Lotus sport suspension

[mikeyh]

I have recently fitted Lotus sport suspension to my MkI Elise. The set up is a bit soft for track days and I want to stiffen the car up a bit. Does anybody know how adjustable this suspension set up is and how to adjust it?

Thanks, Mike

[FastSpider]

I have Lotus Sports Suspension on my S1 as well. Its still soft enough for road use, but I agree its on the soft side for hard track use.

The two adjustments you have are ride height and front sway bar. You should be running an inch or so below a stock Elise (11cm rather than 14cm ground clearance).

The roll bar has several pickup points and you can make it stiffer. I'm about to try this as I think I have too much roll. I'd expect this to increase understeer a little but I seem to have too much oversteer at present so I hope it will balance it a bit better.

[AnthonyR]

You can't adjust the standard ARB, so unless you had an adjustable ( an extra to the LSS kit) one fitted you're stuck.

Adjusting the ride height means you will have to get a full geo done and will not have greatly effect the stiffness of the car.

To make LSS more suitable for track work you can fit an adjustable ARB and then go for stiffer springs.

A stiffer spring kit for LSS can be found here:

www.race-speed.com

I have no personal experience of this kit, it is very new on the market. Some people have fitted Exige springs which are stiffer but they are quite expensive

Anthony

[fergusd]

Interesting question, another question would be, what do you mean by too soft . . .

Underdamped or undersprung or both.

Another thing worth mentioning is that within a certain tolerance the spring rates and damper rates need to be matched, I believe that the LLS dampers with Exige springs are within this tolerance, however if the car is underdamped, changing the springs will have no effect . . .

Fd

[mikeyh]

Thanks for the comnments - it's clearly not as straightforward as I'd hoped! The problem with the car is excessive roll, especially at the front. The car is rolling so much that the front tyre wear is very uneven, with the outside edges wearing much more quickly. Understeer is the unsurprising result. This uneven wear does not occur on the road so does not seem to be caused by geometry problems.

Has anybody tried the Leda suspension kit?

[Stevef]

I had Ledas on my old S1 and loved them. The damping is adjustable so you can have the ride as soft or stiff as you like. The spring rates were much higher than the LSS so body control was excellent.
I found the front rear balance to be perfect, this with the standard anti roll bar.
I still have them if you would like to buy them.

[FastSpider]

I find that taking a passenger on the track my mudflaps touch the track which makes a nasty noise and tells me its leaning over too much. Without the extra weight of a passenger it doesn't happen unless the corner is bumpy.

I have the adjustable ARB and will tweak it a bit and see what happens.

[mikeyh]

FastSpider said: I find that taking a passenger on the track my mudflaps touch the track which makes a nasty noise and tells me its leaning over too much. Without the extra weight of a passenger it doesn't happen unless the corner is bumpy.

I had a similar problem and ended up removing my mudflaps. They are only held on by a few plastic screws...

[fergusd]

Many people (not all) have serious longevity problems with Leda dampers on the Elise, they also have serious noise problems with the rose-jointed versions . . . I know a number of people who are getting rid of Ledas because of quality/longevity/noise problems . . .

If you can stretch to the cost Nitrons are looking like a very good addition to the market, better engineering IMHO and many people giving positive feedback. I'm running one of the first sets of the latest Nitrons manufactured and have been doing for the last 8000 miles, and I have to say they are fantastic.

Regarding body roll, stiffer spring will definately help, they will also stop grounding out on bumps.

I get very occasional mudflap grounding on track and road, but only if 2 up and really thrashing it in the dry . . . however my car doesn't run standard ride height . . .

hth

Fd