| RV8
spoked alloy wheels The distinctive 15 inch spoked alloy wheels were fitted as standard to the RV8. They are single piece and not split rimmed as they might appear. The questions that pop up are who designed and/or built the RV8 wheels, are they Compomotives and did the part number change during the production run? These questions were raised in a thread on the V8 Bulletin Board in September 2012 and the research for the V8 Register by David Knowles, Hugh Boddington and Simon Austin provided answers. Who made the distinctive RV8 alloy wheels? When David Knowles checked back into his notes he found he had been in touch with Speedline (the name his MG Rover contacts remembered) in November 2011 and he recalled "they had checked with their HQ in Italy but they could not recall doing the job! Still that was the name that the MG Rover guys had remembered and it was twenty years ago." David also recalled from his discussion with Speedline that they "had suggested that it would be useful to have a photo of the back of an original RV8 wheel, in particular photos of any maker's marks (a kind of hallmark!) as this could help them check the back story with their HQ." So two fellow members - Hugh Boddington with Nightfire Red 0380 and Simon Austin with Woodcote Green 0590 - offered to take a set of photos of the various markings on their wheels, including the maker's mark. The first set of photos of markings on an early RV8 wheel from Hugh soon revealed the mark was in fact "AWI" which from further research was Alloy Wheels International and then the second set from a later RV8 also had the "AWI" mark. Alloy wheels on an RV8, an earlier note posted on the V8 Website in September 2012. More Photos of the original alloy wheels on an RV8. More Posted: 181111 |  |  |
| Attractive
15 inch spoked alloy wheels for the RV8 These machine polished and lacquered alloy wheels, by Alloy Wheels International, were fitted as standard to the RV8. The rivets are in fact dummies (supplied by Zender) as the wheels are single piece and not split rimmed as they might appear. They were drawn up by Don Wyatt at RSP and the end result looking like the more expensive three-part originals. Who made the distinctive RV8 alloy wheels? In his book "MG V8" published in 2013, David Knowles mentions on pages 119 & 137 that the spoked alloy wheel style for the RV8 project emerged in the early 1990s. "Rover had toyed with similar compomotive wheels on a styling buck for what would have been the North American "R17" Sterling 800 Coupe, and broadly similar wheels featured on the PR5/DR2 styling model. The style of wheel was also already popular on some contemporary BMWs, and so was seen as a clever contemporary interpretation of the "classic" wire wheel". Was there a part number change during production? There were two versions of this wheel used in production, but the changes were minor, mainly associated with the means of securing the centre cap. On examining the RV8 parts list it's clear there was a part number change at VIN 0450 - up to and including VIN 0449 it was ZKC 5700 and from 0450 it was ZKC 6749 with several associated part number changes too. The markings are shown below. | ||
 Early RV8 alloy wheel markings Photo provided by Hugh Boddington More photos Additional markings with an early RV8 wheel |  Later RV8 alloy wheel markings Photos provided by Simon Austin More photos | |
