When Ralph Zbarsky suffered a broken wheel on his Twin Cam coupe during a race session he decided to use the left over center hub to build a space saver spare wheel. The wide race tires wouldn't fit in the boot of the MGA along with the fuel cell and roll bar braces. The suspension on the race car is also quite stiff, so it was desired to have a space saver spare about the same overall diameter as the race tires. With a small space saver tire this requires a larger diameter wheel.

So he picked up one of those ‘convenience’ spares from a Dodge Caravan. The diameter is 24½”, which is very close to the diameter of the racing tires. The tire size is T125/90D16, and the wheel is a 5-bolt mount. When the twincam centerpiece is fit over the wheel, you can insert one of the drive pins, and then carefully drill holes for the other three. It looks a bit goofy when viewed from the back, and the drive pins do not all end up at the same depth, but it is much smaller and lighter than the real deal, and should last long enough (at reduced speed) to reach a service station.

The same standard Twin Cam wheel center piece can fit into the center of a standard 15-inch 4-lug space saver spare (shown on the prior page) with no modification of the wheel required. That one is a smaller wheel and a lower profile tire, coming out about 3" smaller overall diameter than the wheel shown above, or about 4" smaller than a 5.60-15 or 165-15 tire. See size comparison on prior page.