MINILITE ® trade mark) WHEELS came into being in the early 1960’s from a concept by Derek Power who was a brilliant nuclear engineer, and graduated from Imperial College, London.
He formed a Company called Teltron producing electric tubes and on a visit to Brands Hatch one day his attention was drawn to various crashed Minis which had suffered collapsed wheels. Derek had a lot of experience working with magnesium as it was used in fuel elements in nuclear reactors and knew it was lighter than aluminium by around 25% and by an enormous 75% compared with steel.
He produced some prototypes using 90% magnesium, 8% aluminium and some other elements, and after some further design changes the Minilite wheel was born and marketed by his newly formed company called Tech Del which still exists today.
The competition market proved very popular for Minilite on international rallies, and saloon car racing around the world but the product was relatively expensive by nature of the materials so he then introduced a low pressure all aluminium wheel which could be offered at a significant cost saving to the magnesium items. Other companies started copying the now infamous 8 spoke design and with the soaring cost of magnesium in the 1970’s the original company went into liquidation.
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It has passed through various hands since the 1980’s and now resides in the old KN Wheels factory in Telford which itself also went into liquidation in 2012 due mainly to intense competition from Taiwan and China. The original company formed by Derek was located in Telford Way, Acton, London W3 and it now resides in Telford, Shropshire so perhaps the word Telford was ultimately more important than he could ever have envisaged!
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Tech Del is now operated under the Specialist Car Products Ltd. range of classic car parts which has its head office in West Sussex. SCP has been producing a range of over 1000 items, including suspension and safety critical components and many other various parts for many British sports cars, MG’s, Triumph, Austin Healey and Jaguar, for over 40 years.
We also manufacture new Armstrong lever arm shock absorbers and suspension links for the classic car ranges which are supplied to the Classic Car specialist retailers around the world.
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The factory in Telford processes raw aluminium castings both in LM9 and LM25 depending on the application required and we have recently purchased a new Haas ST35 turning lathe to work alongside our other five CNC machining centres to enhance our accuracy on both machining raw castings and any final finishing of customer special requirements such as highlighting the outer rims.
WHY MINILITE UK?
Minilite is a highly respected and reputable manufacturing company that has earned a well-deserved reputation for producing exceptional quality wheels for a wide range of vehicles.
Our in-house paint plant is equipped to offer a standard silver finish, but we also provide a range of colour options at an additional cost. These options include Gold, Anthracite, Gloss Black, Matte Black, White, Red, Yellow, Olympic Blue, Monza Blue, Gulf Orange, and Matte Gunmetal. Additionally,
We offer diamond tip cutting to give your wheels a unique and personalized touch that will set them apart from the rest. You can rest assured that when you choose Minilite, you are choosing the very best in quality and craftsmanship for your vehicle's wheels.