Wheels

Good question...

Depends on the weight of the standard wheels. I personally think the standard wheels look AWESOME and would only change them if there were a significant weight decrease with the SSR Comps (great wheel - really light!)...

BTW - anyone know the weight of the standard Elise wheels???

242 lbs/in front, 343 lbs/in rear for standard
271 lbs/in front, 371 lbs/in rear for LSS

Steve

Woops, wrong:no:

Perhaps at some point I will, but the car is already far better than I could have imagined. Plus I really like the look of the standard wheels. I'll keep it as-is for now.

I'm not messing with the wheels. The only reason I can think I would buy anything is to make it easy to put my snow tires on seasonally.

If I can get snow tires. If they even exist...

I'm thinking of getting SSR's for AutoX. But I'm still not sure.

Snow tires exist. From tirerack:

Pirelli 210/240 Snowsport
195/50R16 $135
215/45R17 $145

Unfortunately, the only wheels they have are the SSRs. So, at this point it looks like that's what my snow tires will be mounted on. Unless the standard wheels are cheaper from my dealer.

Thanks, Nathan. That's cheaper than I thought!

For snow tires, you could get a 15"/16" combo. I'm sure that there are tires sizes that will fit those, too. The only trick will be matching the offset.

For someone who has the LSS, I would suggest buying the SSRs and then swapping the stock tires onto the SSRs and then putting snow tires on the stock wheels. For non-lss, you can buy the SSRs and put the stock tires on them (might have to buy different fronts 195 vs 175) and then still put snow tires on the stock wheels.

What I really want to do is buy a set of standard wheels to mount the snow tires on. Can anyone tell me how much a set would cost? Would they be more or less than the SSRs?

Not sure how much from the dealer but I'm sure you can get a decent deal from someone who will change their wheels to the SSRs and won't keep the stockers...definately should not be more expensive than the SSRs, cuz then everyone would sell their stockers and buy SSRs and make money on the deal...

Ok, dealer price for the standard wheels is $360.65 for the front and rears are $389.70. So it looks like I'll be going with the SSRs with Pirelli Snow Sports, unless tirerack comes out with something cheaper for the Elise in the next few months.

I have to adjust my thinking. On a whim I autocrossed on Sunday and I'm hooked. Not I want another set of wheels for stickier tires. Any one know what hoosiers or kumhos would run for this car? I have a standard car (no LSS), but probably would want to go to 195s in the front for the stickier tires.

Any and all help appreciated.

Hi Jerry,

Surprisingly, race tires don't vary much in price with different sizes. Kumhos are typically around $125, and Hoosiers are typically $180.

If the OE tires aren't prohibitively expensive, I would suggest spending several events, maybe a full season, on the stock street tires. You will learn a bunch, and you'll give Randy and others time to determine what sizes and models of race tires will fit.

Good advice. I'll certainly wait until next summer to make changes to the car, but I'm trying to figure out the best approach so I can gather up the equipment. Of course I could just save the $$ and wait for Randy to plow a path.

The weight of the factory LSS wheels are estimated to be 12 and 15 lbs according to puresportscar.com: http://www.puresportscar.com/options.php

I'm not trying to stir up a hornet's nest as a newbie here, but I'm surprised at all the enthusiam for the SSR wheels. They are certainly light, but they are extremely fragile unless you are going to use them for autocrossing only. Maybe it's just the poor quality of roads here in Houston, but everyone in my Miata club who has experience with SSRs has no good things to say. I opted for the similar-looking forged Volk LE37s on my MINI instead of the SSRs. Check out my response to this thread for more info: http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5196

John

>>>They are certainly light, but they are extremely fragile unless you are going to use them for autocrossing only.<<<

Bear in mind that SSR has had this basic design for a few years and has made various changes. Maybe the trouble was with some of the earlier even lighter versions? Some of the present versions are about 1/2 to one pound heavier.

I have a set of recent SSRs on my E30 M3 (~2700#) and the car has been driven in autocross and some very rough roads without issue. Except for some cone scuffs. SSRs are strong light wheels with a functional appearance.

I would expect that in normal and race use on the Elise (1900 #) they should work well.

PS I heard a rumour that the LSS wheel delays were not production oriented but were actually due to wheels breaking when they were tested and used on Elises. The present wheels are presumably fine.