rare wheels, found at a steal!

so i was offered a set of wheels by a neighbor at my shop. he said he had some cool 14s. as i wasnt looking to run 14s and was only interested in 13s i declined the wheels. about a year later i was in his shop and saw a 3 piece wheel on the top shelf and asked about em, he said they were the 14s i didnt want. i climbed up pulled em down and to my suprise i liked em. i asked him how much and he said $200... so i told hi mid liek to get em. he said the other two were in la where some honda kid was test fitting them on his hatch. i told him to go get em and id pay. he told me they guy was wiling to pay the 200 and wanted em, so i offered the 200 and a set of $60 coilover sleeves. he went for it! so i take the two he had on hand back to my shop and after staring at them for hours in admiration something didnt add up... they didnt look like 14s. so i threw a tape on em and low and behold i had a set of 13s. he had measured the tallest part of the bead no where the tire sits. he brought over the remaining two a few days later. they were originally a 13x8.5 et+57ish, and a 13x10 et-12is. they were definitly an old race car setup with a near 0 offset rear wheel and a front with a lip of only 1 inch on an 8.5 wide. they had no markings on them or anything. completely unknown. i would spend about 6 months trying to id these wheels till i finally found a set on tyrestretch.com. there was a guy that had rebarreled his and in a pic he had a invoice with the company that had supplied the barrels. i contacted that company casue they looked like the wheels he makes as retro replicas for old race cars. after a few emails he informed me that what i had wasnt a replica but the real deal. he even used to race on a set in the 70s... in the uk! he tols me the wheels are made by "mamba" and the model is "solars". so i finally had then id'd. in all that time i had messed with them and swapped some barrels around and made myself a 13x12.5 et-70ish wheel. then i came across a set of 180/550/13 cooper race slicks (180/60/13 in normal sizing) and i stretched those onto the 12.5s! i then decided to contact my wheel guy and find out how wide of a 13 inch cooper slick he could get from the take offs at the track, he tracked down 5 255/570/13s for me(255/50/13) and i picked em up. i calculated that i can make the rear wheels a 13x16 and still get thoise to stretch on. i know i know, "ew stretched tires", "you fanboy" blah blah blah. they are going on a car im building as a boso style car so they fit perfect. as of now im waiting to order my barreles from the guy in the uk. with shipping it will be 1500 for 6 barrels, yes 6. i am reusing 2 of my original rear sides casue tey are in the size i need. so the wheels are just sitting and waiting at the moment.... but enough chatter... heres the pics i have....


as delivered 












messing around making the 13x12 with the 8.5 and 10 for comparison



8.5 versus the 12.5



12.5 "testfit"



180/550 strretched on it




same tire on a 10 and a 12.5




the 180/550s i got, 4 coopers and 2 goodyears




thats all ive got for now.......