From what I've read the OEM Bilsteins don't fit older cars. Also, he said cost was a consideration. BCs are $1,500, the Bamford Rose will likely be 10x the cost once you convert to USD and pay tariffs.

 

 

Nice track stet up..are those cr-s..

 

Amazing!

 

Yes Nankang CR-S. 275/35R18 & 295/35R18

I'll get proper pictures soon. Trying to dial in the ride height still then need an alignment.

 

Love to know how they work out…I assumed they were for track use only…or are they road as well…

 

Road. I can get away with it in my climate. The tire are surprisingly comfortable.

 

Now that everything is mounted and installed, let me recap the ordeal in case you fancy a set of these wheels yourself.

The wheels come painted with a thick, very durable primer underneath the paint. Mine were effectively new old stock, sitting in storage in Napa for 15 years or so- even still there was some light corrosion appearing- the mortal enemy for magnesium wheels. You will also notice if you own these wheels there are big stickers on them that say Off Road Use only (of course us modifiers regularly ignore such warnings). More on why later.

I found most people with these wheels looking for a color change sandblast and powdercoat and call it a day, and ignorance is bliss I suppose. But magnesium is porous, and over time it will look like trash. You are also eliminating the primer which is your corrosion buffer- although mine had some corrosion UNDER THE PRIMER!

This lead me to Chris Childs Motorsports- a magnesium refinishing specialist in Redding, CA. Chris has worked on projects like oh I don't know, restoring Niki Lauda's Formula 1 car and Bruce Canepa's 959. If you got to the historic races at Monterey Car Week, you'll see his work in motion. The proper way to make these streetable is to apply a chromatic coating as a base layer- then apply your primer, then PAINT. Moisture is the enemy here- the wheels I believe are insufficiently protected against the elements out of the box for normal street use.

Vinny's Autobody at Sonoma Raceway did the painting as recommended by Chris, careful not to remove the chromatic coating and using a specific primer for Magnesium.

I sourced red OZ wheel decals and blank black generic center caps- Vinny applied clearcoat over the decals as was done from factory. Happy with the end result, and glad to know it's protected properly, but a simple color change on unused wheels turned out to be more far more difficult than anticipated. I really shudder to think about those UK guys running these in their climate- magnesium, although very strong, will get brittle when it corrodes.







Almost forgot, for lug nuts went with Core4 cadmium plated 2 piece lug nuts. Hard to find good alternatives to the OE if you want to keep a 2 piece lug that work with our studs, but I think these suit the motorsport look of the OZ wheels much better. The OZ wheels do have a steel insert for the lugs.

 

One more post regarding the BC Coilovers- now that I've put more miles on them and further adjusted I'm a lot more pleased. It took a little time for them to settle, so I recommend driving for a little bit before setting your final ride height and alignment. I did end up adjusting the preload- it was not even side to side- getting the collar snug with the spring then +1 turn (so, ~2mm preload effectively) seemed to be the sweet spot. I would NOT run these on full soft- this lead to some uncontrollable suspension motions. Instead I settled on +11 clicks front and +13 rear from full soft (as suggested by another user on the facebook group). The ride quality is really quite good too. Note- these are the DS and no the BR, so results may vary.

Next bits coming are my parts from ECPS (hopefully arriving in March). Also contacted Valiant Ecosse for some cool interior bits.

 

The story behind the OZ wheels makes me appreciate them that much more. They really do look great! Thank you for the update on the BC DS. These are looking like the way to go for me. How long did they take to get to you?

 

Thanks! Probably wouldn't have purchased them if I fully understood the cost and effort to do a color change on them, but happy how it turned out. The BCs took 4-5 weeks to arrive.

Only thing I might consider changing in the future is the tire size. Currently running 275/35/18 & 295/35/18, might go for 255/40/18 and 275/40/18 to get a little more sidewall. The tires are BEEFY wide, but not as tall- I find sizing is a bit of trial and error in the 200TW class (anyone see A052s holy mole). That said, the race cars mostly used a 650mm tall tire up front and these are 660mm+ so well within the noise.

 

I went from 25’s to 35’ on mine…a little more rim protection…and little roll…not sure I would go any bigger…jmho

 

Hi @sirhodjibob , very nice Vantage you build here,

Thanks a lot for sharing the adventure with us,

Looking forward to see what comes next

 

how many miles on your 2008 vantage?