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Rivals on the Front of an Elise?

6K views 21 replies 12 participants last post by  DealsGapCobra 
#1 ·
The only size that's close in the new BFG Rivals is a 225-45-16. Has anyone tried to stuff one of these on the front of an Elise on a 6.5" rim?
Interested in these tires for Autocrossing, but not sure it's gonna work.....
 
#2 ·
Don't do it. Run Toyos.

Just get rid of them around 4/32s because everything but the 195 is made with two compounds and the hard compound appears around 2/32 and the good stuff needs about 2/32 to work well.

I've run the Star Specs on the Elise and was less than impressed with them. I think the Toyo responds well to a lighter car and the other tires work well on heavy cars. What do they call that? The load sensitivity of a tire?
 
#4 ·
Additionally, I think the traction circle characteristics and the break away characteristics of the R1R will suit the Elise very well. The R1R has phenomenal longitudinal grip vs. the competition and it's clearly the most tolerant of large slip angles. This will allow over driving with out heavy penalty.
 
#5 ·
To answer your question:

All tire mfgrs show charts indicating the largest and smaller wheel widths their tires will work on.

Tire Rack also shows this info.

I've not heard of these Rivals...thought dog food...but I do like my Bridgestone RE11s.
 
#6 ·
Will they physically fit on your wheels, yes. Will they rub, probably your wheel liners. Stock tire is 23.6 dia, rival is 24.9. They have received good reviews, but most of those reviews are from people sponsored by bfg. I'm waiting for a none biased review. Grass roots magazine is supposed to test them in the next issue. I might try these with a 15/17 setup next season.
 
#7 ·
I was looking to install 8" wide wheels on the front of my Exige. So I took a rear wheel off and mounted it on the front. Rears have 38-mm offset and fronts have 31-mm. The only place they touch is the sway-bar on full lock. If the correct 31-mm offset wheel is used, it probably will not touch.
 
#15 ·
I can't find the proof to say 100% sure that it will cause issues, but I do remember reading about it on here. Try searching to see if you can confirm me. Also when I was asking other lotus people about how my brakes were not working sometimes (Ice Mode, I didn't know what it was at the time) the first questions they asked were did I change the diameter of the front tires, older front tires than the rear, or stiff shocks/springs up front?

I personally wouldn't go with the 225/45/16. I'm going to wait until the rules proposals are more or less definite changes, then I'll be going down to a 15x6.5 front wheel so I can run 225/45/15 and have my choice of RS-3, R1R, or Rivals.

Holmz: SCCA is proposing getting rid of r-comps in stock classes. Although they are keeping the r-comps in SS, the elise will be well suited for the new street tire class.
 
#12 ·
Why run those Rivals for autocross?
The wear rating is 200, and I would have been under the impression that a wear rating 40-60 tire would be more grippy than a 200.
Something like the A6s seem to be popular, or the Khumo V70/v700s, or DZ03 dunlops (in supersoft and soft).

Secondly, the 6.5 rims seem a bit narrow for 205s, compared to 8" fronts. For 225s it would be worse.

Would you be better off chasing the right compounds than chasing the weird sizes?
 
#16 ·
I am restricted by the rules. I am prepping for the RTR class....so, 200 treadwear, stock wheel sizes. The Rivals have been beating all the competition in the tests. I have a great deal of experience with the R1R's, and they wear very quickly, and with these sizes, they will fall off at some point due to the dual compound construction. I just don't like that.

I want to try to find a setup that no one else is using, and like the idea of trying to make these work. So....my choices are very limited, and I am quite restricted by the rules.
 
#14 ·
And fwiw, I run A6's when I auto-X locally, but I try to travel around almost every weekend and when I go to events in other regions I use street tires (Finishing off this set of dunlop Z1s, then switching to r888s.)

The hoosiers are the way to go if you can swing it. But I'm still thoroughly enjoying my dunlops.
 
#17 ·
Copied over from the suspension thread....

Did a little testing on Sunday. Hmmm....

No ABS interference that I could detect. My test comprised of taking the OEM size rear wheel/tire that I have extra, and putting them on the front. So....with a 225-45-17 on the front on a 7.5" rear wheel, and 235-45-17 on rear (same size rear wheel), I could not detect the ABS doing anything funky. I did some typical autocrossy type stuff, then a very high speed threshold brake zone on a slight bend.

Now, the type of tires were pretty different in that their grip levels were a lot less than the rears, and I could easily get some minor lock up in the front, but the ABS was pretty aggressive and allowed a fair amount of scrub. (The way I like it) Could not induce ice mode. I'm not sure this car has an Ice Mode.

There was rubbing up front, as mentioned there would be, but......most of the rubbing was on the fender liners, and under the spot where it was rubbing, the liner was quite far away from the structure itself. Like a "bubble" in the liner that was being rubbed, but not any actual bodywork. If I removed the liners, there would likely be no rubbing. There was some inside rubbing at full lock too, but during my little test I decided that this amount of lock would rarely be seen at an autocross. This type of rubbing was harmless.

So....I am still considering this setup closely. My problem is that I STILL cannot find front wheels. I never imagined I would have this much trouble. May have to get creative with spacers and a different offset wheel.

Anyway, wanted to report back about the ABS.....I'm not where this information came from, but real life testing so far says there is not foundation to it. Comments?
 
#19 ·
Copied over from the suspension thread....

Anyway, wanted to report back about the ABS.....I'm not where this information came from, but real life testing so far says there is not foundation to it. Comments?
This subject and responses probably should be a separate thread. My comments are: 1) testing is good, but without detail that shows the validity of the tests they are just your experience and not universal truths, in particular 2) those with an Elige that have experienced ABS intervention that seems to be "ice mode" are just as convinced by their experience that it does exist as you are that it doesn't.

If you have lots of time and interest in "ice mode" read this Rennlist thread -- it has several Lotus references. well, ABS Ice Mode finally got me... - Rennlist Discussion Forums
 
#20 ·
I just mounted 225/45/16 A6's on a 6.5 LSS wheels. Have not had a chance to try them but they fit fine. Up until now I was running 205's.

Have fun with RTR. I like SSP to much and don't think I could go back after having so much grip.
 
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