Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I am about to change the rear spring units on my 1970 S4 SE to accomodate these wheels & tyres.
Can you advise if there is a problem with tyre clearances on the guards when suspension at max travel.

I have the problem that on full lock the front tyres hit the sway bar. I have been told that I may have the wrong rack.
Can you please suggest a solution. Is there a way of reducing the rack travel ie to increase the turning circle.

I am in Australia

With the right wheel offsets they should fit at the rear assuming the body is symmetrical which they often are not.

At the front they will hit the roll bar with the standard rack lock stops which is not an issue on practice. i have driven my Elan for 40 years with the rack stops being effectively the wheels hitting the roll bar. A bigger issue will be the front tyres will hit the body work on full opposite lock with body roll or when going up a drive at an angle so you need to be careful in these situations.

You can play with front wheel offsets being slightly different and in more than the rear wheels to help tailor the fit front to rear but the benefits are small for the downside of not being able to swap wheels front to rear ( been their done that)

cheers
Rohan

Hi

Can i ask why you would want to change the car to fit a wrong size tyre?

Hi Dougal,
It is impossible to obtain correct size tyres in Aus.
I have standard rims also 5x13 Minilite rims.There are no suitable tyres here.
Rob

Hi Rohan,
Thanks for your help.
Great to know the problem with the front tyres hitting the sway bar. I feel better about this now.
I have found the way to fix the rear by replacing spring unit with a smaller diameter one thus enabling the wheel to fit.
Thanks again
Rob

roebuck wrote:Hi Dougal,
It is impossible to obtain correct size tyres in Aus.
I have standard rims also 5x13 Minilite rims.There are no suitable tyres here.
Rob

It really depends on what you use the car for and what sort of tyres you are looking for . The are many 186/60 and 175/60 x 13 performance tyres. These gear the car down a little but given Australia's 100 km speed limits that's not a great problem. You can always fit a 3.54 diff or a 5 speed box if you want more relaxed cruising with the smaller diameter tyres

cheers
Rohan

Hi Rohan,
The car came with 175/70x13 Bridgestone Ecopia tyres on the Minilite rims.Correct rolling radius but a crap tyre.
Also had worn out track tyres you suggested but they did not look good and as you say alter the gearing.
I am ordering the different rear struts that will resolve the problem.
Thanks Rob

If you want to avoid using the ARB itself as a rack limiter by having the tire contact it and rub, you can instead readily install rack limiters as per this recent thread:

elan-mods-f31/bill-26s-t37259-75.html

Will keep your tires from being scrubbed on the inner edge.

roebuck wrote:Hi Rohan,
The car came with 175/70x13 Bridgestone Ecopia tyres on the Minilite rims.Correct rolling radius but a crap tyre.
Also had worn out track tyres you suggested but they did not look good and as you say alter the gearing.
I am ordering the different rear struts that will resolve the problem.
Thanks Rob

Most smaller rear diameter spring kits prevent the use of the standard Aeon rubber springs at the rear which can have serious bad effects on handling. Col Croucher at Elan trikbits in Wangarratta used to make a kit for a smaller rear spring to fit wider tyres and wheels but still large enough to fit the standard Aeon rubber spring. He runs wide 14 inch wheels on his S2 and worth talking to if doing this mod.

cheers
Rohan

PS you cant see what the tyres look like from the drivers seat but you can feel the grip of a good set of track day tyres

roebuck wrote:Hi Dougal,
It is impossible to obtain correct size tyres in Aus.
I have standard rims also 5x13 Minilite rims.There are no suitable tyres here.
Rob

Hi

It is easy to buy these tyres in Australia.

We ship these tyres all over the world https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/classi ... /elan.html it only costs ? 150 to ship a full set of 5 to Aus

I cannot think it makes sense to spoil the handling of an Elan of all cars to save ? 150 in shipping

also it will probably cost you money to spoil your car

Any 60% profile tyre will handle really badly on an Elan, unless you changed loads more stuff to turn it into an absolute track car with a dreadful ride.

I think those boys at Lotus probably knew what they were doing, and they didn't even put 70% profile tyres on them, However doing that with the period Cinturato would not be so bad, but a completely modern 60% profile tyre, will be terrible.

Hi, if you ring Russell Stuckey at Stuckey tyres he can provide you with 175 x 70 x 13 CN36 Pirelli Cincuratos from stock,

He can also provide Michelin XM2 in 155 x 13.

Peter

Hi

Yep Stuckey is the Australian distributor for the Pirelli Cinturato range.

i believe he also does Michelin's classic range so he should be able to supply the 155HR13 XAS which is better for an Elan than an XM2