As I bought my Elise as a used car, I didn't have any choice but to accept what was on it... At first sight, I didn't really like what I saw, Borbet rims with black center caps and some Korean marshall tyres??

Well.. things changed over time. I started to like the rims and while I was in Germany, visiting the guys at Thielert, Lutz Weinschenk told me that it should be possible to fit the Lotus motorsport center caps on the Borbet rims. "Just put some doublesided tape at the inside and you'll see.. it'll work!"
It did, and all of a sudden, I started to like the sight of the rims..

But... I was a bit concerned about the offset of the rims (ET=45). The Lotus Elise Workshop manual says you need to fit rims with an offset of 14mm at front and 10mm at rear (using the 7.5J rims).. The Borbet rear rims are ...9J !!! with an offset of 45mm !! Again, problem solved... the distance which has been taken by using the wrong offset has been corrected by spacers... so they just fit! (and can be bought as a complete set at the Elise Shop.

Now, what was left were these crazy Marshall tyres.. They were pretty good in dry conditions (a bit unpredicatble though) but if you even proncounced the word W A T E R , they were all over the place. No good sir!
As I heard lot's of complaints from other Elise owners, I decided to try some different tyre and as I have very good experience with Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position S02, I decided to try a set of those.
They do work... what a difference and what a difference compared to the standard PZero's! They simply give superb feedback, look great... they're the one you need.. one set of Marshall's.. as good as new for sale ;)

Now here's the car as it is now, with Borbet rims, Lotus center caps and Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position S02's fitted.... impressive back-end isn't it?

March 2001 update: While talking to one of the people at Thielert, I asked about the spacers etc. He explained me that these parts are not only spacers but also adaptors. You really need to change the place of the wheelnuts to be able to fit the Borbet rims! He also told me that the offset is not only corrected by the adaptor but also by modifying the car geometry and a on top, they also do a slight change in riding heigth.. Not that easy and only for sale at Thielert (as far as I know)