Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi,

Still twiddling my thumbs over which size tyres to buy, so I've made a poll to see what everybody else has on their plus 2. I have included the main popular tyre sizes for the standard 5.5" alloys.

I have TTR fast road rear springs which are slightly lower (but not the adjustable small diameter springs). Am I being stupid in thinking this lowered setup gives me more width space for tyres? Or does this give me less width space? Confused... Help!

Cheers,
Innes

165 70 R13

17 Votes and its still pretty mixed with no significant leader, interesting, I'll let this run a bit longer...

More people vote!

Innes

Hi Innes

Not sure if it makes a difference to your results but 165x13 and 165/80x13 are the same size.

Regards
John

Hi,
Yeh I was using that to separate between modern tyres and classic style tyres made from original moulds (like Michelin XAS).

Innes

I was running 175/70x14 on Spyder alloys, but have now gone to 175/65x14s as they were rubbing slightly at full bump compression and at full lock. All is OK now. Rolling radius is pretty much standard for the original, but now the side walls are stiffer - closer to the stiffness of the original 13" tyres. Modern 13" tyres (apparently - but open for debate) have much less stiff sidewalls than in period, making the handling a little soggy unless you pump up the pressure.

I attach a little experiment I did a while back with an old 165 Goodyear G800 on a Lotus steel rim vs the modern Spyder wheel. Make up your own minds as to the 'rightness' of the look!

Jeremy

The only 13 inch decent grip tyres you can get come in 175/60 x 13 or 185/60 x 13 both fit depending on the tyre and rear spring perch size with standard wheels.


cheers
Rohan

The standard 165X13 tyres have 887 rev/mile.
185/60X13 is 956 rev/mile
175/60X13 is 975 rev/mile.

If you thought your Elan was rev happy with standard 165s, they will be much higher with the 60 series tyres.

For instance, with 165s, 70 MPH is about 3680 RPM. With 185/60s, revs increase to about 3970 and with 175/60s, revs increase to about 4040.

The Spyder 185/60-14 tyres have 915 rev/mile and about 3790 RPM.

Michelin XAS in 165-13 size is one way to get a grippy tyre with the standard rolling radius. A much more difficult and expensive route is to convert to bolt-on hubs, use SuperLite 15X5.5 wheels and 185/55-15 tyres for 887 rev/mile and about 3680 RPM. 15" tyres are more easily available. Keep in mind that the tyre wear rating is based on cars at least twice the weight of ours, so look for the highest performance with a low tyre wear rating. Even a 80 rating, which would not be satisfactory on the street in a sedan would provide satisfactory life, especially considering the annual mileages most owners pile up.

There does not appear to be an easy, inexpensive answer to this conundrum.

David
1968 36/7988

Which reminds me that I have 5 unused 165 x 70 x 13 Yokohama sitting on my shelf awaiting a new owner - why? because a 'naughty supplier' recommended them to me for my Elan sprint during part way through my restoration and of course they are wrong size for the sprint - the suggestion from them by the way when I realised my folly "was to do some panel beating to the rear struts to stop the rubbing"!

My fault for not checking instead of trusting a reputed name, do we ever live and learn?

Richard