wheels for Europa

[aspares]

My Europa should be here tomorrow if all goes well, I'll be posting pictures.
It has the steel wheels now but would like to get the Cosmic wheels possibly. Did any of the Lotus wheels come in larger that 13 inch? If not what are the suggestions for 13 inch tires or what would be a good upgrade?
Thanks,
Martin

[Certified Lotus]

Ted Taylor has a very nice set of 4 TC wheels for sale on his web site.

http://www.taylormadeclassiccars.com/partsselecttype/lotuschassistypeparts.html

[Grumblebuns]

Lotus Europa stock wheels were all 13". The issue with the 13" wheels is finding decent non track oriented tires for them, they are getting fewer and fewer. 14" wheels may also be getting to the same point.

The set of TC wheels that Ted Taylor is selling are beautiful, wish I had the cash. If you're set on getting the Cosmics, you'll find them occasionally used on ebay. VTO also has a good selection of 13" wheels.

https://www.vtowheels.com/Europa-66-75_c_129.html

[Nero]

Be careful with cosmic wheels. Even by the standard of the day they weren’t that good in quality. I have a fine set sitting here which were ok with older heavier tyres but with modern lighter tyres the are now large paperweights. I did some research on this and found out that I’m not the only one.
If you want to have cosmic wheel don’t buy them unseen. Ask if you can take them to a tyre shop so they can put them in there balancing machine before buying them.
I my case I have now two wheels that would need over 100 Gramms to be in balance with modern tyres which is simply unusable. The wheels do look fine so even good looking wheels could end up unusable.
In my opinion the cosmics are the best looking wheels for the europa. There is a company in the uk which are producing cosmics in 15”.

[jbcollier]

Original Cosmic wheels are also quite heavy.  Heavier than the stock steel wheels.  Still, I think they look great and have a set on mine.  The ubiquitous, radial spoked, mini-lite clones also look good but they are absolutely everywhere.  I'm sure they make them for prams now.

Revolution makes a nice 4-spoke wheel that looks very similar to the 47 wheels.  They are excellent quality, light and inexpensive to boot.

Nero, who makes a Cosmic clone in 15"?

[jbcollier]

Found a couple of sites but they seem to be only available in various five stud patterns.

[Nero]

I just saw that the 15” are not exactly the same
http://www.johnbrownwheels.com/
You need to ask for the bolt pattern anyway. Going to 15” was never intended so did not ask them.

There are also nice Type 47 replica wheels. Made in 13” and 15”
https://www.imagewheels.co.uk/lm4-alloy-wheel/

Revolution wheels from UK is also a good address. I had a set made there, because they were able to make them fit over my Girling AR calipers and in the end it was included machining cheaper than on there website

[JR73]

The Image wheels are from a design commissioned by Banks, Richards version has the stud positioned through the spoke (pretty sure Image has repositioned the stud position so that they can say they are different and sell them direct). - as far as I am aware Banks still sells their own version.

3 piece split rim, multiple widths and offsets.

Just so you know that there are two slightly different versions of the same wheel!

Poor quality pic but the Banks version for ref;

[jbcollier]

I finally broke down and went to buy the 47 clone wheels from Image.  They look absolutely gorgeous.  Thank goodness for competent, patient sales staff.  They took the time to figure out exactly what would fit and sent me photos of what they would look like.  Basically you have to seriously flare the fenders to get the same look.  There just isn't room under the stock fenders.

[JR73]

Not sure about that jb, I have 15"x 7.5 on the front of mine with a minimal trim of the return lip on the wheel arch (being overly careful whilst building) - no clearance issues etc. (Original S2 body)

Have seen the 13" version fitted to a standard TC (made to match the original dimensions) and they still looked really good with absolutely no clearance issues or mods required.

[jbcollier]

I was going for the knock-off type and the resulting wheel would have been mostly offset with the spinner outside the edge of the rim.

[JR73]

That would make sense, fair enough!

[Clifton]

Not sure about that jb, I have 15"x 7.5 on the front of mine with a minimal trim of the return lip on the wheel arch (being overly careful whilst building) - no clearance issues etc. (Original S2 body)

I hate getting off topic but I'm curious on your fitment. I'm running a 15x8 on the front with a 205/50 and needed to clearance the footwell quite a bit and I have a little rub on the inner body at full lock. Are you running a 195?

[JR73]

I hate getting off topic but I'm curious on your fitment. I'm running a 15x8 on the front with a 205/50 and needed to clearance the footwell quite a bit and I have a little rub on the inner body at full lock. Are you running a 195?

Yes, 195/45/15.
There's a bit on it in my members car thread (Banks S2 Race Car)