Lotus Elan Central

by ***LUCA*** » Tue 27.03.2007, 22:19

Hi, I have bought my elan with these wheels, but now I must change the wheels because they have a mistaken ET measure. They are MAK wheels 7Jx17 whit ET 35 and tyres 215/40. so,whit these measures, the wheels touch in the mudgards!....
Now....what is the best offset measure that I have to search whit these tyres ? thank you. :-D

by **Monty** » Tue 27.03.2007, 22:37

Thats a shame those wheels do look good on your car :roll:

Stock offset is 60mm positive, try and get at least 50mm.
Hub Bore IIRC 56.6mm

Stick to 7" wide wheels and fit 205 tyres

by **Doug** » Tue 27.03.2007, 23:37

there was just another thread about this topic

check the Forum for this or hope somone else with time posts the link.

Website · by **theelanman** » Wed 28.03.2007, 00:43

nice...
but as monty says you need 60mm offset which are very hard to find....
speak to 'josler' ...
he's just got some new S2 wheels....dont know if the seller has anynore but I'd suggest theyre your best bet
cheers
g
http://www.lotuselancentral.com/forum/v ... ght=newbie

by **nissias** » Tue 10.04.2007, 18:52

http://www.workwheelsusa.com/wheels/BRA ... crkai.html
This is what I have bought for my car in Gunmetal finish. 17x7

I think the offset is +47 http://www.work-wheels.co.jp/wheels/ind ... -k1p-2.pdf

by **Elanlover** » Thu 12.04.2007, 14:24

One of these days I'm going to test my theory that an 17x8 inch wheel with a 45-47 offset is a good fit for the Elan. Keeps the scrub radius where it should be with the increase width in wheel. Just a matter of determinign if there's any rubbing due to the extra half inch on either side of the wheel........................... :smt017

Nissias, any pics of those wheels installed? They look quite nice.

by **Monty** » Thu 12.04.2007, 19:55

Elanlover wrote:One of these days I'm going to test my theory that an 17x8 inch wheel with a 45-47 offset is a good fit for the Elan. Keeps the scrub radius where it should be with the increase width in wheel. Just a matter of determinign if there's any rubbing due to the extra half inch on either side of the wheel...........................

Nissias, any pics of those wheels installed? They look quite nice.

Forget it mate, people have tried 7.5 wide and had them wearing the liners away :roll:

by **Elanlover** » Thu 12.04.2007, 20:34

Monty wrote:Forget it mate, people have tried 7.5 wide and had them wearing the liners away

Grrrr..................

Just means I need a new arch liner design at the same time :wink:

by **johnny** » Fri 13.04.2007, 07:50

I had 7.5x17 momo arrows on my car for about 18 months, no problems.

Im always changing my wheels, like a girl with handbags.. :wink:

by **Elanlover** » Fri 13.04.2007, 13:22

Johnny, with regard to your 17x7.5 wheels, can you recall how close they came to the arch liners and/or any of the suspension parts? Just curious if they were a tight fit or if you had plenty of room. "plenty" of room might imply that a 17x8 wheel could work. Thanks!

by **johnny** » Fri 13.04.2007, 17:17

Elanlover wrote:Johnny, with regard to your 17x7.5 wheels, can you recall how close they came to the arch liners and/or any of the suspension parts? Just curious if they were a tight fit or if you had plenty of room. "plenty" of room might imply that a 17x8 wheel could work. Thanks!

Mate i think 7.5 is prob the most you could go. There was no rubbing,
but it was tight all round.

Sounds like you badly want a 17x8, why? they must be some wheel. :wink:

by **Elanlover** » Fri 13.04.2007, 17:58

Hi Johnny, no desire for any special wheel at all. From a post elsewhere on LEC there was a discusion on increasing the wheel width. A point made by Sy was that you couldn't just add inches to the wheel width without considering where the scrub radius would be moved to (in layman's terms, moving the centering of the wheel from its current positioning).

Its always been hard to find a 15, 16 or even 17x7 wheel with the correct +60 offset the originals have. However, I've calculated that a wheel that's 8 inches wide could have an offset of +47 and maintain the exact scrub radius that a 7 inch wheel with a +60 offset has. A wheel width of 7.5 inches would require an offset of +53 to 54mm to maintain the desired scrub radius. Its a lot easier to find a wheel with a +45 to 47 offset than one with +60 or even +53.

Thus my interest in seeing if a 8 inch wide wheel will fit :-D

by **johnny** » Fri 13.04.2007, 20:19

Elanlover, have a look at e-bay.com "lotus elan" theres a guy selling

8x18 alloys, looks like he says they fit "Elan" Dont know if US Elans are
the same as UK. Just to give you an idea.

I tried to put a link to it, couldnt do it.

John.

by **Elanlover** » Fri 13.04.2007, 20:22

I saw that link. They are Elise wheels and he's foolishly generalizing his wheels to fit just about any modern Lotus car he can think of including the Esprit. Not very knowledgable.......... :roll:

by **GeoffSmith** » Fri 13.04.2007, 21:13

Elanlover wrote:I've calculated that a wheel that's 8 inches wide could have an offset of +47 and maintain the exact scrub radius that a 7 inch wheel with a +60 offset has. A wheel width of 7.5 inches would require an offset of +53 to 54mm to maintain the desired scrub radius. Its a lot easier to find a wheel with a +45 to 47 offset than one with +60 or even +53.

Whoa there Blair! If you read on a bit in the technical discussion thread, short shift Dave confirms that the offset is the distance from the hub to the centre of the wheel, so it doesn't matter how wide your wheel is, you will always require the same offset. Sorry. :oops:

by **Elanlover** » Sat 14.04.2007, 01:49

I admit to not being an expert in this area at all Geoff and would happily bow to just about anyone's superior knowledge in this area. But, here's how I rationalize this argument.

The current 7 inch wide wheel has a +60mm offset and the scrub radius is as per Sy's helpful pictorial below

So, if you were to install a 7.5 inch wheel with the same +60mm offset the impact would be that the outboard face of the wheel sits where we see it now but the inboard face now juts half an inch into the wheel well. You've got half an inch more wheel pushing towards the suspension if i am describing this well enough. The offset is the same and the outboard face of the wheel doesn't sit further out to the street than stock BUT the scrub radius is now by half an inch.

In order to "recenter" the wheel such that the scrub radius is identical to stock we have to deal with that extra half inch by "splitting" it. We move the wheel into the street (so to speak) by a quarter inch thus returning to the stock scrub radius we had with the 7 inch stock wheel but now with an extra quarter inch of wheel on both the inside and outside face of the wheel. Thatr means we have to reduce the offset by a quarter inch (just over 6mm) so the wheel is centered over the hub AND has the stock scrub radius. An 8 inch wheel would reduce the offset by about 13mm.

Am I explaining this ok or just confusing veryone including myself? :roll:

Sy's other pic below shows a wheel where the scrub radius is no longer "stock" because the wheel doesn't have the correct offset due to an increase in the wheel width.

So, we can use a wider wheel IF we compensate for the change in scrub radius by reducing the offset.

Or so my pretzel logic informs me. This was also confirmed by my bowl of cereal this morning. I do everything my Rice Krispies tell me to do. :-D

by **GeoffSmith** » Sat 14.04.2007, 07:56

Elanlover wrote:So, if you were to install a 7.5 inch wheel with the same +60mm offset the impact would be that the outboard face of the wheel sits where we see it now but the inboard face now juts half an inch into the wheel well.

I'm no expert either Blair, but I gave it a fair bit of thought when I incorrectly suggested a spacer to compensate :bonk:

and I think I've got my head around it.

The offset is the distance between the face of the hub and the centre of the wheel. I think your logic falls over because you've assumed that the offset is from the outer face of the wheel to the centre of the wheel. For a given offset, the centre line of the wheel is in the same place with respect to the mating flange with the hub, no matter how wide the wheel.

If the wheel is ½" wider, you 'gain' ¼" of wheel closer to the wheel arch liner and ¼" towards the road and the scrub radius is identical.

I'm afraid I can't face Rice Crispies this early in the morning because they're too loud, so I may well be wrong! :lol:

As you say, we could do with an expert opinion.

Geoff

by **dapinky** » Sat 14.04.2007, 14:30

I'm an expert but not on this subject i fully agree with you all that it needs the correct offset to maintain the same scrub radius.

by **garymb** » Mon 07.05.2007, 21:46

dapinky wrote:I'm an expert but not on this subject i fully agree with you all that it needs the correct offset to maintain the same scrub radius.

So what is the effect of not having the correct offset? (I'm, assuming it's not good.)

by **Doug** » Tue 08.05.2007, 06:10

nissias wrote:http://www.workwheelsusa.com/wheels/BRANDfolder/crkai.html
This is what I have bought for my car in Gunmetal finish. 17x7

I think the offset is +47 http://www.work-wheels.co.jp/wheels/ind ... -k1p-2.pdf

do you have any pics of your Elan with these wheels yet!

I was just looking at this exact wheel in gunmetal to get for my Evo :smt023

(assuming I can remove that blue crap from the wheel)

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