The Bagheera had 5.5J x 13" steel or alloy wheels with 155HR x 13 tyres front and 185HR x 13 tyres rear. The spare was a 155 front tyre. Note: these tyres have no low profile designation in their specification as was common at that time, but they are in fact 82% profile, and the new 80% low profile tyres are effectively the same and can be mixed on the same axle. Neither the original tyres nor the new 80% profile tyres are generally available in that 185 size (although you may be able to get front tyres in that size - 155/80HR x 13). You can still get them through vintage tyre suppliers and in XVS tread pattern too, although that means they will be a little expensive, but if you want original...
The original rear tyre was the widest size you should fit to a 5.5J rim and if you tried to fit a later 70% profile, you would need to go much wider to give the same rolling radius and therefore the correct ride height and gearing; but you cannot go wider on 5.5" wheels. So if you used a 185 with a 70% profile instead, you would lower the rear of the car, and with the front of the car higher the aerodynamics would be wrong and cause the car to lift at speed. You could of course fit 70% profile tyres at the front too, at least keeping the car level, but you would find the gearing a lot lower. Better for acceleration but lowering the usable cruising speed! With only a four speed gearbox the original large high profile tyres gave the car a reasonable gearing. With 70% profile tyres the car will be under-geared. So you are stuck with vintage tyre supplies of the correct size at least at the rear, if you retain the original wheels and wish to keep the original gearing.
Bagheera tyre pressures
1.4 bar front, 2.0 bar rear (13" Michelin 82% profile tyres)
The Murena had different wheels and tyres on the 1.6 and 2.2 models. The standard wheels and tyres were:
1.6 - 5.5J x 13" steel wheels with 175/70HR x 13 tyres front and 195/70HR x 13 tyres rear.
2.2 - 6J x 14" alloy wheels with 185/60HR x 14 tyres front and 195/60HR x 14 tyres rear.
Note: if a 1.6 was ordered with alloys, the spare was still a steel 13" wheel and front tyre, whilst the 2.2 always had an alloy spare with 185/60 tyre. Also the rear tyre widths were again right on the limit for the rim widths. I have found that a more ideal front tyre for the Murena 2.2 is a 185/55HR x 14. The slightly smaller profile improves the handling, and since it drops the front of the car a small amount, improves the aerodynamics too, without really affecting the speedo accuracy. Note the 1.6 rear tyres (195/70HR x 13) are now getting hard to find, and the only real source may be vintage tyres suppliers like with the Bagheera.
These cars use a 4 bolt fixing (12mm x 1.5mm pitch) with 98mm P.C.D. (pitch circle diameter) 29mm offset, and a hub spigot diameter of 58mm. This is where the wheel locates for concentricity. This is the point where wheels can stick after they have been on for a while so people often put grease here. Please do not use copper grease - copper and aluminium react because of their positions on the Galvanic scale. You should use Alumslip made by Molyslip who also make Copaslip. Alumslip is the correct grease for this purpose or a small amount of LM grease. The wheel specifications are similar to the Simca/Fiat/Lancia/Alfa wheels, but the Italian cars' wheels generally have a 38mm offset. If you use the wrong offset, you alter the cars track width, and the load through the wheel bearing becomes offset which will cause it to fail earlier as it now has to cope with a side torque. The 38mm offset will give a narrower track as each wheel is 9mm further in and closer to the suspension. So if you wish to use different wheels and buy ones designed for an Italian car, you will need wheel spacers and longer wheel bolts. I strongly suggest you don't use bolt extenders! Murena wheel arches were made large enough to take much larger wheel and tyre combinations without modifications, since I speculate, it was planned to put more powerful and probably larger engines in it, if it had continued in production. I have seen 15" and 16" rears with 215 and 225 widths at 50% profiles and they appear to fit comfortably. However, always check suspension clearances with any wider wheel and tyre combinations and expect movement under hard cornering reducing the clearance a little from the static figure.
Finally, tyre pressures are always important but especially so with a mid-engined car, and the disparity between front and rear are often much greater than a normal car. So always make sure the tyre pressures are correct if you wish to drive safely! The pressures are in the handbook and the cars also had a sticker on the drivers door near the lock mechanism, as an easy reminder. Early handbooks had a mistake and often had one of the door stickers over the original settings. If you're not sure if yours are correct or have lost the handbook/door sticker, these are the correct original figures:
Murena tyre pressures
1.6 models - 1.8 bar front 2.1 bar rear (13" Michelin 70% profile tyres)
1.6 models - 1.8 bar front 2.4 bar rear (14" Pirelli 60% profile tyres)
2.2 models - 1.8 bar front 2.5 bar rear (14" Pirelli 60% profile tyres)
Murena (& Bagheera) wheel bolt torque
Workshop manual states 6.3 daNm
However, it also allows a range of 5 to 7.5 daNm
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