The Lotus Grand Tourers

there has been a Vredestein for a while but I would suggest fitting a proper classic tyre. The Pirelli P700-Z has a more suited period carcass design.

https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/215-50 ... 700-z.html

these are the real thing.

Dougal Cawley wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 01, 2020 17:08

there has been a Vredestein for a while but I would suggest fitting a proper classic tyre. The Pirelli P700-Z has a more suited period carcass design.

https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/215-50 ... 700-z.html

these are the real thing.

Thousand Quid will be worth spending when Excel values are north of twenty kay! (5% of value spent every 6 years when the tyre life expires).

Hmm well the problem is that the cost of tyres has nothing to do with the value of the car.

the cost of the tyres is determined by a variety of things, and a Lotus is a fantastic handling car that really benefits from good high performance tyres, sadly they can only be built in very small batches, because there is only really you guys and some of the Audi UR Quattro guys that need this size.

I had the same problem a bit ago with a Jaguar XJV12 that i had paid £2,500 for and it needed £1,500 worth of tyres! It was epic.

The value of the car doesn't effect the tyre yuou should buy (or shall we say would want to buy). but there is no doubt it does make it hard to swallow.

I can justify the price of these tyres - but i cannot get away with the fact it leaves a large mark on your credit card bill.

I have made this Lotus Excel web page about tyres.

https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/classi ... excel.html

Do you have any period pictures that show the OE tyres on the car, cool pictures of thecars that you woud be happy for me to put on the page. Specially any pictures of factory data about yre pressures etc that would help make this page factual and helpful.

If anyone is considering fitting a set of these Pirelli tyres, I have an identical, unused/unfitted one they can have free, for collection or courier, unfortunately I've had it since I bought the car, in 2000. So best used as a matching rear impact absorber, your choice. Jeff.

Hi everyone - is there any reason why I couldn't buy 215 45 15's instead of 215 50 15's?

I'd change the spare to the 45 too (it's currently an original dunlop from 1987 by the looks of it!). Apart from a slightly harsher ride there's no reason why I couldn't is there?

They're £73.90 on Camskill (and another £20 to my man to fit) - here's the link; https://www.camskill.co.uk/m53b0s308p0/ ... _215_45R15

I'm not in a position to buy 215 50 15's (at £250 a tyre....so £1,250+VAT....) at the moment (or in fact, ever) so just looking at alternatives......

If the rolling circumference is more important than the width then I'd go 205 50 15 and choose something like the uniroyals......but there's alot more choice of course;

https://www.camskill.co.uk/m53b0s93p0/C ... _205_50R15


I quite like the look of these too......the tread feels v similar to the Pirellis Longstone are touting at £250+vat;

https://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/ ... e=40395038

Interested to hear people's thoughts. If Dunlop or Goodyear did a tyre in those I'd possibly go for them (to be as close to OEM as possible).

*Actually - the blackcircles picture might just be a generic image - the A008's have not changed from their (extremely) different tread pattern as far as I can see on other websites, whoops!

I was advised to go to 205/55 R15s - which I did with Vredstein Sporttrac 5's - unfortunately these are no longer available.

I'm probably going to replace all 4 next year, but I'm not sure what I'd go at the moment.

You were happy with them Chris? Didn't look out of place or anything?

I went with 205/55-R15's too, Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance and very pleased after around 1500 dry miles, can't comment on wet performance though. Nice slightly more compliant ride and look good in the wheel arch.
Mike

Oi_Oi_Savaloy wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 05, 2022 11:43

You were happy with them Chris? Didn't look out of place or anything?

Absolutely fine - have Vredestein on my Esprit as well (225s instead of 235s). I run them at the pressures in the manual rather than the much higher pressures modern cars seem to run at. Unfortunately, Vredestein no longer make them in the right size for either car

Looks wise, again perfectly fine, they fill out nicely.

Mike133 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 05, 2022 13:57

I went with 205/55-R15's too, Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance and very pleased after around 1500 dry miles, can't comment on wet performance though. Nice slightly more compliant ride and look good in the wheel arch.
Mike

Good to hear too Mike, thanks for taking the time to comment.

When I needed to replace the tyres on my Excel, I went down two widths and up a profile.

From 215/50 r15 to 195/55 r15. which gets you REALLY close (within 1%) on rolling radius if you check https://tiresize.com/comparison/

I was also careful not to go overboard with the load rating. It's a light car by modern standards, not a SUV or 4x4.

I got an 89 V rated Michelin Crossclimate a few years ago and they are highly recommended for the Lotus.

Good website that Mr Locust - liking the idea of the 195 55 15's now that I can see the relative percentages.

It is funny that you guys seem reserved about fitting the Pirelli tyre just because of the price. Of all cars where i would think you would be keen to keep the handling as good as possible i would have thought a Lotus would be one. so of all the components within the car the tyres would be the last thing to scrimp on.

I shall be out racing my Lotus on Saturday at Silverstone with the VSCC which should be good fun, there will be 2 Elites in the race and plenty of other good stuff too.

I bought 4 of these last week...



£200 delivered.
Also bought a tyre fitting stand / alloy wheel tyre fitter / static balancer / box of stick on weights for around same price a couple of months ago.
So far I've replaced the Clan's and SMART Roadsters tyres, and re seated three others that were leaking on cars belonging to my kids.
I'll post pictures of the Excel tyre fitting process on here before the MOT due next month.

Btw I found the SMARTs lower profile 15" diameter road tyres much easier to fit than the 13 inch soft compound Avon CR 500 tyres fitted to the Clan, so I'm expecting the Excel job to be straightforward.

Has anyone had experience of fitting both Vredestein Sprint+ 215/50ZR15 88W and 215/50 VR 15 PIRELLI P700-Z ?
The Pirelli compound was an original design circa 1988 (which the cars handling was set up on) I wonder whether the Vredestein compound behaves more favorably utilising the latest compound technology or does it merely corrupt the ride and handling?