Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi, I need a second set of wheels for my S4 and want to fit 5.5" wide rims.

Can anyone who has these fitted tell me what the backspace is of the wheels they're using and if they have any rubbing/fouling issues. I have the smaller diameter springs and platforms and have already performed some minor surgery to the rear arches.

I'm aware that all these cars are slightly different and often one side is worse than the other but I'm just looking for a start point.

Thanks, in advance, for your help

Paul

I have 5.5" Minilites which I ordered from Minilite with a custom backspacing .... but I can't find any record of what that was I can measure if you're still interested, but first the caveats:

- I have 26R-style arches - slightly widened relative to the S1 original, but perhaps not too different from S4;

- I have original struts/springs.

I have 165/70 tyres and there is about 5mm clearance between the tyre and the spring seat. There is more clearance between the tyre and wheel arch. There's probably just about enough to go to 175, which might be relevant to you if you want the greater tyre choice.

So .. not directly relevant but it might give you a starting point.

You do need to get clearance between the wheel and the lower wishbone bolts by chamfering the bolt head (and in my case I needed to replace the hubs as the originals were too eccentric).

Paddy

http://gglotus.org/ggtech/elan-panasport/elanwhls.htm

You might find the indication in the drawings at the bottom if that page.

Thanks both.

I should state that this for a race car which will be running 175/60 Yokohama a048s, but standard s4 arches.

I'm currently using 5" minilites with backspace of 100mm. The wishbones and bolt have both been 'relieved' for clearance.

I'm running 175/60 on 6 inch Minilite (measured across widest part of the rim ?) with I believe standard bodywork for an Elan Coupe. The previous owner also 'relieved' the wishbone and bolt to aid clearance.

I purchased a set of 5.0 and 5.5" minilite type wheels from JBW which fitted an S1 Elan, ended up using the 5 as the bag of tyre was to wide for the narrow S1 arch, the 5.5 would be fine on the S4/Sprint flared guard

V