racer.

[siteunseen]

14 hours ago, J Shara said:

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone had any info on the wheel and tire size used on John Morton's BRE 240z. I just think the amount of side wall and the overall stance just looks so good on that car. I found that VTO retro 4 rims are close look alike to the magnesium racing wheels on the BRE car. Thanks! 

I found this thread from 2007, it has a lot of information.  I got tired of reading. 

Also some more here...

https://www.google.com/search?q=john+morton+bre+240+wheels+classiczcars.com&rlz=1C1BOFA_enUS494US494&oq=john+morton+bre+240+wheels+classiczcars.com&aqs=chrome..69i57.23812j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[7tooZ]

16 hours ago, J Shara said:

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone had any info on the wheel and tire size used on John Morton's BRE 240z. I just think the amount of side wall and the overall stance just looks so good on that car. I found that VTO retro 4 rims are close look alike to the magnesium racing wheels on the BRE car. Thanks! 

I see you got specific information on the Morton Wheels. However I have a set of these BRE branded wheels on my 240. I purchased them directly from BRE2.com with BRE caps. I have the 15X7 with 205/60R Michlin tires.  BRE calls these Libre and VTO calls them Retro 4. 

PS you get them in a 14" and VTO

Edited February 22, 2020 by 7tooZ
added comment

[trisha]

The original Libre wheels were made by American Racing (I believe).  I also believe they did not come with a black center and many were painted later. Here is a pic of our car with those American Racing Libre wheels.  Both the VTO and BRE Libre are made by VTO. It is possible to get caps and decals with the American Racing logo for the Libre style.   I also included a pic of the Morton car which (i believe) used what BRE now sells as the "LeMans" .  Both are similar in size and will fit and look great.   

[trisha]

Also our wheels are 14x5.5 with 185/70   which is the largest width made in the 70s (i believe) for the Libre and in my opinion looks the best on the car for the classic look of not sticking out and not looking out of proportion with the size of the car and wheel wells.  They are more than enough for everyday non-track driving and the car and steering do not feel heavy. 

[J Shara]

Awesome thanks for the info. 

[J Shara]

My car currently has a set of the 5 slot mags at 14x5.5 I believe with 195 70 14 Michelin defenders. I intend to occasionally run the car at the track and am putting together a list of things I want for the car and I think I will purchase a set of these rims. I like how they look and they allow for a little more tire.  I am however thinking about staggering the sizes. I want to go with a 15x6  with a 205 60 up front and a 15x7 with a 225 60 on the rear. I checked these with a tire calculator and the 14's with 195 70 are 629 cm tall. The 15 with 205 60 is 627 cm tall and with the 225 60 is 651 cm tall.  Any thoughts?

[SteveJ]

I reached out to Randy Jaffe. He owns the 46 car in Trisha's post, and he has studied the BRE cars in depth.

The originals use 14x7 LeMans wheels. The wheels he currently uses are VTO 15x7 running Hoosier racing tires due to the lack of racing rubber for 14 inch wheels. (The Goodyear you see in the pics are from a stencil he created to replicate as much as possible how the car looked in the day.)

[J Shara]

Oh so they're custom sized tires?

[SteveJ]

No, they are Hoosier racing tires. Randy emailed that they are 25x15x15, though it was from his phone, so I don't know if there are any typos. He still has two of the original wheels that BRE used. The other two were damaged when the car wrecked in 77 (I think).