RE: PH Service History: Lotus position
Discussion
SidewaysSi said:
My car oversteers upon lift off and will happily power oversteer too. But it is all very predictable to be honest.
It is on Nitrons and has the lighter K series engine which may help. But having regular geos by someone who knows what they are doing is vital IMO.
I use a Lotus specialist to do the work and no matter how hard the car is driven, it never bites back.
Hi SidewaysSi, I think I've heard you say this numerous times and I've always wanted to know, what mods have you done to the car? i.e. which model/version Nitrons do you have fitted? What are your geo settings? It is on Nitrons and has the lighter K series engine which may help. But having regular geos by someone who knows what they are doing is vital IMO.
I use a Lotus specialist to do the work and no matter how hard the car is driven, it never bites back.
I've read how much difference alignment (my lingo for geo) makes to these cars and i wasn't impressed with my local experts effort. I'd like to try setting my own, but apart from the factory settings there seems to be a lot of people running different settings that swear by them. I use the car (an S2 111R) for road use only, no track work.
I've tried various things and finally settled on the following in my K-series S2:
Front camber: -0.6 degrees
Rear camber: -1.8 degrees
Front toe: 0mm
Rear toe: 1.5mm in
Caster: 3.8 degrees
Front ride height: 105mm
Read ride height: 115mm.
I'm running quantum zero dampers with their standard (rising rate) road springs. It still understeers at low speed though and it certainly wont power-oversteer in the dry but it feels pretty well balanced through mid to high-speed corners without running so much front camber as to destroy braking stability or cause tram-lining.
Geo can help, but I think the only way to completely remove the low-speed understeer is to fit wider front wheels and tyres. There is no "correct" settings because there's always trade-offs, that's the main reason I made my own geometry rig so I could play around with things to learn what I wanted.
Front camber: -0.6 degrees
Rear camber: -1.8 degrees
Front toe: 0mm
Rear toe: 1.5mm in
Caster: 3.8 degrees
Front ride height: 105mm
Read ride height: 115mm.
I'm running quantum zero dampers with their standard (rising rate) road springs. It still understeers at low speed though and it certainly wont power-oversteer in the dry but it feels pretty well balanced through mid to high-speed corners without running so much front camber as to destroy braking stability or cause tram-lining.
Geo can help, but I think the only way to completely remove the low-speed understeer is to fit wider front wheels and tyres. There is no "correct" settings because there's always trade-offs, that's the main reason I made my own geometry rig so I could play around with things to learn what I wanted.
sege said:
Hi SidewaysSi, I think I've heard you say this numerous times and I've always wanted to know, what mods have you done to the car? i.e. which model/version Nitrons do you have fitted? What are your geo settings?
I've read how much difference alignment (my lingo for geo) makes to these cars and i wasn't impressed with my local experts effort. I'd like to try setting my own, but apart from the factory settings there seems to be a lot of people running different settings that swear by them. I use the car (an S2 111R) for road use only, no track work.
On an S2 you need the wider front wheels so you can put a 195 or 205 tyre on it, transforms it.I've read how much difference alignment (my lingo for geo) makes to these cars and i wasn't impressed with my local experts effort. I'd like to try setting my own, but apart from the factory settings there seems to be a lot of people running different settings that swear by them. I use the car (an S2 111R) for road use only, no track work.
kambites said:
Front ride height: 105mm
Read ride height: 115mm.
It still understeers at low speed though
Lowering the ride height will require the steering rack to be raised (there are plates to do this), otherwise you'll get awful bump steer which causes understeer. But as you say on the standard S2 tyres it will always understeer...Read ride height: 115mm.
It still understeers at low speed though
james_gt3rs said:
Lowering the ride height will require the steering rack to be raised (there are plates to do this), otherwise you'll get awful bump steer which causes understeer. But as you say on the standard S2 tyres it will always understeer...
Yes sorry, I've raised the rack by 10mm too. sege said:
SidewaysSi said:
My car oversteers upon lift off and will happily power oversteer too. But it is all very predictable to be honest.
It is on Nitrons and has the lighter K series engine which may help. But having regular geos by someone who knows what they are doing is vital IMO.
I use a Lotus specialist to do the work and no matter how hard the car is driven, it never bites back.
Hi SidewaysSi, I think I've heard you say this numerous times and I've always wanted to know, what mods have you done to the car? i.e. which model/version Nitrons do you have fitted? What are your geo settings? It is on Nitrons and has the lighter K series engine which may help. But having regular geos by someone who knows what they are doing is vital IMO.
I use a Lotus specialist to do the work and no matter how hard the car is driven, it never bites back.
I've read how much difference alignment (my lingo for geo) makes to these cars and i wasn't impressed with my local experts effort. I'd like to try setting my own, but apart from the factory settings there seems to be a lot of people running different settings that swear by them. I use the car (an S2 111R) for road use only, no track work.
Car is running 450/525 Nitron 40mm 1 way dampers, Eliseparts quick rack (2.4 turns), uprated toe links etc.
I don't run sticky tyres so have some (pretty old) AD07 and AD05s on it at the moment.
I think it is running 115mm ride height with a Sport 160 geo. I have used 340R settings in the past as well.
There is some understeer but it is very minimal. If anything, I wouldn't mind a fraction more understeer to be honest.
With that set up, it does happily power oversteer (car is standard at the moment) - allowing you to really change the angle of attack very easily. These cars are very sensisitive to set up so I go to a Lotus specialist to do the work as I want it done properly. Money well spent IMO and allows me to drive the car hard and fully enjoy it.
I will get a 'UCR straight cut box and LSD so hopefully it will be very driftable in the new year..
48k said:
Wish I'd never sold mine 
Would have another in a heartbeat but the prices have got silly.
S1 Elises aren't that bad. They're an awful lot of fun for £15k. I'd feel enormously smug right now for having bought mine for £8k in 2010 were it not for the fact I've poured about £10k into essentially rebuilding and upgrading it in the last 7 years. Still, I think they're a lot of fun for the money even at todays prices. And as a man in this situation I quite like the idea values are rising. In about 400 years this might be the first car I'll ever make money on if I sell it. Would have another in a heartbeat but the prices have got silly.
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