If the Iron cross were sourced from Toyota (which it is not) however info from the the A60 Celica Supra family is easy to get and shows that:
Rim Diameter 14" (the inch is still current nomenclature for wheel diameter).
Rim width 7" (again this is still the current term in parlance).
Centre Bore 60.1mm (don't think any one would swap that over too 2.366", however the world is full of pedants).
PCD is 4X114.3mm (de rigueur terminology, however to be punctilious 4x4.5"may get quoted but then being really explicit no imperial measurement should ever be expressed as decimal using a number base of 10 (0-9)).
ET off set 8mm.
and that is if i am correct and " is an inch.
However they are not the same wheel so another internet search shows
https://motor-car.net/tyres-and-wheels/ ... ment-guide
This shows the Eclat, Elite and the Excel being 4x114.3mm but really should it not be .01143 Meters. if we are to precisely express the value as an internationally agreed value the MM only exists to simplify expression and the meter is the only true measure?
Whereas the Esprit appears to carry either 4x100 (4x4") wheels until it shifts to the 5x120 (5x4and nearly3/4")
However this does not account for 520 Eclats which were blessed with 4x.01Meter/4x100mm or 4x4 wheel hubs. Indeed if the 520 could carry a different flange then at a latter date different wheels as long as they where 4x4" (4x100mm/4x.01M) could be facilitated quite easily by lotus should they have desired as the 4x4" drive flanges existed in the parts inventory. However no such flange variant has ever existed for the Excel hub and bearing structure.
So any Elite or Eclat can carry wheels of PCD 4x4.5" or 4x4" should the owner desire with a drive flange swap. They could also wear 4x100mm, 4x114.3mm, 4x.01Meter or 4x.01143Meter (I believe I am correct that the 0 is not required before a decimal point). Excels are stuck at the larger spacing - without engineering modifications that would be required.
However further research is needed into hub centres, wheel rim width and fixing format!!!!
What we now need to consider is:
A: To answer original question: yes they would look nice on a 520 Eclat or possibly a s2.2 Elite as Richard has said.
B: Is Richards statement true? well Lotusbits has always struck me as a honest operation, if Lotusbits said the original wheels could not be reused as they were of the wrong PCD for an Excite conversion (Elite body on an Excel running gear) and Richard needed to buy a set of Excel PCD wheels or a set of Elite Turbines. Then yes there must have been a small number of cars built later on in the Elites life with different hubs sourced from the 520 parts stockholding.
But lets put this into perspective only 88 series 2.2 Esprit's were built, the car is a hotchpotch of a mule and even utilised an earlier S2 chassis that was coated in a Galv process destined for the later Esprit S3 chassis. If you are going to build just 88 Esprit s2.2 cars in just over a year, then why not shove some parts bin flanges on the Elite Series 2.2 and use some different wheels?
what do we recon? Because getting a definitive answer about of something that happen in Hethel during the Late 70's and early 80's would require H G Wells to perfect the "Time Machine". Just to validate that parts books are not always the answer: Yesterday I fitted a set of Brake discs to a BMW 4 series that the factory parts catalogue said were wrong but the ones it did say were correct weren't appropriate and that was a 2015 car! assembled using a digital catalogue and comprehensive intelligent build process.
Must go there is a Morlock at the entrance to my Cave.