Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Well, I have searched the archives with mixed results and the options have changed in the past few years.
My wheels will be returning from being powdercoated and I need to purchase some tires ASAP. When I do a tirerack search for 145x80x13. There is nothing. There are a few options in the 155 size. First off, will this size fit my S3 Coupe with any difficulty? If not, does a 155 tire look unnatural on the car?
I also did searches on the various vintage tire websites and they didn't return any results for those sizes (i am sure I could call them and they could help me). I am curious what peoples opinions are on the relatvely cheap tires on tirerack that are all-season or touring type tires. THese tires aren't exactly high performance.
Tires I am considering are:
Toyo 800 Ultra
Kumho Power Star 758
Kumho Touring A/S 795
Dean Tires Alpha 365 (anyone ever heard about these)

Looking forward to some help here.
Chris
S3 Cpe Super Safety
White Bear Lake, Minnesota

Bridgestone RE92 165/65x13 for $204 at the tire rack
(www.tirerack.com) seem to fit without any problem. I haven't tried
any of the other tires you mention.

Gary

--- In ***@***.***, "Chris Lawson" <lawson74@c...>
wrote:

The $204 was for a set of 4 delivered plus what ever it was to get
them mounted and balanced.

--- In ***@***.***, "garyeanderson"
<garyeanderson@y...> wrote:

Chris,

S4s and Sprints came from the factory with 155s. Of course, this might have
something to do with the fact that the wheel arches were changed when the S4s
came out.

Frank Howard
'71 S4 SE
Minnesota

I'm a Europa owner, so we thankfully have (a very few) more options.

To stay in period profile, I believe you want to do your search with
the 155 NONE 13 option. This will turn up a Bridgestone I think you'd
be happy with @ $46.

I'm using Kumho 771 165 NONE 13's on the Europa, and very happy with
them, especially considering the $27 price. I notice they aren't
listed anymore, and expect the 795's have replaced them but without as
many profile options.

You will see minor variations in diameter depending on the aspect ratio
you go with. Tire Rack lists overall diameter under Specs. For
example, the difference between 155 NONE 13 and 155 80 13 is that NONE
is .10 inches larger (22.8 vs. 22.7)

If Gary's got 165's on without issue, then 155's won't be a problem for
you. 165 80 13 is 23.4".

Good luck in your search!

Doug Nicholls, 54/1822

I put the RE92's on my old S4 and put a lot of trouble free miles on
them - they fit with no problems, I had the plus2 5 1/2" wide wheels
on that Elan. I just put them on my S3 coupe that I sold three weeks
ago, also without problems and my friend had them on his S2 with
stock archs and wheels. They should not be a problem on any S1 - S4.
Tire height is what gets you into trouble (with in reason) I have
175/50x13 on my S2 with nearly 7 inches of tread (well sometimes its
even all on the pavement) with out fouling the arches but I had to
play some other games to make them fit. Thease tires are 20 inches in
diameter so you get a 10% underdrive with them too.

Gary

--- In ***@***.***, "denicholls2" <dnicholls@k...>
wrote:

I have Goodyear Corsa 155's on my 66 S3 Coupe'. They were VERY
close to rubbing the spring perch. But never did rub, even in
somewhat sprited driving. And of course they are no longer in
production. If you look in the photos section under Mike Geiger's
S3 Elan (?, I get a group check error) you can check out how they
look.

Mike Geiger


--- In ***@***.***, "Chris Lawson" <lawson74@c...>
wrote:

I have Michelin MXTE 155/80 R 13 on my S2 and they are very close to the
rear spring perches also. The lips on the inside of the front guards has
been ground off a little by PO I think. I have to be careful on full lock
going into driveways or they just scrape. Great tyres, good grip, don't
squeal and they look right.

I previously had 165/70x13 Michelins and they also fit but the Avon
165/70x13's I replaced them with rubbed on the spring perches under hard
cornering as they had very soft sidewalls.

I tried 155/70x13 Bridgestones and they were too small and just looked
wrong, it looked like a shopping trolley. Really noticeable lowering of the
gear ratio too.

Cheers
Peter

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