14 Inch Spyder Wheels For A Baby Elan

[bill308]

Spyder cars lists 14 x 6J Minilite pattern wheels for the Elan family on their web site and recommend 165/70 tires, for which there are some good choices available. Has anyone fitted these to a baby Elan? Apparently this is a direct replacement for S4 baby Elans and all +2 Elans. For earlier Elans, fitment of 2.25 in springs are a prerequisite. I'm considering these for an S2 Elan.

[steveww]

I have just fitted 5x13 minilites to my S4 baby Elan. My advice would be to take your car to Spyder and do a test fitting. No two Elans were made the same and clearance around the wheels arches is very tight, what fits on one car will not fit on another. Minilite make their 5x13 with two different backspaces and the only way you will know which ones to use is to try them.

[worzel]

Hi- all

Just an observation- some years ago a friend rebuilt a S3 as a sort of hybrid and replaced the body with a S4 shell. He fitted (if I remember correctly) 13 inch/6 inch Compomotive split rims with 195/70 tyres. They weren't on for long!. In the wet there was less grip than the standard wheels/tyre arrangement.

John

[elj221c]

John,
I know exactly what you mean.

I have 205 60s on the back on 7" x 13" rims!

Roy
'65S2

P.S. Aren't 165s on 6" rims a bit of a stretch?

[Hamish Coutts]

Guys,

There are a couple of articles on precisely this matter in recent Lotus Owners Club mags. Contact them for a copy.
I seem to remember that there were a few points to remember. If you are having trouble getting any copies drop me an e-mail and I'll copy them for you.

They should answer all your questions.

Regards,

Hamish.

[bill308]

OK, I made a mistake. Spyder Cars actually recommends a 185/60 series tire for their 14 inch rims. Potential performance tire choices are Kuhmo VictoRacer V700 and Yokahama A032R. Kuhmo VictoRacer V700 are also available in a 185/55 series tire. These are street legal (USA) competition tires.

The 185/60 series are equivalent to 155/80 tires in diameter. They are however 30 mm (1.2 inches) wider. At one time I had 165/70 series tires fitted to 5-inch Panasports. An off course excursion at Lime Rock Park race track resulted in the loss of a chunck fiberglass from the right front wheel arch. The rear wheel clearance was OK. I do have smaller diameter rear springs and adjustable spring purchases fitted to the rear. The lesson here was that to the tires didn't live up to expectations because the tire compound was too hard and there was too much body roll. My car has very soft springs and just the stock front anti-roll bar.

If I elect to try the 185/55-60 tires I will clearly have to control body roll better with stiffer springs and front anti-roll bar and perhaps fit a rear anti-roll bar. Adjustable A-arms should allow additional tuning of the suspension. Also the wheel offset will have to be about 0.5-0.6 inches toward the center of the car to ensure adaquate clearance to the fenders. The beauty of the 14-inch wheels is that they allow the rear wheel to be shifted inboard somewhat because there should now be adaquate clearance to clear the heads of the lower rear A-arm, outboard, bolt heads. A 13-inch diameter wheel does not allow this additional clearance. The remaining clearance to check is at full turn lock at the front. The additional inboard positioning is likely to contact the inner fender wall. I'll have to look at this.

Ultimately, the advantage here is the potential ability to fit modern tires to an early Elan for occasional track (time trial) use without having to bugger up the body with wheel flares.

[riverkeeper]

I've fitted the 14 x 6J Minilite's to my S4 elan. Only bodywork mod required was to reduce the arch return a bit to make sure of clearance. However this was on a car with a new shell fitted and it's not been on the road yet. As already commented I think it'll probably be a different case for each car such are the tolerances in bodywork.

Wayne.

[gjz30075]

Bill308 is right on the money on all counts. I"ve got 13" panasports on mine and if I had to do it over again, I'd go to 14's and make 'em work, if need be.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

I know I'm a bit late on this one but here's my experience. I use the Spyder 6Jx14 wheels on my S4 Elan. I bought 185/60x14 Yokohamas for them as Spyder recommended. They looked good on the car until ride height & road testing commenced. The tyres rubbed heavily on the rear wheel arches. A bit of fettling on them & a change to 175/60x14 tyres resolved the problem. I have however seen another S4 Elan that was successfully(?) running on the 185 section tyres.
John