14" rims - tyre options

[aussieelan]

One of the first things I will need to sort when I get my new +2 home is round bits of rubber.

The car come with 14" Simmons 3 piece wheels. I am assuming the are 6" wide, though I may be wrong. Currently they are fitted with 205/60 tyres, but these rub on the rear of the inner guard when the wheel is turned.

As I am in Australia, I assume some of the options in UK/USA will not be available here. Initially I though I would fit 205/50's to reduce the outside diameter and therefore the tyre rubbing .... however it looks like no one makes this size. Closest I can get is 205/55 ... not sure if this is enough.

What is everyone else using on their 14's?

[peterako]

G'day Aussieelan,

I'm on standard 13" wheels aith standard 165/80 13s....and tah car hadles fabulously....but that's not your question.

205/50 or even 60 sounds outragous.

The chassis is so well sorted on a +2 that wide tyres really can ruin the car.

A mate of mine, who has his car prepared for touring/classic rallies has his 14" rims shod with 185/60 (I think it's 60 profile) tyres.

I would hazard a guess that this is the extreme of size/profile for retaining a driveable and comfortable +2.

I'm in the process of changing my tyres and have been tempted to put 185/70 13 tyres on...after alll, the 165/80s look so whimpy.....even my Mum's Nissan Micra has wider .....but I am going to resist.

Having driven A LOT of different cars and even rallied a few, I a still amazed at the useful grip that the +2 gets out of those skinny bits of rubber....and all this with 40mpg!!

Can't even imagine how hard it is to steer with 205s on the front...

Best of luck,
Peter

[zeteclotus]

Must say I have tried 195's on 14" wheels 185 175 and 165 on 13" wheel.

For fast road use 165 or 175 seem the best on the +2

I would recommend buying some standard wheels and trying them out. They are a pig to fit tyres to though.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

The Zetec converted +2's using 6J x 14" wheels usually use !85-60 Tyres.
Spyder recomend Yokohamas.
I've seen one Elan (not +2) where this configuration seemed to fit.
Note that Spyder use their own rear suspension set up with 2 1/4" springs.
These wheels will fit with the Chapman strut suspension but again 2 1/4" springs will be needed to gve sufficient clearance for the inner rim.
The 14" diameter has the advantage of providing sufficient clearance for the outer lower wishbone bolts to the inner rim.
It's off topic but the 185-60's fouled the wheel arches on my Elan so I fitted 175-60's plus a bit of wheel arch fettling. No trouble up front.
Aesthetically the 185's look good imo.
John

[ppnelan]

I too am 'against' wide tyres. I tried some very old & hard Firestone 185/60R13s on the front of my +2 - they came with a secondhand set of wheels. The car was virtually undrivable as it darted all over the place on the lumps & bumps & camber of the road. It was so bad that I stopped 1/2 mile up the road to check the wheels hadn't come loose!
I accept that this was probably more to do with the age of the rubber (the tyre fitter said they had gone very hard & were even more difficult to get off than usual) and possibly a tracking issue, but it is SOOOO much better with (new) 165/70 tyres!
But, hey, who am I to argue against 'fashion'...

Matthew

[msd1107]

One thing to think about when fitting new tires is the speedometer/odometer calibration.

If you are starting with 165-13 tires, the progression for relatively similar tire rev/mile figures is 165-13, 185/70-13, 185/60-14 and 185/55-15.

If you are starting with 155-13 tires, the progression is 155-13, 175/70-13, 185/60-14, and 185/55-15.

There are three commonly available transmission speedometer driven gears with 23, 24, and 25 teeth. If you change differential ratios or use different size tires, the driven gear may need changing to bring the odometer/speedometer calibration as close as possible.

A previous post
http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16106
has a downloadable spreadsheet that takes into account all the variables in the tire to speedometer chain - tire size, differential ratio, transmission drive gear, transmission/speedometer cable driven gear, and speedometer input trurns/mile figure.

David
1968 36/7988

[Gopherit]

I am currently running:
Front - Yoko A539 185 55 R14
Rear - Goodyear NCT60 205 60 R14

Strange combination arrived at by the PO. Wheels are Revolution 5 Spoke, 14" dia 6" wide. Do not suffer excessive bumpsteer and they grip enough (mild track experience) to make me uprate the suspension, which I am now doing.
Main problem has been fouling of the fronts on the top of the wheel arches, but this is due to too little ride height at the front, soft springs and a little too much outset of the front wheels.

A539s look a little too modern, but the NCT60s have a distinct look of the old Dunlop racers and perform better.