stealing an idea

I could show you a picture of my MX5 with a similar set up, utilising a second, secondhand, boot lid and an early LandRover bonnet dish.
Useful for distance touring in OZ as the car only comes with an inflation kit.

My first effort was a boot lid with two spares on a 1984 Holden Calais.
 

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MikeMelb said:
I could show you a picture of my MX5 with a similar set up, utilising a second, secondhand, boot lid and an early LandRover bonnet dish.
Useful for distance touring in OZ as the car only comes with an inflation kit.

My first effort was a boot lid with two spares on a 1984 Holden Calais.
Click to expand...
Having experience of these cars, that's actually a pretty smart mod.
 
MikeMelb said:
I could show you a picture of my MX5 with a similar set up, utilising a second, secondhand, boot lid and an early LandRover bonnet dish.
Useful for distance touring in OZ as the car only comes with an inflation kit.

My first effort was a boot lid with two spares on a 1984 Holden Calais.
Click to expand...

Actually looks quite good on the Mx5

When I took my P6 to the NthWest OZ in 72, a colleague of mine was so impressed with the spare setup ,he drilled a hole through his Falcon bootlid, inserted a large bolt and mounted the spare wheel even though he had more than enough room in the boot for the tyre plus luggage. Impressive??
 
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MikeMelb said:
I could show you a picture of my MX5 with a similar set up, utilising a second, secondhand, boot lid and an early LandRover bonnet dish.
Useful for distance touring in OZ as the car only comes with an inflation kit.
Click to expand...

We have one of those little cars as a daily, best purchase ever.
Mike, couple of questions, does the boot lid stay up, does the spare totally wipe out rear view ?
 
cobraboy said:
We have one of those little cars as a daily, best purchase ever.
Mike, couple of questions, does the boot lid stay up, does the spare totally wipe out rear view ?
Click to expand...
Hi Cobra, the simple answer to both questions : absolutely and absolutely! Must admit it is a while since we have had the spare on, I did it in 2015 for a longish 2,000km trip. Would not really use it round town as it does reduce rear vision significantly and obscures the central brake light, but would not think of touring without it. Model is a 2005 NC1 launch edition.
Thought one could use a reversing camera but at the time they were not designed to be on permanently. Now that some cars have camera only rear view mirrors am sure with your skills and resources you could source something to do the job.
I was amazed that the lid stays up (had prepared a wooden stick on the assumption that it would not) but it is perfectly balanced, though does require a bit of a lift and ofcourse you need the key in the lock, turning whilst lifting. Had to measure it so wheel clears brake light,
Experimented with wheel face down (which would have added storage) but would have damaged wheel and made it difficult to secure. Had nuts welded to the bottom of the LR disk. Used two threaded rods with dome nuts welded at one end and drilled for retaining wire at the other. These screwed into the disk and passed through holes drilled into boot lid.
One rod goes through the centre (hub) hole and the other through one of the wheel nut holes to stabilise it. The tyre rests on the boot lid.

Must admit to wondering what the wheel would do to our heads if we were rear ended.
 

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Mike
Thank you for the detailed run down, much appreciated. We have a local MX5 breaker, so getting another boot lid would not be a problem.
I doubt the spare would get past the roll hoops in the event of a sudden halt.
It is a great option for touring. I have spent some time lately ensuring I have all the correct slime, and working compressors in our cars that do not have spares, but there is nothing like having a proper wheel for peace of mind.

Cheers

Mark
 
Does a 1932 Alfa Romeo 6C classify? It's all been done before.

1695888592619.png
I explain why I'll not be mounting my spare wheel on the P6 or our MX5, or none of the motorbikes; with an anecdote:
I was sitting for a guy in an Alfa 6C at the weekend for a Vintage Car Rally. At one point we where driving up Cairncastle Hillclimb just north of Larne, a fast and long hillclimb. Both of us had competed in the hillclimb and started calling out our 'moments' as we toured through each corner.
As we entered into one of the faster corners on the hill, with grass banks rising above the road on either side, he told me he had spun the car there. This was due to having removed the spare wheels for his previous runs, he had remounting the spare wheels to go straight home at the top. The extra weight in the wrong place caught him out !!!!
 
IIRC the boot contents of, spare wheel, hold down hardware, jack, tool roll, cuddly toy weighed in at around 34kg
That's a lot of weight behind the rear axle wagging the dog !
 
cobraboy said:
Mike
Thank you for the detailed run down, much appreciated. We have a local MX5 breaker, so getting another boot lid would not be a problem.
I doubt the spare would get past the roll hoops in the event of a sudden halt.
It is a great option for touring. I have spent some time lately ensuring I have all the correct slime, and working compressors in our cars that do not have spares, but there is nothing like having a proper wheel for peace of mind.

Cheers

Mark
Click to expand...
Yes, call me old fashioned but I can't understand the deletion of a full size spare in modern cars, particularly in Australia with our distances.
Pre covid we had a Toyota FJ Cruiser for 18 months and a couple of long road trips of up to 13,000kms and carried two spares.
Also carried a heavy duty compressor and the one from the MX5 as back-up, for the numerous times we had to "air down" for 4wd on dirt and sand and then "air up" again for bitumen. The MX5 unit performed much more efficiently and quickly became our first choice.

BTW the wheel on the boot of the MX5 appeared to have no impact on the excellent handling. Ours has Bilstein shocks.
 
Those "outback" trips are amazing. As long as you play by the rules -tell someone, have back up spares and dont act out if you get lost/stuck/or?
Many have come unstuck once your water runs out in 40deg heat. I admire the adversity those early pioneers like Burke went through.
My trips went well but did get lost once when taking the wrong turn at night. Lesson learnt -camp the night.
 
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