Project Lotus Exige

[Beej]

Despite being something I'd probably never notice otherwise, I can't blame you for doing the "arrow" thing. That's seriously awesome; it looks great!

[premiershine9]

niceeee, that looks good!

[Evan]

been driving it more than wrenching on it lately with the nice weather weve been having, but here are a couple of updates ive been meaning to write up for a while.

first, a tale of tragedy, rebirth, and redemption.

So I have a power cord reel in my ceiling in the middle of the garage. Its a sturdy, steel, heavy thing, and harkens back to Craftsman's pre-china heyday.


It served me well for 4 years, until one day when I pulled the cord it decided that resisting gravity was a chore and came crashing down.
Now, this being a project thread, and not the friday funnies thread, what does that have to do with anything?



it came down smack on the drivers side mirror. Which, all things considered, was very lucky. The mirror is an easy and relatively cheap thing to repair compared to if it had smacked the door.

but what fun is replacing a stock part?
The stock mirrors stick out way too much, and look like urkel ears to me. so I took the uh..."opportunity" to fix that (and add more carbon fiber) and picked up a set of sector111 raceview mirrors.

first set I got was scratched up from a setscrew getting loose int he packaging, then the 2nd set had the wrong angle mirror stems, then finally the 3rd time was a charm.



Now that its all said and done, I like the IDEA of these mirrors alot more than the implementation of them.

First of all, installation is a major pain. 2 cap screws go through the door shell and into threaded holes in the shallow aluminum base plate. Since being fiberglass the thickness varies, it meant scouring the internet and ordering every length of appropriate thread size cap screw I could find to get one the exact right length.


Next up came the adjustment of the mirrors. Without going into too much detail, its a MAJOR PAIN IN THE COCK to get these to the right angle and tightened down. Since its impossible to tighten them down without moving them, its an exercise of hair-pulling trial and error. Oh, and you cant tighten them *too* much or you will crack the carbon shell.
Just when you think everything is fine, they decide to go completely limp out of nowhere on the highway. Yeah, thats makes lane changing real fun with absolutely zero rear or side visibility.

I was all ready to give up and go back to stock when I gave it one last evening of trial and error adjustments, and its been solid ever since. the passenger side mirror is tilted a little upwards, but im not touching it.

[WRXtranceformed]

Wow yeah that sounds like a total pain but the end result is awesome! I love that look

[Evan]

here are the urkel ears in comparison

[ScottyB]

infinitely better. forgot how awkward the stock ones look now that you posted that picture.

less fussy and suits the minimal qualities of the driving experience. bonus points for carbon deliciousness

[Evan]

Ok, so Ive had a hankering for new wheels for a while now. Never a huge fan of the stock wheels, which while forged and very light, are the same matte/semigloss shade that Im slowly elimating from the exterior (not to mention Im not a fan of black wheels to begin with).
these are street pimpin wheels only, so weight isnt really a concern. If I ever track this thing, Ill use the stock forged wheels.

Direct fit made-for-elise/exige wheels are pretty rare, and usually start at $2800 or so and my favorites are even more.

however, with spacers and longer studs, I can fit just about any honduh sized 4x100 16x7 fronts and 17x7.5 rears.


I allllmost pulled the trigger on a set of these BBS

but, I decided they just dont look that great on the car and I wanted something more aggressive.

SO wanted to get some opinions from you guys.

I like these, they are Lotus Sport Cup wheels. Very clean and simple. Drawback is expensive at about $1900, and Id probably want to paint them. Im planning on going with a high gloss deep anthracite color.



on the cheap end, DTD has these that I coudl make fit. I had them on my 99 miata and I thougth they looked really sharp

drawback is rears are only 7" wide, and the aforementioned spacers and studs thing.

konig backbone is another similar option, with the bonus that they are 7.5 int he rear


also on the cheaper end is MSR 13. offsets are slightly better, but they take acorn lugs, and Im not sure where to buy them anyway.



thoughts, opinions, new suggestions? I think much to my back account's dismay Im leaning towards the Lotus Sport wheels, but if there are good looking cheaper options Id love to see them. 16x7 4x100 and as close to ET30 as possible, and 17x7.5-8 4x100 and as close to ET38 as possible

[JPolen01]

Lotus Sport out of all of those.

[ispoonwithmugen]

Which size? Or does it you a weird setup like you posted? For 1900 you can find all sorts of nice wheels, especially 4x100. Once you state a size I can point you towards some good looking wheels imo.

[Evan]

Which size? Or does it you a weird setup like you posted? For 1900 you can find all sorts of nice wheels, especially 4x100. Once you state a size I can point you towards some good looking wheels imo.

not all that strange you would think:
16x7 4x100 and as close to ET30 as possible, and 17x7.5-8 4x100 and as close to ET38 as possible. (higher offsets like ET40 are ok, I dont mind using spacers if necessary)
but I havent found a whole lot :dunno:

Ive also been toying with going +1, 17s in the front and 18s in the back for maximum pimpability, so I would be open to that.
these would have worked but they dont make any 18s in 4x100

[ispoonwithmugen]

My votes:
Work Emotion XD-9's I believe their offset is right and you could do the 17-18" thing
Work Emotion CR Kai's
Work emotioon 11R
Volk RE30
Volk CE28

I didn't verify if they still make these all in your sizes but I think they would all look AWESOME. I saw a picture recently of an Elise on the CR kai's and I LOVED it.

[Maengelito]

maximum pimpability,

Look no further than the Enkei RPF-1 in the SBC finish
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[ScottyB]

cup wheels by a country mile. they suit it perfectly and look like a motorsports wheel instead of a tuner wheel.

they actually remind me a lot of a compomotive or OZ tarmac rally wheel, which is awesome.

[Goodspeed]

cup wheels by a country mile. they suit it perfectly and look like a motorsports wheel instead of a tuner wheel.

This...all the others don't really have a place on an Exige IMO. Keep it classy....I also love the stock wheels, in black...you've got one of those rare cars which I would never change from OEM wheels.

[Steve85]

Motegi MR121 is close to the expensive wheel you like. Not sure on size options...

[JPolen01]

4x100 Regamasters

[Evan]

Thanks for the suggestions, some good options all around.
Garret I like those XD9s, offsets are pretty close, but looks like Id have to custom order them to get 4x100 in the 18" size though. Ill drop them an email to see what that process is. On that topic looks like nobody makes 18s in 4x100 anymore. CR Kai is decent, but if I want that look, Rota made a run of their version of that wheel in lotus fitment that I could pick
up.
Maeng I like that finish but Ive never been a fan of RPF-1 at all. Steve those Metegi's look great, but they dont come in 16s, so Id have to go 17/18 and they dont make 18s in 4x100.....
John those look a lot like the Spoon copies that everyone and their brother has now, never been a huge fan (and Rota did a run of them in lotus sizing if I did want some)

still leaning towards lotus sport wheels.....

thoughts on color? ideally id paint them or get them refinished, but Id rather not rattlecan a set of $2k wheels, and I dont really want to pay to have them refinished on top of that either so.....

(oh, and lotus being lotus means the center caps dont come with them and that means an extra $120 for all 4......)

hrm, now Im thinking keeping them silver wont be so bad....



or black?


but this is usually why I dont like black. the wheels just dissapear


silver on a silver car (has shorter sidewalled tires though)




here they are in a more anthracite-y color. Id probably do them a bit darker if I did.


and on a random note, this is John Seddon's old car, with these wheels powdercoated red

[D_Eclipse9916]

ssilver!!!!!!!!!!

[JPolen01]

I would go with a brushed silver type color. This brushed silver anodized finish that CCW does has been eye catching to me lately. The face color, not the lip obviously. You already have black, why add another set? The anthracite is a coo look to, but the brushed silver is cleaner in my opinion.

[ScottyB]

silver looks gorgeous. more like a raw racing machine, whereas the black wheels make it look a bit like a toy.