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Any info on these wheels?


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These are 14" by 7" wheels with zero offset..... As near as I can tell they are vintage JDM. As close to new as possible. ULTRA LIGHT and nice dish.

 

I bought them years ago with 6 Vintage Dunlop slicks. Had them on the track once and the combo was a blast!! Once hot they were sticky as hell and the small diameter would rev like crazy.

 

Anyway I cant use them due to my Wilwoods and for that matter Im no longer crazy about 14"wheels.

 

I want to sell them but would first like to obtain a bit more info on them.....any is appreciated!

 

I think they would be perfect for the vintage racer!

 

 

 

 

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Hi Jerry,

As can be seen from the logo on the centre caps, they are 'Chowinis'.

 

In actual fact, this was a 'badge engineering' exercise - where two different companies sold wheels under their own names, but they were actually manufactured by a third company.....

 

The two retailers concerned were:

Haruhito Yanagida - Japanese born Nissan 'works' race team driver, and proprietor of Z specialist shop 'Central 20' on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. He sold the wheels as the Central 20 'Z Sport', with centre caps logo'd to suit.

Peter Chow - another race car driver, of Chinese extraction, active in Macau, Hong Kong, Japan and elsewhere, but synonymous with the Toyota brand rather than Nissan. He sold the wheels under his 'Chowini's' brand - as yours are. I believe they date from around the 1979-80 period, and were only ever available in 7j x 14" size, with the 114.3mm x 4 PCD, and made from cast Aluminium alloy ( not Magnesium ).

 

The wheels were actually manufactured by Hayashi Racing, and were based on a magnesium four-spoke design that had been used by Nissan's works race cars in 1971, '72 & '73 ( but which were manufactured by Kobe Seiko ), but that classic four-spoke design itself could arguably be traced back through American Racing, and all the way back to pure race wheels designed and manufactured by the likes of Brabham and BRM in the early 1960s. It's quite tricky tracing the DNA of designs such as this, which tend to get copied from copies of copies and on and on.

 

Being as yours are branded as 'Chowini's', you might have a better result if you market them to the 'old school' Toyota crowd - who will usually know what they are looking at. I have eight of the 'Z Sport' version here in London, and four of the original Kobe Seiko four-spokes works wheels too ( they are 15" diameter - so much easier to find tyres for ). I bought one set of four of the 'Z Sport' from New Zealand, and one set of four from Australia.

 

If you don't get any offers I'd be happy to buy them from you if we could agree a price, and I'd have no problem with the cost of shipping - but you might want to hawk them around the Toyota guys a little first and see what kind of offers they make. Don't let them low ball you!

 

Cheers,

Alan T.

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Yes! That is correct...Now that you mention it!, I did buy them directly from Peter Chow...!

 

And yes he did race Toyotas because he still had a car including tons of parts. I could have purchased everything from him for a song but I didnt have the space. He was very nice, showed me a lot of stuff. He had a basement full of "new" vintage race and tuner parts

 

Thanx for the great info Alan...I was mis-reading the name as Chomini's and couldnt find a thing! :mrgreen:

 

 

Those are Peter Chow's - Alan is quite knowledgeable.

 

I have/use one of his steering wheels.

Q

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I did buy them directly from Peter Chow...!

 

And yes he did race Toyotas because he still had a car including tons of parts. I could have purchased everything from him for a song but I didnt have the space. He was very nice, showed me a lot of stuff. He had a basement full of "new" vintage race and tuner parts

 

 

Peter Chow is one of the biggest crooks I have ever met. How he sleeps at night is anyone's guess.

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  • 8 months later...

I know this is an older thread but I just picked up a set of Chowini's which are Enkeis in the cross lace design or as some call them mesh rims. They are brand new and in the 14 x 7 size. They have the center screw on chrome plastic nut which holds down a smoked plexiglass wheel center which has the following on it...."Aero Bortex's aluminum spindle rotor is transformingengine air int an ally. An air eddy, created by the spindle, results in no-heat, immediate acceleration--one intoxicating in its power and performance."

What all of this means I have no idea, anyone else have any idea. I will post a photo if anyone is interested, they look like an Enkei 92 without the dish and a different center.

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