Tyres

[mbell]

The shipping was free for me.

You can order online and get price with shipping.

[holywood3645]

Good to know thanks!
Plus you don’t get hit with VAT in the US
Thanks
James

[mwhitaker]

Dougal and Longstone are great-they were the only ones that had tubes for my Michelin XAS tires purchased about 4 yrs ago. If I had not got the Michelins from Coker here in the US first, I would have gotten them from Longstone. Good to know for the future.

[holywood3645]

So if you have had XAS and the Pirelli on your elan….
How do they compare?
Interested in your response as they are my 2 contenders.

Thanks
James

[dougal cawley]

Hi

Yes i would love to know. I would love to have an independent opinion and a back to back test.

"So if you have had XAS and the Pirelli on your elan….
How do they compare?"

I have driven on both Cinturato and XAS, but not on the same car so it is difficult to compare.

[daverubberduck]

Up until 4 years ago I had Uniroyal RainExpert 3 175/70 tyres. I have original 13" wheels with knock ons. They worked fine but I didn't like the look of them, in particular I didn't like how small they looked from the side with the big gap between the tyre and wheel arch. So I changed them for Falken Sincera SN832 Ecorun 165/80. The tyres look great but I've had a problem ever since I put them on. If I hit a bump or hole in the road, and I'm not talking about anything big, and I get a nasty jolt like the rim is hitting the road. I tried adding a couple of pounds to the pressure but no difference. I have been experiencing this for the last 4 years, on my old tyres I never noticed it. I see many good reports on the sinceras on this forum, but I'm convinced it is the tyres and I'm thinking of changing them. Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm going to start looking for an alternative. The Pirelli Cinturato 165/80R13 does look interesting. I may go for that.

[h20hamelan]

I suspect most tyres are now designed for econobox cars

[dougal cawley]

Up until 4 years ago I had Uniroyal RainExpert 3 175/70 tyres. I have original 13" wheels with knock ons. They worked fine but I didn't like the look of them, in particular I didn't like how small they looked from the side with the big gap between the tyre and wheel arch. So I changed them for Falken Sincera SN832 Ecorun 165/80. The tyres look great but I've had a problem ever since I put them on. If I hit a bump or hole in the road, and I'm not talking about anything big, and I get a nasty jolt like the rim is hitting the road. I tried adding a couple of pounds to the pressure but no difference. I have been experiencing this for the last 4 years, on my old tyres I never noticed it. I see many good reports on the sinceras on this forum, but I'm convinced it is the tyres and I'm thinking of changing them. Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm going to start looking for an alternative. The Pirelli Cinturato 165/80R13 does look interesting. I may go for that.

My apologies. I am afraid you aren't really going to like what i have to say, but i am just going to give you the full truth and nothing but the truth, which occasionally can come accross as a bit brutal.

The Falken is never going to look right or handle well on your car. that is a budget modern tyre on a sensative classic sports car known for its handling. It is like buying a set of speakers from Aldi and putting it on your Bang & Oulfsen stereo or fitting Marylin Monroe in a shell suit from Primart.

A 175/70R13 Uniroyal or 165R13 Falken are all just too fat footprint for any Elan. the 165R13 Falken will even be horrible on a +2 Elan that is supposed to fit 165, because its carcass structure is designed to compliment a different kind of chassis. a modern 165R13 like that will have a very different shape to a period 165R13 like the Cinturato, because the foot print will be wider with a sharper shoulder to it, so in a straight line you have more footprint, but under strong cornering forces, as the car leans, you will suddenly have dramatically less foot print as the tyre picks up onto its corner and lifts a large portion of its tread off the road instead of rolling round the shoulder like it would on a period tyre. That is why both of those tyres will have handled horribly. progressive and predictable is what you want.

a Lotus Elan fitted 145R13. (actually a 520-13 crossply which had even thinner foot print)

It wasnt untill 1969 that they moved onto 155r13, and i bet at the time Lotus would have done some subtle modifications to the car to take advantage of this wider tyre.

Here is an interesting point - why did Colin Chapman not fit a 175/70R13 tyre at the time~? he could have done, it was the perceived cool thing to do at the time, they came out in 1968. a 175/70R13 is the low profile alternative to a 155R13, he could have done 165/70R13 the low profile alternative to the 145R13. However no he didn't. Colin Chapman the king of handling stuck with 155R13 because it handled better. Yes modern cars fit fatter tyres where the desire is road holding, at the expense of handling, but that is not what the Lotus Elan is about. (though it does offer bucket loads of grip as well as handling that is beautifully predictably and progressive).

then it was only the Elan +2 that a 165R13 was fitted to. quite different to the standard Elan.

Fitting modern tyres like that is compromising the handling - the joy of an Elan - to save a few quid. (sorry that is the brutal bit). It is a mistake. bigger tyres are not better. get your credit card out and buy the good stuff.

apologies.

[daverubberduck]

Hi Dougal
Thank you for your response. There are a couple of things I need to clarify. First of all I omitted a vital piece of information from my post i.e. that my car is a +2. Secondly I did not fit the Uniroyals, they were fitted by a previous owner. And third, I have always detested wide tyres on an Elan or +2, so you're preaching to the choir there. When I said the tyres were too small, I meant the diameter as viewed from the side, not the width of the tread.

That was the reason I changed my tyres 4 years ago, but I really struggled to find what I wanted back then. I would have liked Michelin XAS because that is what I had on my first Lotus back in the early 80s. That was an Elan Sprint. But when I looked at the price they were not expensive, they were extortionate. Can't remember the price exactly but it was something like £500 each. Maybe now the situation has changed.

Anyway, despite the many people on here who praise the Falken, it's nice to get confirmation that they are cheap rubbish. I never found a problem with cornering, even when pushing hard, but the ride is awful. I will certainly be buying new tyres tomorrow. Thank you for the original post, Longstone classic Tyres looks like a great company. I've never seen a tyre retailer recommend tyres for Elans & +2s before. I will do some research in the morning, but I suspect I shall be buying a set of Cinturatos.
cheers
Dave

[quaybook]

Just a word or two of support for Dougal's comments regarding Elan handling and tyres. I've run my S2 on 155/80R13 Uniroyal RainExpert tyres for years, chosen because they were often fitted by Paul Matty. I was very happy with the car's handling on them but I had, of course, read that the Michelin XAS was the best tyre for the car, but their cost seemed just too much. A few months ago Pirelli announced that they would be introducing 155/80R13 Cinturato CA 67s, just as I needed to replace my tyres. I waited for them to become available for as l long as I could but they did not become available in time, so I bit the bullet and bought the Michelin XAS from Longstone, despite their cost.
I've only done a couple of hundred miles on them so far but I have top say the transformation is remarkable, just as Dougal says. The steering response is now absolutely immediate, turn in razor sharp and the controllability of the rear end on the throttle just lovely. The car feels so much more responsive and light on its feet. I wish I'd done this years ago. There are a couple of negatives however. The steering response is now so immediate you have to focus all the time, no relaxing - although I expect this would be less evident if I was driving the Elan all the time, rather than regularly swopping between it and other very different cars. I'll wait 'til I've done a long run to see whether I adjust but if not I might increase toe-in just a touch, to increase directional stability a bit. The second one is the tyre rolling resistance: I normally push the Elan in and out of the garage and the additional resistance is very marked - there goes some performance and quite a bit of fuel, but maybe this will ease a bit as the tyres age (Dougal?). Nevertheless, I'm a total convert to the Michelins. Tyres have a massive influence on handling and grip so, particularly with and Elan which is all about handling, frankly the extra cost is worth every penny. Let's hope the Cinturato CA67s are just as good but cheaper!

[daverubberduck]

I just splashed out on a set of the Pirelli CN36. Hopefully they will make a big difference.

[dougal cawley]

I just splashed out on a set of the Pirelli CN36. Hopefully they will make a big difference.

I'm sure they will.

please report back with pictures when you have them fitted.

[daverubberduck]

Yes I will. Thanks for your help Dougal.

[daverubberduck]

Tyres were received the next day, superb service. They look great. Have not yet had a chance to go for a decent drive.

[dougal cawley]

oo they do look cool.