Airbag wheel and Hub for sale

[Maxvelocity]

For sale due to non pickup of a reserved wheel from group buy. Last remaining airbag wheel kit in stock for USA Fed airbag equipped cars. All parts are new and have not been installed in a car.

Includes Airbag leather wrap wheel, all hardware with airbag/horn connectors, and low profile hub adapter with turn signal cancellation. Comes with matching Lotus emblem made of pliable/bendable domed soft gel that resembles the nose badge. It is 3D like the nose badge and not just a decal or sticker. It is soft and pliable in case it detaches during airbag deployment. Picture is of the actual steering wheel. People have painted or hydro dipped the silver portion of the wheel to match car color.









Similar in looks to the traditional 3 spoke steering wheel found in the late 80's Esprit. The flat pad of the wheel makes it difficult for the untrained eye to determine that it is an airbag wheel except for the discrete SRS marking towards the bottom of pad. The fit and finish is excellent. This kit is desirable for the pristine car or the upper end restoration. Also fits the 1990-2004 Lotus Esprit. Wheel is a little smaller (approx 350mm) than the huge GM wheel which I believe is 385mm. The Elise wheel is smaller at about 340mm which at times interferes with instrumentation line of sight. The 350mm wheel has better sight lines for instrumentation.

$700 for kit, Payment via paypal to protect both buyer and seller. Buyer to pay for Paypay fees and shipping/handling via FedEx insured ground delivery (must be shipped ground because explosive nature of airbag). Signature required for delivery at paypal verified address. No PO box delivery. USA/Canadian sales only. Buyer responsible for Canadian import fees if any

[lotos]

What brand wheel is it?

[Maxvelocity]

Its a Raid/Atiwe wheel. It is made in Germany and is OEM for several low production cars like RUF, AMG, certain years of M series BMW and Audi S series etc. It is a pretty well known sport airbag steering wheel in Europe.

[tweetdriver63]

You should post this either in the interior section or the Élan products or Elan parts for sale section.

[Elanlover]

Topic moved to appropriate forum.

[lotos]

The JK Raid hub adapters have been around since the early 2000's and have had a good run. I seem to recall that Bob on this site used the one of the JK adapters as a basis to make a limited run of his own. I think it was used for an Elise wheel. While the Raid hub adapters can be fiddled and made to fit an Elise wheel the size and stepped dimensions of the hub were made to fit into the rear recesses of the Raid wheel for a precise fit.

Are you certain it works for our car? Reading the original thread on this it seemed that the Raid adapter was used as a starting point on the design but was heavily modified into a bespoke design pattern for our cars. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Elanlover would be a good person to ask as he was integrally involved in the process.

[Elanlover]

I believe this is an Esprit - Raid conversion. I wasn't involved in this as it was designed by an Esprit owner for a group buy but I did communicate with him about having more adaptors made up before we tapped Bob Brown to make some to do an Elise airbag steering wheel conversion for the Elan. Its my understanding that if it fits the Esprit then it fits the Elan.

[Maxvelocity]

The JK Raid hub adapters have been around since the early 2000's and have had a good run. I seem to recall that Bob on this site used the one of the JK adapters as a basis to make a limited run of his own. I think it was used for an Elise wheel. While the Raid hub adapters can be fiddled and made to fit an Elise wheel the size and stepped dimensions of the hub were made to fit into the rear recesses of the Raid wheel for a precise fit.

Are you certain it works for our car? Reading the original thread on this it seemed that the Raid adapter was used as a starting point on the design but was heavily modified into a bespoke design pattern for our cars. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Elanlover would be a good person to ask as he was integrally involved in the process.

I think Bob's hub was modified to the point that the wheel mating surface and the hub size itself was made to fit the Elise wheel. I think the center portion of the hub looked similar to the Raid hub. Many people including Esprit owners also made Elise steering wheel adapters as the Raid hub was made to fit in to the recess of the wheel for a tighter fit. Used to the tight look of the Raid adapter many Esprit owners balked when someone tried to use the Raid adapter for another wheel and it seemed a less of finished product than many were used to. I seem to recall the number at 60+ maybe more. The Raid adapters went into the hundreds. Many feel the Elise wheel went better with later model Esprit V8 with the smaller instrument pod when Lotus eliminated many of the gauges and replaced them with tell tale lights. Many Esprit owners felt that the Raid had a more traditional European look. In my opinion the early model Esprit all the way to the 97MY looked much better with the Raid wheel and it had improved sight lines of the larger instrument pod than with the Elise wheel. The younger guys seemed to gravitate towards the Elise whee; but the older gents prefered the flat pad of the raid that resembled the wheel found in the pre airbag Esprits as in the 88-89MY cars as opposed to the round thing of the Elise wheel. Either way it was a huge improvement over the GM wheel.

The Raid hub is an exact mate to the clock spring used by the GM wheel and has the same spline count as the M100. After doing about 20 wheel swaps It should be no more difficult to do GM wheel swap in a M100 than an Esprit and should take about 20 min.

[lotos]

Great info, thanks.

[Doug]

yummy

[Maxvelocity]

As the driving season starts I will no longer have the time to monitor this site for interest in this wheel. I only joined LEC to post this last wheel for sale on the recommendation of tweetdriver63. If anyone has interest in the wheel I can be reached either on the turbo list or Lotus talk in the Esprit section.

[lotos]

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