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Lotus in the Peak
28th - 30th June 2024

S1 Suspension Improvement/upgrade Options


Sundaydriver

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So my car is a stock Elise S1 with approx 50k

Miles. Lotus Dealer serviced to 47k miles, and

new front konis fitted perhaps at 40k miles ish.

Issue is;

Clunky sounds over potholes, and Derbyshire cats eyes ;-), and most are telling me it's the

Noisy Koni setup.

 

I've purposely sought out the S1 partly as I want the key aspects of it's handling and behavioral traits v the S2, which I mostly read is

designed to understeer first and is 'safer'.

 

Would swopping over to the S2 suspension upgrade ( ie bilsteins ) be detrimental atall ,would

it take anything away from the purity of the S1.

 

I know of the Nitron options, and some swear by

the Gaz gold pro sets. I'm not convinced I'm yet

anywhere near a good enough driver to benefit

from a fully adjustable setup.

In any case these things are easily transplanted

if circumstances change.

 

I'm not after a hard ride, Infact I'd prefer it if my wife was pleasantly surprised after the upgrade

with the ride improvement and noise reduction.

 

Any thoughts welcome please :-)

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I can see the slippery slope of never ending mods coming.mf_prop.gif

 

You will really need to decide what you really want from the S1. Any up rated suspension is a compromise for both road and track unless you can stretch to Ohlins?

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Ha ha, no.maybe.slowly.sometime.oh go on then :-)

 

So ohlins are the Rolls Royce, it seems.

 

Adjustability sounds fun,but I'd quite like to simply

set it up and leave it. Life is a compromise.

 

If I get to the track lots and reach some limits, then will be the time to look at adjustable so reckon.

 

So I've always understood wishbones should

be level. The lowering mentioned on some of

the threads I've read up on, doesn't that throw

Out the geometry ? Not sure I need to lower it,

I love taking speed bumps at full tilt in a 30 !

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From what you say I would think the S2 upgrade would be fine for your needs, it suits me just fine for both road and track use. It is slightly firmer than the Koni set up and lowers the car marginally (although brackets are available to lower it further if you wish). It doesn't affect the balance of the car but if it did then that could be adjusted out with a geo anyway. I wouldn't want to be taking speed bumps at 30MPH in it though.....not with some of the bumps with have round here anyway!

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I have the bilstiens on but they will be coming off next year due yo corrosion, spring seats and bodies, I am looking at gaz as about the same cost is the bilstiens so worth a punt (as was not really impressed by the billies

 

Gaz are £593+ vat in the catalogue

 

http://www.gazshocks.com/images/downloads/GAZ_2014_catalogue_issue.pdf

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Hi Dave - I'd say S2 Bilsteins would be ideal, or maybe the Nitron Street Series, from what I've read/heard.   I have Nitron NTR's on the S160, with 350/400 Eibach springs, and it seems to be a perfect set up for road (and track if I wanted to).  They are fully adjustable which is good to have - but like yourself I'm unlikely to tinker with them much.

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Hi - I bought my S1 last year with S2 Bilsteins fitted. They had started to corrode and rattled at the front and after driving a sprint circuit I decided they were too soft and lacked precision for fast road/track use. I thought about Quantum Zero's (which can now be upgraded to one or two way adjustables - see link below) but went the whole hog and bought the Quantum one.zeros (single adjustable). Spring rates are 350lbs front, 425lbs rear with 150lbs helpers. Ride height 130 all round - fitted and geo'd by Steve Guglielmi. Low speed ride is harsh - like the Bilsteins, but no bangs/crashes - high speed ride is brilliant on the road and very predictable. Gives me the option of fine tuning in the future as my confidence/skills improve and aspirations change. Went for Quantum as designed and made in the UK and have a good reputation - choose your spring rates according to intended use - Eliseparts will advise accordingly.

 

http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=387693&page=1#pid6580624

 

Cheers

David

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Don't forget that bushes and steering racks and arb drop links and rear toe links all wear eventually. Wishbones corrode too. Bumps and clunks and rattles can also be caused by general suspension wear not just Konis. I would recommend getting all that stuff checked before chucking a grand's worth of springs and dampers at it.

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Don't forget that bushes and steering racks and arb drop links and rear toe links all wear eventually. Wishbones corrode too. Bumps and clunks and rattles can also be caused by general suspension wear not just Konis. I would recommend getting all that stuff checked before chucking a grand's worth of springs and dampers at it.

This is it, as well as the S1 rides currently on its 51k 13yo Koni's, I'm looking forward to getting all this sorted and fitting 36mm 2 way Ohlins. Just with regards 2 way dampers, there really is no reason the get all phased on a good or bad setting, having them sounds like rocket science but it really isn't.

 

All set for refresh....

post-3191-0-38771500-1407015764_thumb.jpg

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So my car is a stock Elise S1 with approx 50k

Miles. Lotus Dealer serviced to 47k miles, and

new front konis fitted perhaps at 40k miles ish.

Issue is;

Clunky sounds over potholes, and Derbyshire cats eyes ;-), and most are telling me it's the

Noisy Koni setup.

 

I've purposely sought out the S1 partly as I want the key aspects of it's handling and behavioral traits v the S2, which I mostly read is

designed to understeer first and is 'safer'.

 

Would swopping over to the S2 suspension upgrade ( ie bilsteins ) be detrimental atall ,would

it take anything away from the purity of the S1.

 

I know of the Nitron options, and some swear by

the Gaz gold pro sets. I'm not convinced I'm yet

anywhere near a good enough driver to benefit

from a fully adjustable setup.

In any case these things are easily transplanted

if circumstances change.

 

I'm not after a hard ride, Infact I'd prefer it if my wife was pleasantly surprised after the upgrade

with the ride improvement and noise reduction.

 

Any thoughts welcome please :-)

 

Hi - I had the same clunky ride experience with my S1 111s & opted for just the S2 Bilstein/Eibach option & I must say it really did transform the road compliance 100%, while also the handling gains were considerable. Obviously as Dean mentions other wear needs to be checked in parallel to be sure of the knock cure. I did change my drop links & anti-role bar bush's at the same time as the cost & work was negligible & the standard role bar rubber bush's are rubbish imo, but if you have a road bias, with the extent of track use being relatively small then my experience with the Bilstein upgrade was a huge step forward.

 

On the other side, a new set of nice adjustable, colourful(!) Nitrons is not much of a difference in price, I did toy with this thought. So its really down to your personal aspirations?!

 

Murray

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Good advice on arbs drop links etc. Lots to think

about as always when you pose a 'simple question' ha ha !

 

Paul Matty gave her the once over, with rear tray removed, and nothing apparently amiss, and the

Wishbones seemed to be fairly rust free he thought. I'd assume he would have pointed out

anything obviously badly worn, and he for one recommended the S2 bilsteins.

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I made the 'mistake' of dropping in to Witney as I was passing by, and having a chat with Nitron.

They look impressive to me, and sometimes

offer refurb sets in the NTR versions. I'm tempted :-) .

Apparently part of what you're paying for is the quality of the components , which are designed to perform more consistently under continuous use.

 

I did read on a VX220 forum last night about an issue with lack of 'full' droop on earlier Nitron dampers, due to the design being too short at full stretch for the full movement of the wishbone to be reached.

No idea if that's a major concern mind. And even if it ever affected S1 damper set ups. It's a VX forum.

 

Nitron folk seem very helpful, and offered to swap

out for harder or softer springs if I disliked the setup. They're only a short hop away too, whereas the Quantum folk are a long hike away.

 

So, fast road NTR is looking likely, and if

I can get a refurb set for not a whole lot more than Bilsteins it seems compelling !

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Nitron are great dampers, no question. I had them on my vx. I would ask your supplier for advice on the damper length query, spring rates and whether you need helper springs or not.

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