I'm restoring a '60 Rupp Super K Dart... when I got it it had 4" steel wheels on the front, and 6" Azusa Tri star aluminum wheels on the back. I'd like to keep the 6" wheels on the back, and put a matching set of 5" Tri stars on the front.
A couple of questions:
Are there any disadvantages to this?
Any issues with vintage racing rules relative to this wheel size?
Also, it seems the vintage narrow slick sizes are hard to come by, Vintage speed doesn't list any for 6" wheels on their website -- Anyone know of a good source? I see Cheng Shin slicks on ebay in 4.10-3.5-6.
Any advice is appreciated!
6" rear tires haven't been used much since about 1960. They're much harder to get in good sizes than are the 5" tires. They're heavier, so more rotating mass to accelerate. If it were me, I'd use the 5" wheels all around. 4" front wheels/tires work very well, also. You can easily get 4" or 5" narrow slicks from Vintage Speed, or from Cheng Shin. Both work just fine. The 4" Vintage Speed narrow slicks look great, stick like glue and wear a long time. Ted
There were 4" Tri Star knock-offs on Ebay at lawnmowertirestore (item LMTS687, but they are currently out of stock.
They give the kart the "raked" look with 4" on front and 5" on rear.
Don't know when they will be in stock again.
Hi Brian,
Pretty sure the Super K came with 5" Hands in the rear and 4" Hands in the front.
Attached is a pic of the one I did for Chris M and these were original wheels as far as I know.
This is equipped with Vintage speed fronts and Cheng Shins in the rear.
There is a local guy here (Lumpy) who runs the 6" tri stars rears with the CS tires, he has had good luck with the combination. If you don't really care about originality the might as well give it a try.
Don't know if you would fit in that kart, I had to put over rider pedals on my 61 Bone so I could at least work the pedals--LOL. I have wide CS tires on the front and it actually handles great, course it isn't too fast.
Here is the K and the 61 Bone
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Thanks for the responses. My front 4" steel split wheels have seen better days, rear 6" Tri stars look pretty cool, and I've been eyeing a pair of 5" front Azusa Tri stars on ebay.... Anyone run 5's on front and 6's on back? Would it raise the ground clearance? It looks like the overall diameter of the tires don't change much.
It won't change ground clearance enough to matter. Just remember, the 4"/5" or 5"/5" combo will be faster and handle better. Jimmy Waltz' idea of the 4" Tri Star fronts with 5" Tri Star rears would be very good. TJ
1960 Dart Kart Super-K models came with Hands magnesium wheels, 6" rears. It was the top of the line model Rupp offered.
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Tom- Did they run 4" fronts? Were the fronts typical steel, or alloy Hands?
Brian, May '60 Hot Rod did a test on a Dart Super K with dual 580's on it.
http://kartingarchive.com/index.php?opti...ail&id=186
Scroll down to "display document" then click where it says "click here to display the document". Their dual had 5" front, 6" rear magnesium Hands wheels. They weren't particularly kind in their comments, but it's worth reading. Ted
Thanks Ted! Very informative article. I need to go and measure my frame now, as it seems the issues they were having with the handling were to be taken care of in subsequent production models. This was the first build that was planned to go to Donald Healey... (I have a Healey 100 BN1 by the way).
They mention equal track width front and rear, but my kart came with a 36 inch wide rear axle, not a 31.5 as mentioned in the article. Could have been replaced, or maybe later ones were changed? Also ,one of the things that struck me when I bought it was how SHORT it was, and this article keeps mentioning that it is too long to put weight on the front tires. I'm 5'11" and I can barely get my feet behind the pedals. I also wonder if that's why my kart has 4" front, and 6" rear wheels to pitch the weight down and forward a little. The guy I got it from had a full race M75 mac motor on it so I think it was fairly sorted at the time.'
EDIT: just measured my frame: 46" wheelbase, the kart in the article above was a 48".
So my kart has the 31.5 inch front track with a 36" rear track and a 46" wheelbase. Currently have 6" rears and 4" fronts. Any advice based on the new info? Is the rear track TOO wide?