Poly bushes & Spyder bones

[stuartgb100]

Martin,

I think you'll find that the Minilite for the +0 is a 13 x 5 inch rim AND (I believe) is only available in one offset ....... but I might be wrong there.

Regards,
Stuart.

[M100]

Stuart, I stand corrected. It still doesn't make them 4.5" though

If Minilite made them available in 4.5" width, with no mods needed on any standard bits of the car I'd probably buy a set with a couple of spares. But I don't want wide wheels, nor do I want to have to start hacking suspension turrets/wishbones/wishbone bolts around for what should really be a "bolt on" item.

and do they really save any weight?

[Garibaldi]

Stuart, I stand corrected. It still doesn't make them 4.5" though

If Minilite made them available in 4.5" width, with no mods needed on any standard bits of the car I'd probably buy a set with a couple of spares. But I don't want wide wheels, nor do I want to have to start hacking suspension turrets/wishbones/wishbone bolts around for what should really be a "bolt on" item.

and do they really save any weight?

I've never owned mini-lites, but I have owned Panasports and in my ignorance I couldn't tell the difference. I purchased them long ago when the exchange rate was favorable. I thought they were great wheels: light, straight, sturdy, etc. Not only that, at the time a call to the California distributor with size and backspace specs got me a set in three weeks that were special ordered for the regular price.

Don't know what they're like now.

GP

[stuartgb100]

Hi Martin,

No offence, but had seen several recent posts that didn't seem 100% accurate on this subject ( and yes, I can be guilty too --- who isn't ?).

I researched this question (Minilites and baby Elans) back in Autumn '05.
Search the Archives around that date using my name (if interested).

Around about then was a Club Lotus magazine article about Minilite issues regarding offset, backset etc, including Minilite's MD's official reply.

Can only repeat that this mod is marginal on a Baby. In fact, on the NHS it would probably be banned !

I was looking for a way to move on from 30+ year old over-stressed rims of 4.5 inch diameter, to modern 5 inch alloy rims (with an improved selection of tyres).

You pays your money, etc.

Sadly, as for Minilite, we Elan owners are probably (I guess) a fairly small clientele. So not a lot of clout there. Also, the manufacturing/assembly tolerances back then, would make a meaningful set of variables just that ............. meaningless. So they look at the data, and make say six different sets of offsets ?

Hardly, not in a commercial world.

Nope. If you're interested, talk to Minilite. Ask them what they can offer. Get the specification re: offset etc. Do your measurements. Check your chassis is square to the body, etc.

Be prepared in marginal cases for some surgery ( as Miked and I detailed). It's ok, enlightening, and lightening.

Regards,
Stuart.

My suggestion is

[stuartgb100]

Please ignore:

"My suggestion is"

Can only guess I was planning Christmas Lunch, in some parallel train of thought.

Sadly in need of a break.
Out.

Stuart.

(Off to recharge).

[M100]

I think I can vaguely recall something in the club lotus mag, along the lines of "we decided to make the wheel standard to suit MG's Triumph's and everything else on 13 inch rims but 4.5" wide Elan wheels are not in demand so we're only supplying 5" ones and you'll have to hack the car to suit"

With the right tooling, the right promotion to end users, the right manufacturing location and sold at the right price I reckon Minilite could have offloaded very quickly a huge batch of 4.5" Elan rims at, or below the price of the "new" steel ones AND shown a healthy profit at the end of the day. The reason? If a run of 15/16" Elise/Exige rims in quantities of 100 sets (i.e 400 rims) with a custom offset and a custom PCD (S1 is 95.25mm) can be profitable at under 100 quid a rim retail delivered (in a choice of 3 different finishes) including VAT then surely so should a plain minilite with half the material costs and just one hole to machine on the hub face. Tooling charges of GBP 10,000 for custom Elise/Exige rims have been banded about so on a run of 400 wheels that's effectively just 25 quid to amortise per rim, after that it's even more money in the bank for the manufacturer.

Given the number of tired steel rims out there I would have thought a direct replacement would have been the preferred option for many owners, ok you might want to upgrade the struts/wishbones etc at a later date but regardless of the fact that many owners might relish the thought of a bit of greasy fingernail work on a cold winters night there will probably be at least twice as many that would prefer a straight swap option that could be done in half an hour down at the local tyre place.

If Panasports as stated above could do them in varying offsets more or less off the shelf at no extra charge I reckon in Minilite's case it's giving the customer what the seller wants to sell, not what the customer wants to buy, typical of more and more stuck in the mud suppliers nowadays.

**rant off**

[Dave-M]

Totally agree Martin, It's the manufacturer suiting himself and f*ck the customer's needs. It's becoming the new english disease, no wonder the country is in the state it's in.
Dave

[msd1107]

I have to agree with the general thrust of the discussion here.

The wheel manufacturers seem to be making wheels more suited to 3000 lb sedans rather than 1500 lb Elans.

The weights of the wheels they offer have increased substantially over the years.

Panasport used to advertise 9.5 lb wheels, but their current wheels are much heavier. The same with Minilite. The same with 14 inch wheels, which Spyder offers on its chassis kits. The latest quote I got from Minilite on their 14X6 wheels was 15 lbs! (Remember, the Lotus steel wheel is 12+ lbs)

I have gotten a positive response from superlite-wheels.com for wheels. I have been asking for 4 bolt 3 3/4 inch PCD, since trying to get knock on wheels seems very hard. (and I have converted to bolt on hubs). Superlite offers wheels in 13, 14, and 15 inch sizes with rim widths suitable for our Elans and at a weight you will like if you can pay the price.

David
1968 36/7988