Speedlines on an Elan, Your thoughts

[m100sandra]

I really like these Speedline wheels but would like to see them on a Elan, Really greatful if somone could photoshop the wheels on the Elan.
Hope the pic of the black Elan is at the right angle for the wheels, feel free to use a another Elan pic.......
Thanks
Sandra

[m100sandra]

I managedto sort it It took meall flipping Morning to get apoor result but i suppose it givesa idea, ill put another post up to see what you think?

[m100sandra]

I have managed (only just) to photoshop some speedline 16" wheels onto a Black Elan, I really do like the wheels and i am told that the offset will work good when compaired to standard.
Excuseing the poor photoshopping, but just to give a idea:-) what do you think? (i will be keeping the standard wheels as well as the Speedlines)

[Peter_W]

I think they look real good. What wheel width and offset are available/would you go with?

[Enright]

If you can get some Lotus centre caps then those wheels might look quite good.
However they may not work quite as well as the originals.
The lower profile sidewalls will make for a stiffer ride and may upset the car's already brilliant handling. My Elan had already had its suspension "breathed on" when I got it, and while the lower ride height looked great, I've scraped the nose a few times on speedbumps, garage ramps and even in multi-storey car parks.
When we did our IOM trip back in about 2007, my Elan performed superbly on the track-day that we did there, but on bumpy roads it pogoed about so much that it felt nervous and quite frankly unsafe, which caused me to slow down. So in a nutshell, it was as fast if not faster than any other Elan on track (on the day), but amongst the slowest of them in the "real world"!
You need to research your tyre sizes to ensure that you don't muck up your speedo or grind away your wheelarch liners.
Bear in mind you'll also have to declare the modification to your insurers. This may not cost you anything for the first mod or two, but they can start ramping up the premiums after that.

I don't want to put a damp squib on your idea - I'm all for performance upgrades if they return the investment and are done right. What "grinds my gears" is when upgrades that have cost you a lot of money actually end up making you go slower!
Lotus ride and handling engineers were and are some of the best in the business, and the Elan had about the biggest development budget of any Lotus ever. If wheels have been introduced to the market that do the job even better than those on which our cars were originally designed to run, then that's great. Question is, do you want to spoil your car, or spoil your car?!?

[m100sandra]

This is the spec for comparison, the speedlines are 7.25 x 16 with a ET53 and a GrA wheel, close with the 205/45/16 tire.
Dia. S2 590.9 Speedline 590.9
Circumference.S2 1856.4 Speedline 1856.4
Poke, S2 28.9 speedline 39.1
Inset. S2 148.9 Speedline 145.1
Speedo error 0%

[m100sandra]

Dont think i'm getting any better at photoshop but here's one with two speedlines

[Rambo]

That top photo looks like PaulP's old car, now GUK's. And the no. plate looks familiar too. Am I correct ??

[hatters]

Much prefer the originals

[m100sandra]

That top photo looks like PaulP's old car, now GUK's. And the no. plate looks familiar too. Am I correct ??

More then likly, It was one i got ff Google as all my picswereat the wrong angle

[m100sandra]

Much prefer the originals

I know, its somthing i'm 50-50 with, the Classic look or somthing to beef it up

Honest thoughts on the Speedlines wecome though..........

[steve matthews]

Much prefer the originals

Original S2
Or maybe the Speedlines in Gold

[Enright]

That top photo looks like PaulP's old car, now GUK's. And the no. plate looks familiar too. Am I correct ??

Definitely. And from before Paul got the personalised plate put on it.

[rip]

Can I dare to drag this thread back onto topic?
16" wheels will give you more options if you want to do a brake upgrade.
Elan 16" wheels are very difficult to come by.
If you can get any type of centre cap for the wheels, then I've used this company for my daily. Their gel badges look quite good.

[m100sandra]

Much prefer the originals

Original S2
Or maybe the Speedlines in Gold

[Rice crispy]

i think they look good and by the sound of it are not to far away from original.

David

[m100sandra]

I dont think they are working out a million mls away from the standard wheels re the offset, on the calculator it looks like they are around 9mm further out, i can live with that as its somthing i hate the standard wheels for the inset is more or less the same, 3mm,using 205/45/16 tires it looks like they end up nearly bang on?
I need to make my mind up be the weekend HELP

[Karl Martin]

Nice shiney black car

[Karl Martin]

That doesn't really help you much does it.....

I can't comment on the technicalities and you already know that I like the original wheels, but if I HAD to upgrade, those look pretty good, especially if you could lower the gap at the top to match the sides.

(Did you fit the Nitron shocks?)

[Karl Martin]

REALLY shiny.........