Diamond Racing Wheels

[jrwiseman]

Hi Guys

Anyone have any experience [ good, bad or indifferent ] in attempting
to use Diamond Racing Wheels on their Elan ?

thanks
john

[lotus026]

I've never heard of them being used on an Elan, and you'd need to have the bolt on hubs since Diamond doesn't make them for the KO hubs...aside from that, I've got a few friends that have Diamonds on their race cars and love them. But I'd point out that they don't match the look of the car at all, they're a few decades newer - so probably not much appeal to most Elan enthusiasts, since even for the ultra wide autocross wheels there exist wheels which match the car better!
Dave

[type26owner]

I've already reconnoitered this possibility. Their steel 5.5" wide rim has a 11-1/4" inner diameter. The latest KO 4.5" J wheel has a 11" outer diameter to the center section. I was told by the owner that was not a problem they would trim your old wheel to fit the 11-1/4 diameter and apply a suitably sized weld to get the structural strength required. Rough quote given to me was $160 each and a turn around time one week. It's on my short list of things to do this springtime. The RE92s would greatly improve with a one inch wider wheel I suspect since 4.5" was the smallest approved width. Best part is the wheel would still appear to be geniune thing. Can't remember if that price included powdercoating or not though.

[type26owner]

Asked what color choices I had for powdercoating the wheels in a yellow. They only have one choice and that's called 'sunflower yellow'. I searched around on the web for a color chip to guage if that shade would look good with the british racing green of the body but was unable to find one. That's as far as I've gotten so far. Suppose to color match the official Lotus yellow it's the nose badge which is the standard? Does the color in the badges fade with age?

[type26owner]

I also discussed with the owner the technical aspects of getting the runout tolerances nearly zero. This is complicated with the Lotus KO wheel because it is actually lug-centric and requires a special alignment fixture that behaves just like a hub. I've already made a fixture which is used whenever I have the tire and wheel spin balanced otherwise they are out of balanced once they get put back on the car. Explained how it worked to the owner and of course he understood perfectly that fixturing process must done in this way. Recommend anyone going this route also send a good hub along so they can chuck that up to spin true to the five drive lug pins otherwise it could go all wrong for you because the wheels will wobble possibly if they center on just the nut hole.