Time To Get In The Groove
Posted on Sep 30, 2021
It recently occurred to us that if we ever get to drive this thing we might get a flat and need a spare tire. But what size and where to put it? The stock spare is a skinny donut that fits in the trunk up against the left quarter panel. Our car didn’t come with one and we doubt we’d wanna use a 35+ year old skinny tire anyway. No, we require something a bit more road worthy if not stage worthy.
This is also complicated by the fact that we will be running two very different sizes of tire on the car. 195/65-15 gravel rally tires and snow tires and 23/59-15 tarmac rally tires. While we don’t feel the need to carry an exact match we would like something at least a similar overall diameter. Unfortunately the gravel ties is 25” OD while the tarmac tire is only 23”! And we’ll need a suitable wheel.
There a lot of 195/60-15 tires on the market at 24.2” and a few 225/50-15 at 23.9” OD. Perhaps one of these would be the sweet spot. We also have a set of original 15x6 Quattro wheels we could mount one of these on. Well, the 195 anyway. 225 might be a stretch. Oh, did we mention, we’d also like to carry our emergency tool kit as well?
Now, where to store it. Well it turns out that nothing much bigger than the OE donut will fit in the original location so that’s out. However, since we removed the US spec bumper extensions from inside the truck we do now have access to this angled groove in the trunk floor. We thought it was to aid getting the donut into place but now we are thinking it may have been intended for a full size spare all along, at least till they got too wide for one.
Here’s a picture of the groove:
Let’s see what can get in the groove man! 215? Yes.
195/65 won’t fit in the spare’s location:
But will get in the groove dude:
225? Nah, not really but could be made to work:
195 and toolbox getting in the grove:
TB5 in the groove. Nah, don’t be silly. Fits in the trunk though, just:
So still not finalized and we’ll still have to figure out how to secure it. Now, back to more serious matters.
This is also complicated by the fact that we will be running two very different sizes of tire on the car. 195/65-15 gravel rally tires and snow tires and 23/59-15 tarmac rally tires. While we don’t feel the need to carry an exact match we would like something at least a similar overall diameter. Unfortunately the gravel ties is 25” OD while the tarmac tire is only 23”! And we’ll need a suitable wheel.
There a lot of 195/60-15 tires on the market at 24.2” and a few 225/50-15 at 23.9” OD. Perhaps one of these would be the sweet spot. We also have a set of original 15x6 Quattro wheels we could mount one of these on. Well, the 195 anyway. 225 might be a stretch. Oh, did we mention, we’d also like to carry our emergency tool kit as well?
Now, where to store it. Well it turns out that nothing much bigger than the OE donut will fit in the original location so that’s out. However, since we removed the US spec bumper extensions from inside the truck we do now have access to this angled groove in the trunk floor. We thought it was to aid getting the donut into place but now we are thinking it may have been intended for a full size spare all along, at least till they got too wide for one.
Here’s a picture of the groove:
Let’s see what can get in the groove man! 215? Yes.
195/65 won’t fit in the spare’s location:
But will get in the groove dude:
225? Nah, not really but could be made to work:
195 and toolbox getting in the grove:
TB5 in the groove. Nah, don’t be silly. Fits in the trunk though, just:
So still not finalized and we’ll still have to figure out how to secure it. Now, back to more serious matters.