Lotus 18 FJ Restoration (Large Picture Diary)

[MotorsportTom]

Absolutely wonderful car and a great thread, im glad i have had the privellege to work on similar cars of a similar era

[johnnymaestro]

CrashTD said:

Anybody else find the front suspension geometry insane? How do the 18s handle?

Top marks for the resto and well done for racing it

Cheers for the belated comments.

The link below shows some good pics of an 18 FJ and what it looks like with the body off.

http://www.britishracecar.com/MarcusJones-Lotus-18...

A few shots from the article.



The front end has top and bottom wishbones, a shock, a spring, and a steering arm and that is it, holding on the alfin drums and wheel. Very basic. With added fuel tank over your legs just for added bravery. The tank in the shot is not original as it should be dome shaped like below.





As you can see the rear set up is a lower wishbone, but no top link. Wheel is held on by the drive shaft and shocker. Plus on the 18FJ there is no ARB. (18 GP cars had rear ARBs). It is even more basic, and therefore a mare to set up, a lot of roll, but when it is right it really makes a difference.

The 18 is somewhat out classed by some of the cars in its class as the suspension geometry is more advanced and the aero is more affective. But given the right track it can be very competitive.

[CrashTD]

I meant rear suspension, the fronts are pretty conventional.

Looking through the pics with your explanation I can see why they used such large driveshafts. Still amazed at what designers tried to get the competitive edge.

Cars like yours make the Caterham style cars look almost boring.

[johnnymaestro]

CrashTD said:

I meant rear suspension, the fronts are pretty conventional.

Looking through the pics with your explanation I can see why they used such large driveshafts. Still amazed at what designers tried to get the competitive edge.

Cars like yours make the Caterham style cars look almost boring.

Yes lock tight is a must on them. As ever with these things development meant the GP cars got ARBs as did the later FJ Lotuses (22 and 27). The Lotus 27 was an F1 car with an FJ engine. Same story with Cooper. They are bloody quick and something else compared to the 18, which is only 4 years older.