Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

h20hamelan wrote:I ordered the Nankang NS-II NS Ultra-Sport UHP Tires -175/60R13SL $70 cdn delivered

Amazon Canada gets most of their stuff from the USA wearhouses, as Our Master Lord Bazos hasn’t finished buying Canada Post yet.

Sounds good. I much prefer the stock 165/80R13. I believe the 175/60R13’s I had were Kuhmo, but not 100% sure.

I recently purchased some 14” rims locally though, so if the tire situation gets really grim I may have to see what is available in 195/60R14. Jasper, thanks for posting the correct size for me to look for.

Other tyres we have fitted to customers cars using 185/70 x 13" are using 14" wheels 185/65 x 14 these are 23.5" dia. and a 185/60 x 14 which are 22.7" dia. Better to steer than a 195 if your arms are like mine, old and knackered. These two do alter the speedo reading a couple of mph in each direction. The 185/65 is also a bit close to the leading edge of the front wing on lock. I still prefer the wider tyre on my +2 though, mainly for the extra grip they produce.

Funny too; I have a friend who has a lot of racing-background especially with IMSA in the '70s but he has very little Lotus-specific knowledge, and he keeps insisting that my Plus 2 needs 9" wide wheels with whatever elephant-balls low-profile size will fit under some flared arches. I'm certain that that would be a disaster.

It certainly would be a disaster. We only use the 195 for sprinting. The 185/70 x 13 is ideal for everyday use and a hillclimb. We run as stock road car class so can't fit truck size tyres anyway.

jasper2347 wrote:It certainly would be a disaster. We only use the 195 for sprinting. The 185/70 x 13 is ideal for everyday use and a hillclimb. We run as stock road car class so can't fit truck size tyres anyway.

Jasper, any comments on 175/70R14? The tire calculator I was using shows only 0.9% variance from stock diameter at 23.6” vs stock 165/80R13 at 23.4”. Thinking the narrower tire may relieve the clearance issues. There appears to be a pretty good selection of T rated all seasons, although I didn’t find any pure performance rubber in this size. Are you using stock diameter springs?

Thanks

Hi Stu, don't see a problem with your choice of tyres. Not a very hi spec. or speed rating, but for what we need on these old cars, they will do the job very well, given the weight of the Lotus. We used a 'T' rated 'chunky' tyre, primarily designed for trailer use on our old Triumph TR rally car, because they were good and cheap. We are lucky over here in that the choice of tyres seems greater for older vehicles. We use a standard rate spring and shock to run the car in the road going classes on our sprints and climbs.

jasper2347 wrote:?...We use a standard rate spring and shock to run the car in the road going classes on our sprints and climbs.

Thanks Jasper. Very helpful. Of course the available selection could well be better (or worse) when I get down to getting 14” tires. If the 13” work out I will be good for a while.

Regarding springs I was actually wondering about rear clearance issues. The Elan guys frequently change to 2 1/4” ID spring coils in conjunction with adding adjustable spring perches. The change apparently provides enough additional clearance to run wider 5” Panasports or 5 1/2” Plus 2 wheels. Was wondering if you HAD to take this approach when fitting larger wheel/tire combos to the Plus 2. At this point I am not really up to changing the rear suspension, but to each is own.

I have not really examined the offset on my 14” rims so it may be a non-issue anyway. Must say there is considerably more clearance to the rear outside wishbone bolts with the 14”.

Thanks again for the help.

The car in the pic has new standard springs with no modifications. As you can see the clearance on the front is quite good. It's sat on 185/70 x 13's on 5.5 +2 alloys. Just about to order some 5.5 x 14 Minilite wheels for the same car, strangely for more tyre choice! Minilite say the offset is the same as the standard wheels. As the car is on peg drive, wheels are limited. Going to try 185/60 x 14 tyres. Should clear fine. Did look at changing the suspension on our car, but looks like a nightmare on the rear, so we passed.

Your car is wonderful Jasper. Thank you for the help.

That is a very fine looking car. One day...... maybe.... I'll get mine looking as good.

Mike

Thanks guys. Car came as a shell, chassis and a van load of boxes with no instructions. Took us six months to get where it is now. Great drive though!

The Veg wrote:My car came with a set of Prestige Radialmax which were made in Brasil. They're at least five years old as that's how long I've had the car but have few-enough miles on them that they're still covered with moulding-nubs and seem like new and quite pliable, no evidence of hardening or cracking (they've only lived outdoors for one year that I know of). They certainly seem to work well enough in the few miles I've driven. I have a set of Revolution alloys waiting to go on the car at some point; haven't decided yet what to put on them.

A week or two ago I was digging through the file of receipts that came with the car, looking for something else and I happened upon the receipt for these tires. It was dated 2004!

And yet they still seem to be in good usable shape. But I'll be sure to not get too crazy on them, and move putting new ones on the Revolutions up the list of priorities!

Wouldn't be too worried about them at all. We have a set of Goodyears on our road wheels which were bought in 2000. They were not fitted till 2019 and have done over 3000 road miles with no issues at all. We do keep our eye on them of course. Before they were fitted we stored them indoors out of the sun and rain. When they aren't in use the car is in a garage. The first place they normally go, depending on the tread pattern, is the outside corner and between the tread bars. We did run them on the rolling road last year up to around 120mph, but the roads are so busy it is usually an achievement to do 60mph. Looking forward to getting out of this lockdown and using the car this year.

If they have been well stored I'd think it's unlikely to have a major failure, especially with a the loads a +2 will generate. Unless you're planning day long high speed trips.

However the grip level they generate will likely be much reduced, especially in the wet. Possibly to a dangerous level.

It does make you wonder what the real relevance is of the dated tyres? Wonder how long they sit in Japan or Korea after manufacture before being shipped around the world and how long they take to reach the shore it's going to? I then wonder how long the tyre stockists keep them on the shelf before binning them? I can see the point in checking tyres once fitted to a car regularly for damage etc. and the yearly MOT test, or inspection in other parts of the world, should reveal any faults to the non car enthusiast drivers at least annually. Perhaps I'm too old to grasp the concept. I would suggest it's more down to making money than safety? I consider it more damaging and dangerous to have over or under inflated tyres. Did get some new 165 x 13's for a customers car a while ago from a well known distributor in England. These were dated 2010. Strange going on. As they are hard to find the customer had us fit them anyway and they are apparently fine. Classic cars never go far very fast anyway, at least not in GB. Roads are too busy. Must be the lockdown that's making me grumpy?