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Going large at the rear!
pathfinder - 12/2/06 at 12:26 AM

Looking through some old mags today and didn’t realise that the lotus elise came with bigger wheels on the rear (16’s front 17’s back). I realise that the different tyre aspect ratios made the rolling radius almost the same, but what is the point of this? I know that lotus are the masters of making cars handle so is this wheel sizing trick something that can be applied to Locosts?

Discuss

ed_crouch - 12/2/06 at 12:42 AM

It could be something to do with stiffening up the rear sidewalls by lowering the profile (without affecting rolling radius or requiring much alrger tyres).

Other than that, probably blingery.

Ed.

C10CoryM - 12/2/06 at 03:25 AM

From my experience (or lack of?), I have found it to be best to run the smallest diameter rim possible while still clearing the brakes/hubs. Generally saves unsprung weight unless you have racing wheels. I would ASSume that lotus had a rear hub that did not fit inside the smaller rim far enough to work well. Cheaper/easier to stuff a larger rim on than redesign your hubs. Other than that maybe just for looks.

zilspeed - 12/2/06 at 07:58 AM

IIRC it was more to do with balancing grip levels (front to rear).
With very little weight over the front end, it was important that it wasn't going to have too much grip - especially with the car being mid engined and of course RWD.
I believe it's one of the reasons why an elise is so easy to drive - right up to the limit - because the smaller front tyre gives the car an inbuilt tendency to mild understeer right at the limit. ( Just where it would otherwise like to be going into an uncatchable mid engined spin).

flak monkey - 12/2/06 at 10:24 AM

quote:
Originally posted by zilspeed
IIRC it was more to do with balancing grip levels (front to rear).
With very little weight over the front end, it was important that it wasn't going to have too much grip - especially with the car being mid engined and of course RWD.
I believe it's one of the reasons why an elise is so easy to drive - right up to the limit - because the smaller front tyre gives the car an inbuilt tendency to mild understeer right at the limit. ( Just where it would otherwise like to be going into an uncatchable mid engined spin).


Thats what the man from lotus will tell you as well.

From the factory the Elise is set up to mildly understeer so people dont jump in them and throw them off the road. Of course they will still oversteer if you provoke them enough. The front tyres are also considerably narrower on the front of the elise again to decrease the tendancy to oversteer too much. However if you ask them nicely when you buy a new car they will set it up for you so that you get totally neutral handling.

David

Hammerhead - 12/2/06 at 11:29 AM

I'm using wheels from an elise (340r actually) so I will let you know the handling outcome once they are on!!