This is a rather odd wire wheel which I had not seen before. This was found on a restored MGA MK-II Coupe in Germany, which turned out to have a number of unexpected non-originality issues. I post this with the hope that other people may be able to avoid it.

These are 70 spoke wheels (definitely not 72), and the lacing pattern is strange, looking almost random at first glance. All of the spokes connect to the rim at the sunken center well with none attached at the outer bead area. Here 60% of the spokes (42) are anchored at the inner end of the hub, and 40% (28) are anchored at the outer end of the hub. This makes a staggered lacing pattern where two of the outer hub spokes make a narrow X to straddle two of the inner hub spokes where they also cross in an X. The next two outer spokes in a narrow X pass in between two pair of the inner spoke X's. Thus for every 6 inner spokes there are 4 outer spokes.

Additionally these wheels have less offset, meaning that the rims and tires would be set a little farther out from the center of the car for wider wheel base. This positions the tires under the flange on the fender where they may rub at full bump. See picture at left. At first glance this looks like it might be an oversize wheel or tire, but in fact it is a generally standard 165-15 size tire. The less than normal offset wheel construction puts the tire under the fender, which is definitely a to be avoided if possible.

Backspace is roughly the same as the standard 4" wide wheel, so the extra 1-1/2" of width is all on the outside. This is where the tire will interfere with the fender.

At 06:26 PM 8/26/2008 -0600, Gord Clark, NEMGTR #100, wrote:
"The 'ODD WIRE WHEEL to Avoid' I believe is actually a 15" X 5-1/2" Dunlop wheel made uniquely for the TR6. .... The actual rim is thicker and with 70 spoke lacing more evenly spaced, it makes them very strong and often suitable for racing. But they are heavier."

Bottom line here is still the same: They don't work on the MGA because of incorrect offset positioning the tires outward under the fender bead.

Addendum March 15, 2019:
Correction to comment above. The factory supplied wire wheels for TR6 were 5-1/2" x 15" 72-spoke with correct offset (at least correct offset for the TR6). The 70-spoke wheels with much less offset came from the BMC Competitions Dept. Part no. AHH2350. So, think Big Healey, MGA, MGC. Triumph was not part of BMC. The 70-spoke wheels 5-1/2" wide with incorrect offset are still not suitable for use on the MGA, unless you might flare the fenders to clear the wider tires.

I have another comment from David Quirt who wrote:
"Actually, the 5-1/2” TR6 wheels ARE suitable for use on a MGA. I ran them on my 1500 coupe and they fit well".
I still have reservations about this one,as it depends on tire size and profile. Assuming the wheel has correct offset, as original for MGA, you can likely run tires up to 195-70-15 size. But 5-1/2" wide wheels can accept larger tires, both width and height, and we know for sure that 205-70-15 tires do have interference issues on the MGA.