I would say if your going down the 15/16 route you are choosing performance over looks so you may aswell go for as light as possible that dont cost the earth so go for rotas or victories, it will be about 15kg of unsprung mass lighter than your current 16/17s
Yes the weight save is very interesting as well.
Think that when my tyres are shot I will go back to 15/16.
I meant to say have rotas over victorys as they are the same size but much lighter, nearly 9kg lighter!
Its a shame there arnt anyone else running 15/16 as it would be good to see, there is pilk but im not a fan of this look
Victories for looks on the street with ad08/r1r etc , rotas for trackdays with r888/a048, etc.
Victories because from my point of view they look bigger then the rota’s.
But tyres will go hard, 1x Spa, 2x Zolder, 1x Zandvoort, some extra days driving with disabled or sick childeren on gokart tracks or tracks.
So 15/16 will be winter time or maybe sooner.
If you want to see if you like the look of an Exige on 15"/16" wheels then check out the pics of Pilk’s car in the for sale section…
Found some better ones of a blue converted exige/motorsport car with a honda and Rota’s.
That looks ace, im suprised about the rear wheels, look like they stick out a fair bit when assuming theres no spacers, they are 16mm further in than stock exige rims, , but saying that H&R do a 15mm spacer for the S1 so he might be running them, stick a set of 245s on the back and hes ready to rock with a nice weight and money saving over exige rims.
Anymore info on the car, where did you find the pics? went to the website on the picture but no luck
I only found this :
Googled the driver/mechanics name and found the pictures.
Found one picture standing next to a S2 and it really looks like a 16" wheel in the back.
Sure there is a spacer but the weight will still be a massive saving and doesnt look to bad.
Seems it is a converted Elise as well.
What about brakes ?
For myself I have 2 options :
- Keep the 2l Duratec engine a throw away item. Warm it up, cool it down, maintenance it, but if it fails buy a used engine again. This means smaller wheels will give benefits with the engine character and I do not need any bigger brake setup.
- Tune and forge my old 2l Duratec engine between 240/260hp or buy a new 2.3 with cams and stronger bearings and in the future adjust the brakes. Means I stay on 16/17.
A standard 2l Duratec (with old head, not flowing that well) drops dead a little after 6250rpm, with smaller wheels the acceleration and topspeed will improve.
Already have a CR box, Quantum adjustable shocks, ITB, light flywheel, 4-2-1 custom exhaust , etc. so the upgraditis is coming again lol
To keep the car fun and lower running costs smaller wheels are the “best” option at this moment. ( and driver training )
More horsepower means higher running costs and the costs vs smiles per mile are not increasing equally, especially as speed is something we get used to very easy.
I will show pictures when they are under the car, but next week the Rota’s will be ordered with Avon ZZR or AD08R tyres, I think AD08 as I still use the car on the street.
Curious how it will effect handling and speed. November 16th I am at Spa with LOT so we will see what happens.
I was going to go down this route aswell, but in the end I bought some 17x9 rota gtr for the rear so i can run 225 front and 255 rear, as I believe more rubber on the road will equate to faster laptimes.
Ive fitted the rota rears(16x8) onto the front.
I might in the future stick them on the back and put my 15x6.5s on the front to see which is a faster setup.
What are you going to do for tyre sizes, 205/225 or 205/245?
Going to do 195/225
With the current setup my car is in perfect balance. I get understeer if I am to harsh, if driving it properly on the limits I get over steer if I keep steering. Lovely.
Currently I have 16x7 with 195/45 on front, tried to fit a 195/50 or 205/45 but it would not fit.
Probably because I am running an ET of -2 , the front wheel touches the wheelarch liner on full lock. ( towards the door )
hmmm interesting, im running 16x8 et12 front with 225/45/16 and I clear everything(only just)
7" verses 8" is 25.4mm, so et being equal mine would stick out 12.7mm more outside and inside, but your spacers push you 14mm out, so our outside edge of the wheel is the same but my wheel sticks inside by 24mm more than yours! and my tyres are massively bigger radius than yours.
The only thing I thought of is me not running arch liners, but I still have one on the passenger side as I havent got around to taking it off yet and cutting it up so I still have my fuse box shelf.
What ride height are you set at?
That is very interesting! That would mean some money saving as it might work on my car with the current wheels.
My ride height is 100/110
I still have the wheel arch liners in, maybe I can win some room with those if I mount them differently.
Well my ride height is set to 100/120, but looking at the online calculator my front tyres are 13.5mm closer to the front and rear of the front clam(hence its close)
Ill be going lower to, down to 90/110, which is about as low as possible as my wishbones will think they are set at 80/100, I can get that low because we are spacing the lower wishbones down to help with roll centre and fitting an EP bump steer kit to help there.
I can get some pics of my setup if you want so you can compare it to yours?
I have adjusted the elise archliners instead of buying exige ones as they will wear anyway.
Jus got word back that the Rota rear wheels are on back order for a while already.
Think I am going to adjust them so that 205/45/16 will fit ( ad08 ) as that is still lower then 195/50 and it is only on full lock.
So no new wheels, start saving up for the Duratec 2.5 then I think, first results look like 220whp is achievable with 230nm. better stay away from turbo then I guess.
Yeh I was pretty lucky getting my rotas, I just rang Rare Rims who import them into the UK, to see if they would just sell me the rears as i didnt need the fronts, turned out they had a set of brand new display ones that they chucked on ebay on auction, set my snipe system up and won them for £400.
I think with the power you want 205/245 would be plenty, im hoping for 270whp+ but a big wing, atb diff and 255 kumho v70s im hoping to be on the power very very early to make up some time on my other competitors
During my years of MR2 driving I bought different kind of rims, tyres, tyre sizes etc. ( and MR2’s, AW11 and SW20 , wonderfull cars )
My friends all had identical 156hp 1990 SW20 with all the same engine modifications ( timing advanced, air filter, exhaust ) and all running koni yellow. This was around 1999 till 2002
On 16" I was the quickest away from stand still and had the highest topspeed. They all drove same tyre sizes but 17" wheels.
When I went 17" like them, with wider rear wheels 9J to 8J and sizes went up from 195/225 to 205/235 my car achieved higher cornering speed but all the rest became much slower, so much I bought the very light 16" wheels and returned to 195/225.
So regarding the Elise/Exige, I really want to stay at 195/225. Going to 205/225 is already something I not prefer as the car is handling fantastic now and I need to alter it again, redo the geo, testing, etc. I am only 3 seconds behind a 2010 Cup 260 on semislicks with my car (160whp/190nm) on street tyres on a 2 minute a lap track. ( 1.55 vs. 1:58 on track Zolder )
Going to alter my wheel arch liner to create room and save up for the Duratec 2.5 that became available. Somebody on Seloc already has one and made 203whp with 235nm torque. Put cams in that and more agressive mapping and 220whp should be there.
I am going to add a LSD as I will stay on AD08/R1R tyres and on my current RE050a I have the inside wheel slipping from time to time through the tight chicanes.
If Rota becomes available, Compomotive will continue with Elise wheels in February 2014, I still might make the change in the future.