Okay, I’ve caught up with David Williams of Speedline Corse, regarding the 2010 model that was made for the Motorsport Elise/Exige.
Apparently, due to the British Govn potentially taking an over zealous approach to the recyclibility of certain car materials, Speedline are considering their strategy on magnesium. Although David believes that one way or another he can supply these wheels for us. He’ll know in a couple of weeks, so you’ll need to be a little more patient.
According to David, the rears are a really odd size, which means alternatives are going to be very hard to find.
The potential bad news for MarkD is that, pending the decision, the price may well be the same as my original enquiry (see post here) - �1072 + VAT (�213 less than from Lotus). On top of that he said he may be able to do us a discount for volume! Although you’ll need 3mm spacers and a set of motorsport nuts (for wheels, not driving! ).
Me
Dan
AndyD
kenh0
mike lane? (now he’s re-employed with redunancy money to burn! congrats BTW mike )
Uldis?
Kerry? Just fronts?
(probably not MarkD any longer?)
Can you all confirm and anybody else let me know and I’ll get David to come up with a price for a number of sets. I guess it’d be easier if we all had same colour, he didn’t actually mention any colour other than black. That alright?
Interestingly, he also said Lotus had made an enquiry for a number of sets. I wonder what they are up to?!
Ian
ps. If anybody is looking for spares he has some in black (but not a whole set).
pps. For those worried about strength, I understand the 2010 model was designed for Rallying so it should be pretty tough. Let me know if you have concerns and I get David to comment.
Yep, I confirm I’m up for a set.
And Mike, as far as I understand, these are the lightest available, 5 and 5.5 Kg AFAIK.
Ian, I think they really should make around 5 sets more than what we ask for. People are always asking for these, and some people have wanted to run Exige sizes in their Elise.
Can’t we make something like an exiges.com essential spares fund? It would have wheels, shocks, some clams, etc.
PS - since they’re at it, they could surely decrease the offset so that they don’t need the spacer! can you tell them?
Thanks for the work you’ve done Ian…I’d be interested in a set too …so long as they’re black (I think they are finished in a ‘satin’ finish, NOT gloss ).Ideally,as Uldis says,I’d like them in the correct offset.There shouldn’t be any reason why they can’t do this …they must still have the original castings/specs.
Im interested, subject to gf not finding out and I can find more space in the garage/shed/conservatory!
Also keen to know:
Offset issue - is it better to run more neg offset plus spacer or “correct” offset?
Offset issue again - why run Motorsport offset with spacers, why not just the wheels…I have MS offsets on a couple of wheels and they fit fine?
Offset again - MS cars had issues with wheel bearings - was the offset change an attempt to solve this rather than fit the narrower clams (which I didnt know about)
Caring for mag wheels - any special requirements, should they last as long as the standard ones, can they be used as road wheels?
Weight saving - is this a standalone issue, or with this much change in unsprung weight should any adjustments to other parts of the suspension/car be necessary (I know that’s a really technically inept question!)
Wheel properties - other than weight are there other benefits to these wheels and most importanly are there any negative issues such as more brittle, easier to break, harder to notice damage - need ultrasound crack test every 12 months, etc
Other than that I think its an excellent move to get these items back on the market…we all now have a choice, especially bearing in mind that a standard rear exige wheel is priced at �445 each!
My understanding of this (and it ain’t much, some of it probably a wee bit wrong) but for the purpose of debate…here goes:
I think it would always be better to run correct offset - if you change it at all it will affect the geo needs of the car (i think bump steer in particular would be affected ?) In th ecase you have given… more -ve and also a spacer, i think you would push the wheels out beyond the body work
I think you need the spacers with the MS offset in order to get back to the ‘track’ our car/suspension is designed to run with ? THis is because lotus got us more track by giving the exige more negative offset than the elsie has… i think anyone confirm this? Uldis, AndyD, RussT ? Also if you don’t fit the spacers you might get the wheels eating more of the inner wing etc than you want… we all suffer this a bit as it is ?
Don’t know but I think the change in offset for the exige was aimed at getting wider ‘track’ ?
I think they are less tolerant of pot-holes etc… they won’t deform I don’t think but they will break !! I’d use em on the road but you would need extra caution to miss all those pot-holes etc… Can anyone tell me what their corrosion resistance is like ? I remember mixing Mg with water at school chemistry classes and it catches fire !! or explodes !! depending upon how brave you are with relative quantities
Weight saving isn’t a standalone issue (it has impact on rebound damping etc), but a few have queried lotus about this in the past, and I believe that the change is okay with these wheel - the standard suspension has a wide enough window to cope for standard drivers… like me !! I still think that people with adjustable suspension will gain far more tho’. WHat does Nitron have to say ?? Anyone buddy enough with Guy to query this and postup the answer ??
Weight (or lack of it) is the benefit !! We want ZERO unsprung weight… unsprung weight is the enemy of perfect handling… Mag wheels are more brittle and will break… compared with alloy/steel which will bend first. That’s not to suggest that they will disintigrate the first time you run over a fag packet !! They are strong enough to deal with kerbs at race-tracks etc but probably get crack-tested and replaced more on race-cars.
So anyone out there to add/correct or subtract from this… i’m really interested in the subject…
I was intrigued to have a look around further regarding you Q4 & 6 above… Found this Properties of Magnesium Wheels regarding qualities of Mg have a read… haven’t read it all myself but on first swatch it looks quite informative.
I had a chat with Guy at Nitron recently and we are getting together in the spring to revalve my Nitrons…
I will ring him in the week and try to capture his response. He tends to talk in very technical terms, yet makes it simple enough for me to understand!! I have always come away from conversations much the wiser…
(Unless, of course, Guy responds to this thread anyway!!!)
Agree with what Mike said, but let me do a few comments:
1,2&3-correct offset. The previous one was made for the motorsports cars, which had a different brake setup. These ones are made for Exiges, let’s make the correct ones.
4-since I want to have 2 sets of wheels, one for the road and one for the track, these ones are to be for the track (and driving to them). You always risk falling on a pothole. These would be the lightweight ones, don’t want to risk them. Otherwise, they should be able to take road use as well.
5&6-They are lighter. Light wheels lead to less mass moving around (ie. unsprung mass) and can therefore follow better road imperfections.
Less unpruung weight calls immediately for more rebound damping (as the spring needs to fight less mass on the return stroke), and if you can take advantage of that, it could lead to more grip, or faster cornering.
If you can feel it, you need shocks with rebound damping adjustability (Nitrons are the best quality/� available), if you can’t you could go faster to feel it.
I have onfirmed this with Guy in the past.
Regarding cracks checks and strength, how often do you check the original ones? I guess we are all guilty of not checking them enough. We should check all wheels often. No difference in treatment here then.
I’ll add SI to the list (plus possibly Rox and Steve, and Bruno were you a poss? ) and wait for the others to reply and then I’ll get back to David with questions and ask for a price.
If they were origianlly a rally car wheel I think they’d take quite a pounding. Anybody aware of Motorsport Elise wheel failures? Because they really hammered them and then sold them on.
![http://www.speedlinecorse.co.uk/pics/z_2010.jpg[/image]](http://www.speedlinecorse.co.uk/pics/z_2010.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}