Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: TurboFource on Monday,December 20, 2021, 05:40:22 AM
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I am not to the point of getting tires, but I have been looking on line. It seems not much is available in 13" size.
As cars have bigger wheels from the factory (my Mazda5 has 17s and Malibu LTZ Turbo has 19s) tires in 13, 14, 15 sizes are becoming few in number. Has anyone put 16s (or 17s) on their car? How do they look (don't want them to look to big for the car!)? I would like to put a Minilite style wheel on TCST but would like to use a size that will continue to have tires available for them.
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I have 15" wheels on mine and to get the same rolling radius as the 185/70x13 I'm using 205/50 x 15 tyres. At the front it's 195/50 and a tight fit on full lock although general driving it's no problem.
The rear has good clearance, it's the front where you run into trouble with very wide tyres and the lock isn't that great to start with on the Europa. This photo shows what it's like with 15" rims, I think you'd struggle with 16" & the same profile/width tyres.
Brian
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Don't know the diameter of the wheels on the Foose Europa project, but you see if they look OK.
https://www.chipfoose.com/lotus-europa/
Personally I think the original 13" look appropriate. 13" tires are getting harder to find, but persevere. I found 215/50/13 and 235/50/13 tires to fit my 7" wide wheels just last year so options are out there.
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I think they are 18" on Foose Europa, which IO think would be to big on a standard Europa without all the other mods.
Swift what wheels are you running? Any pics?
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I have 15" wheels too thinking that 15" tires would be easier to find. While I have not had problems finding tires when I needed them, I have to admit that there are fewer choices than I would have expected and it has required me to choose a different brand or style (apparently, the production is such that manufacturers do not ensure a steady supply of tires of a particular specification for these sizes). I've seen a few Europas with 15" wheels and they don't look out of place at all (to my eyes).
I don't know if 16" wheels would make a difference in tire availability - I suspect it would - but without seeing a Europa with 16" wheels (and I know of none), I suspect they might be a bit too large to look appropriate for an old car. Of course, that's not only a personal view and it's based on absolutely no experience what so ever! :o
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I also have 15” wheels on mine, 7.5” wide on the front and 8”wide on the rear - no body mods required (S2) and the fronts just about graze the inner wheel wells at full lock.
As mentioned, preserving the rolling radius helps and 13” and 15” tyres generally have quite a few options on this with the various manufacturers.
The stickier track day type tyres are supported in those sizes still as 13 and 15 are the preferred wheel sizes for Caterham (similar weights so the compounds are suitable) but most are wider than original. - worth considering before purchasing new wheels? These aren’t cheap though.
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I have flared fenders so obviously 7 x 13" wheels are too large for a stock Europa. The wheels are American Racing from the 1970's.
Vitour also makes a 195/55/13" tire. Don't know if that would fit a stock Europa.
With my age I figure my tires will last 10 years and maybe I'm too old to drive a Europa at that point.
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Pretty car, Swift!
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Nice!!
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There's lots of good 15" tires. Grassroots Motorsports magazine just had another comparison. They are 200 treadwear but last forever in these cars. 205's are usually the narrowest though. As other have said, clearance on the front when turned may be an issue. I had clearance my foot well by 1/2". If you don't need the clearance for brakes, 13's are easier and there's a few decent performance tires, R888R, AR-1.
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I suppose it's all a matter of personal taste, and we'll each have our own preferences, but I don't wish to make my car look like something from recent years. Our cars are from the era of this photo, and I love the look of big fat sidewalls on moderate sized wheels. That's just the way they were.
So I'd likely opt for 13 or 14 inch wheels.
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Fotog,
I prefer that look too, just doesn’t seem to much selection for 13” wheels.
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That's true, and with what you're doing you're probably looking for pretty high performance tires. But of course, you only need one set! 😊
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For those of you running 15” wheels, what width and offset are you using?
I kind of like the Rota RBs in a 15 x 7, anyone have Rota wheels?
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I think it was Tom "tpatena" on the Groups.io site who used 15" Rota RB wheels and they looked pretty nice in my opinion.
There are some 15" versions of Minilites that seem to stretch the spokes out too far for my taste.
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I would tell you how I came to my offsets and widths but frankly, I wouldn't recommend my method.
Here are some thoughts about it after my mistakes:
I seem to remember that when I mentioned to Richard Winter (at Banks) that he gave me the impression that I didn't need tires that big (195/50-15 & 205/50-15). I think that's true however, I think the wider tires look better (especially on the rear).
Wider wheels (within the limits of the tire size) are better but narrower wheels (again, within the limits of the tire size) probably don't hurt much. The implications of this are that according to the chart below, I COULD have gotten away with my 205s on a 5 1/2" wide wheel (stock width for Brand Lotus wheel).
In case EuropaTC doesn't chime in, I'm pretty sure he has MG-TF wheels which from what I can tell are either 6Jx15 ET28 or 7Jx15 ET28 which means 6" or 7" wide with an offset of 28mm. My understanding is that he has no clearance issues but I don't want to speak for him.
Here are some sites that might help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIqR8EQLISc (you're going to need an actual car for this)
http://www.etmags.com/pdf_download_documents/tire_chart_2010.pdf
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BDA,
It's gotta look the part!
It will probably have nice wheels and tires with real patina when TCST is back on the road 8)
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I'm confident that you will make her look the part! What kind of wheels are you considering?
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In case EuropaTC doesn't chime in, I'm pretty sure he has MG-TF wheels which from what I can tell are either 6Jx15 ET28 or 7Jx15 ET28 which means 6" or 7" wide with an offset of 28mm. My understanding is that he has no clearance issues but I don't want to speak for him.
Yes, mine are 15x6" MGF wheels, conveniently at the right PCD. Tech details here;
http://mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/suspension/wheel_options_for_the_mgf.htm (http://mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/suspension/wheel_options_for_the_mgf.htm)
Clearance at the rear is no problem with 205/50, at the front (195/50) it is very tight on full lock against the front of the footwell (rear of wheel arch). Radiator clearance is fine, normal driving is fine.
I'm sure you don't need such wide tyres but as BDA says, it looks nice and I don't honestly feel I've wrecked the way the car drives. The Elise, about the same weight, uses even wider tyres.
Brian
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BDA,
Rota RBs
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That should look great! I don't expect that you'll have any trouble getting the size, bolt pattern, etc. that you want but if you do, Panasport (http://www.panasport.com/street.html) and Minilite (https://www.minilitewheels.us/styles) make similar wheels.
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BDA,
I saw the Rota's on a beautiful TR6 a couple of months ago, it belonged to one of the owners of a restoration shop about an hour up the road. He recommended the Rota's, he said they run true and are very well balanced. He prefers them over the VTO's they have on another car. Plus the Rota's are about half the price of Panasports.....
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They sound like a great choice! I don’t have any experience with any of those and didn’t know the prices. I just mentioned them in case they might be a good option.