They might, but with 17inch wheels and tires in front and 18s in back, wouldn't you actually end up going slower? Any 18 inch wheel and tire combo seems like it would be significantly heavier than Lotus forged rims with sticky Yokohama tires (which of course wear out fast) With no power steering, I don't think I'd want big wheels and tires in the front of the car. In fact, for acceleration purposes, I would imagine that forged wheels, 15 inch in front and 16 in back might give you better handling.
I know that with my MINI Cooper, it cornered and accelerated faster on 12lb 15 inch wheels that it did on beautiful 17 inch BBS wheels, which, weighed over 50lbs with the tires.
Good luck though, will be interesting to see how it all works out!