Need new, grippier tyres for your Lotus Elise, closer to the original spec? Yokohama has ridden to the rescue.
We hear that stocks of the original spec Pirellis are long gone and a lot of people have swapped over to slightly wider (195/50 front, 225/45 rear), track-biased Yokohama Advan Neovas.
Now, Lotus-approved skinnier rubber is available from Yokohama in the form of the C.Drive (185/55 front, 205/50 rear, as per the originals). Apparently these tyres have been around for a while, it's just that very few people are aware of them; they haven't even shown up on official Lotus lists as yet.
The C.Drives have 'proper' tread so should be better for those who want to use their Elise S1 through the winter and because they're narrower at the front than previous replacement tyres, they should lighten up the steering a tad. Inevitably there'll be some lowering of the outer limits of adhesion, but on the other hand Yokohama has, apparently, given the C.Drive a slightly softer rubber compound for use on the Lotus.
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