18" alloys?

[james24]

ive been lookin at buying an s2 elise but was wondering if it was possible to put 18's on all round? i know standard there 17" on the back and 16" on the front so would i have to go 17" on the front then 18" on the back?! any help appreciated

[cuzza]

Don't know if they'll fit especially on the front but it will make the ride even firmer which could get a little uncomfortable after a while.

[Stevef]

You will also destroy the handling. Doubt 18" will fit front anyway.

[xedos]

Forgive me for sounding.. odd, but why would you want to. The Esthi look a little OTT with bigger wheels. I think the 17s and 16s combination on the car are just right. Why mess with it?

[james24]

they sell 18's for the s1 on eliseparts.com so it gave me ideas! they look really nice on that one!

[bogie]

you would have to get hub adaptors AFAIK there are only 2 sets of wheels that fit as std on the S2 - the std rims and the OZ motorsport jobbies...besides as said above it would probably mess the handling up anyway...Lotus put those size wheels/tyres on for a reason

[Arno]

james24 said:

they sell 18's for the s1 on eliseparts.com so it gave me ideas! they look really nice on that one!

You could of course put this size on the Elise (at the back.. front will need to be 17"), but that's just the start of things... For the S2 it's a little easier to find aftermarket wheels, although spacers may still be required to get up to the correct offset with 'off the shelf' wheels.

To get any benefit you would also need to have your suspension uprated and adjusted for the change in wheel/tyre weight and flexibility.

Also don't forget that many bigger wheels+tyres are actually heavier than the normal ones, so the car will accelerate slower even if you keep the total diameters the same as the un-sprung weight will increase (thus needing the suspension changes I mentioned above)

Advantages of these wheels (apart from any cosmetic effect) are limited on a light car such as the Elise which doesn't have much issues with sidewall flex contact patch distortion during cornering.

Heavy/regular cars do suffer more from this and going to lower profile tyres (with bigger wheels) helps in that case.

Bye, Arno.

[james24]

thanks everyone!