Browsing through Flunder’s tremendous build thread on the Early 911S Registry forums, I was struck by this interesting phenomenon of the competition 911s of the early 1970s: Fuchs 7R fronts and Minilite 9×15 rear. The combination creates a marvelous stance and an interesting big & little wheel combination. Mismatched wheels may look a bit jarring to contemporary eyes, but there’s no question that it’s a racey look. This is racing, after all, and we’re after results, not beauty. If it just so happens to be beautiful—as I think it does in this case—then all the better. Some commenters have suggested that the wider Fuchs weren’t yet available, or weren’t as strong as the Minilites.
Flunder’s entire thread is worth a look. I was discussing with a friend recently the concept of rare parts hoarders. I’m sure you’ve run into a few, they’ll have benches full of rare race parts, mechanical fuel injection systems or period turbos wasting away in the corners of their basement. Usually I get grumpy about these folks, that they’re speculators holding onto parts for their increasing value with no intention of ever putting them into their cars.
Flunder has proven that there are still “good” parts collectors. After a 3 year search for a seemingly endless list of rare factory race parts (factory aluminum door skins, plexiglass, conrods, the works), he put together a stunning tribute to the Group 4 racers of the early 70s. “Tribute” is probably the wrong word, this thing is probably more authentic than most surviving Group 4 cars.
Chiquita 
Irwin Kremer 1970 ST
Thankfully, he also went with Fuchs in front and Minilites in the rear. It’s probably going to cause some folks to scratch their heads on the street, but it’s these small acts of courage that make me enjoy the vintage sportscar world so much.
0 replies on “Fuchs Up Front, Minilites in the Back”
Well spotted that, I never noticed the minilites on photos. I guess it were privateer racers who used this combination? I’m sure even the semi-factory Porsche teams would not have used this in the seventies.
yep the ST is a rare beast and doesn’t officially exist as a model line.Flunders build is truly amazing and i could only wish to have access to his parts for my Kremer ST build
Yep, one of the best looks on the longhoods, imo. The STs are incredible!
First thing we do, let’s take it out on the ice!
The Fuchs front and Minilites rear look also showed up on a number of 914/6. I have read that the marketing department wanted the cars to race with Fuchs so that the cars would resemble their showroom brethren. I understand that it is period correct, but I can’t warm up to it. I prefer the either or look, the mismatched wheels probably reminds me too much of high school.
I have an S/T from 1972. The car Michael Keyser used to film the speed merchants. It had and it still has Fuchs wheels front and rear…
Hello, friends –
When I was researching the history of Steve Childs’ 911TR Swedish rally car for an article in Excellence Magazine a couple of years ago, we determined that Fuchs did not offer a lightweight forged alloy of appropriate width and offset to meet Porsche’s requirements of that time; hence the use of Minilites in the rear. This practice carried over into many of the factory-built STs. It’s also interesting to note that there were two different castings of that Minilite wheel…one had the valve stem port facing outward in the “normal” location; the other had the valve stem port placed well back from the face between a pair of spokes so it would be protected from roadside hazards, a good idea when pounding through the boonies.
I like the combination very much. It was used, because there were no 8″ or 9″ Fuchs rims at the early 70s. We still use this combination on historic racing events. The yellow Chiquita-Porsche 911 S was entered by our Team in 1970.