The steel wheels were standard on the early cars and I think also on the TC's. From what I know mine came with steels but the guy replaced them with Cosmics which were cheaper than specifying the Lotus alloys from the dealer. The tyres are wrong though, they'd either have been 155x13 or 165x13 at most, 175 I would have thought is pushing it for those rims.
The chrome hub cap is standard but they look to have a chrome trim ring as well, which wasn't OEM but was fitted to some Elans around that time. (from a Ford Escort IIRC
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Something odd about the suspension as you say, the rebuild might be the reason for looking high at the front if everything has been tightened up before settling the suspension. The rear seems almost as if there's positive camber on the wheels, maybe someone has jacked it up on the lower links & bent one ?
It looks a decent car to buy, I'd certainly give it some serious consideration but I've no idea if the price is right. This side of the pond it'd be priced low, heck we've seen crazy prices just for the original toolkits let alone cars !
