Newbie question

[DeanB]

I found the travel to initial bite slightly annoying on my VX220 back in the day. It also made it harder to heel and toe smoothly because it was as though the brake pedal had two phases. I am very picky about such things though.

 

[Andy wright]

I had a great day out today at the Seriously Lotus  open day in East Yorkshire. Lovely drive out and back in glorious weather, over 100 cars to look at and people to chat to and a very nice ‘ hog roast ‘ lunch. Oh, and some nice goodies to look at , and I particular some B10 Tillet seats which are astonishingly comfortable. The only snag is that they are also astonishingly expensive . However, if anyone wants to buy my nearly new Corbeau LE seats with sewn in Lotus logo, it would be a great excuse for getting the Tillets ! 

[Andy wright]

Bit of a suspension update, not that mine has changed but that I met with fellow local owner Dave Robson earlier this week for a chat and a quick game of ‘ comparing our Elise’s on local bumpy roads. He too has an S2 ( in a really nice dark blue ) but with the Rover VVt engine and Nitron dampers . A very interesting comparison . Number one is the Rover VVT engine. Admittedly it’s more powerful than my Toyota 1ZZ and when provoked it really does feel it A real sweet spot engine in my view . Anyway, suspension. Neither Dave nor I are absolutely sure about exactly what springs he has on his Nitrons, but overall the suspension felt no harder than my standard o.e S2 Bilsteins which have 47.5N/mm at the front and 65N/mm at the rear ( so about 260 and 360 lb/in ) . However, the damping was more controlled . On poor roads, my Bilsteins felt distinctly ‘jiggley ‘ ( not sure that is even a word ) whereas the Nitrons were more composed and controlled . On smooth roads I suspect that the difference would be less marked ,  but with that comparison my feeling is that the Nitrons are a worthwhile upgrade on standard Bilsteins. Howver, I would be slightly wary of high spring rates . With the o.e Bilsteins , the wheel frequencies are already at the 1.8-  1.9 Hz . I certainly would not want to venture much north of 2.0Hz 

Of course, this is nuts one comparison , and wholly subjective. No idea what the equivalent Quantums would be like . If my Barclaycard could stand it ( it can’t ) I would invest in two way adjustable damping but that is £3.5k . Over and out . 

[Andy wright]

Last paragraph. For ‘nuts’ read ‘just’ 

[DeanB]

Good bit of info that Andy. 

Is Dave's car the one I saw at the LDC breakfast meet last Sunday with the modern type side intakes? If so it's a nice car.

You are welcome to try mine with Nitrons - my springs are too hard for the road imo.

[duncx]

1 hour ago, Andy wright said:

Last paragraph. For ‘nuts’ read ‘just’ 

Just in case you haven't spotted it, you have an EDIT function as shown in this rather confusing screen grab

 

 

Edited April 26 by duncx

[Andy wright]

49 minutes ago, duncx said:

Just in case you haven't spotted it, you have an EDIT function as shown in this rather confusing screen grab

 

Thank you .Not noticed that option before .

 

[Andy wright]

52 minutes ago, DeanB said:

Good bit of info that Andy. 

Is Dave's car the one I saw at the LDC breakfast meet last Sunday with the modern type side intakes? If so it's a nice car.

You are welcome to try mine with Nitrons - my springs are too hard for the road imo.

Thank you. Thats very helpful.,The original ‘ Chapman ‘ suspension philosophy was to use relatively soft springs and then control the movement with damping .He wasn’t even very keen on anti roll bars as he thought that with the correct chassis and suspension design with carefully matched roll centre and centre of gravity, anti roll bars ought not to be needed. The Elise has a very stiff tub so gets away with stiff springs. Cars I have built and / or worked on in the past like Alfasuds, Lancia Integrale and the Peugeot 205 all had shells thats, without a cage , were simply not stiff enough to cope with high spring rates . The Alfasud was renowned ( justly) for its excellent handling and steering but did not use high spring rates . And if you jacked up one corner of the car , the shell flexed so much that the door could not be openned . The Integrale and the 205 were not much better in that respect but all had excellent handling .

Anyway , ramble over. As and when I do upgrade my suspension , I am going to start with spring rates very similar to the ones I have . No doubt that on a smooth track, high rates are far superior, but as my car will spend 96% of its time on the Kings highway which is not quite as smooth ( read bloody awful in most places ) I will compromise the other 4% .

[winthattt]

I have the same spring rates as standard on my Exige but with Nitrons. It does roll, on track it lifts a rear wheel, but I think it handles fantastically and I suspect the lotus engineers knew better than me and could try endless options to prove what’s best. Stiffer may bf better on a full out race car but that’s beyond my limits.  
 

I changed to Nitrons on my S1 Exige as the Oem dampers squeak, randomly, it was called the Exige Yip.

[Andy wright]

3 hours ago, winthattt said:

I have the same spring rates as standard on my Exige but with Nitrons. It does roll, on track it lifts a rear wheel, but I think it handles fantastically and I suspect the lotus engineers knew better than me and could try endless options to prove what’s best. Stiffer may bf better on a full out race car but that’s beyond my limits.  
 

I changed to Nitrons on my S1 Exige as the Oem dampers squeak, randomly, it was called the Exige Yip.

Thats good to know . Someone with Nitrons on an Exige with standard spring rates . Thank you. 

[Andy wright]

And now back to Earth with fixing the residual problems on my S2, ; smallpox outbreak on both doors. They have clearly had the infection for some time and not received any treatment. Considered a number of options, the cheapest being several cans of ‘ Paintnuts ‘ aerosol , lacquer and , err , a bit of prep. Snag is that the prep would almost certainly take some areas down to the fibreglass, And then an option appeared on eBay ( as they do ) A pair of doors , complete except for the mirrors, and I mean complete , trims, hinges , glass , the  lot . Taken from a 2019 250 cup . Absolutely pristine and they arrived within 24hours. There is one very slight drawback which I think is hardly noticeable , but my wife did seem to think that they were much more bright primrose yellow than mid blue. She may have a point, albeit a small one. Anyway, bright yellow doors now completely stripped. ( but not in the photo, thats work in progress) . Now I just need  to make them slightly less yellow , rebuild them and fit them. 

[DeanB]

Do you have a spare pair of door internals?  If you do and you want to part with them I might be interested - mine are old and rattly.

Likewise waist seals?

No worries if not.

Thanks.

[Andy wright]

9 hours ago, DeanB said:

Do you have a spare pair of door internals?  If you do and you want to part with them I might be interested - mine are old and rattly.

Likewise waist seals?

No worries if not.

Thanks.

Morning. In a word, almost certainly yes. I am going to  take the new doors for paint tomorrow, then I am away for a week. Once I get them back and begin to build them up again, you are welcome to come over and have a look at the stuff that I have  and decide what , if any bits you want. In principle, I will have two complete sets of door internals and door cards , it’s only the door lock barrels that I will need to ‘Rob’ from my original doors 

I will let you know when I am ready to begin playing and then arrange for you to drive over and have a look . Be nice to meet you .

 

Edited May 6 by Andy wright
Spelling mistakes

[DeanB]

Andy that's great, I'll wait for your message. No rush.

Thank you.

If I come over in the Elise you can try the Nitrons.

 

 

Dean

[Andy wright]

Message from the paint shop today to say that they have managed to get a 98% colour match using a BMW colour. The lotus one ( B100) was more like 91% ( no idea how these %ages are defined ) but it all sounds promising.