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Lotus Eleven/Elise/Exige. Manual - part 30

Page 14

Lotus Service Notes

Section DH

DH.6 - SUPER SPORT SUSPENSION

To provide customers for 6-speed Elise/Exige with a track optimised suspension choice, a 'Super Sport'

suspension specification was introduced in early 2006 as a factory build option package comprising:

Bilstein dampers with thread adjustable spring platforms and 10 position combined damping adjustment.

Remote reservoirs on front dampers.

Note: For 'Cup' and supercharged cars fitted with Ohlins spring/damper units, refer to Exige S/C supple-

ment.

Road springs (Elise: 42.5/60 N/mm front/rear, Exige 47.5/65 N/mm front/rear) upgraded to dual rate speci-

fication; Front: 31.6/47.5 N/mm, Rear: 46.6/65 N/mm.

Front anti-roll bar gains 5-hole adjustment and hard plastic mountings.

Rear suspension chassis brace kit (recommended for track use and/or A048 tyres)

Lightweight forged wheels, 6.5J x 16 front, 7.5J x 17 rear.

Yokohama A048 tyres (standard fit on Exige), 195/50 R16 front, 225/45 R17 rear.

Ride Height

Cars factory built with Super Sport suspension are set at 130/130 ride height as standard cars, to provide

adequate road going ground clearance and ramp angles. To optimise the car for track use, it is recommended

to reduce ride height to 120/120mm.

To adjust the height, first load the car to the mid-laden condition with a full fuel tank and two 75 kg (12

stone) passengers. Then use the 'C' spanners supplied with the car to screw the spring collars upwards on

the damper body and drop the ride height as measured beneath the front and rear ends of each chassis main

siderail. To speed the attainment of this setting, the spring collars should be adjusted from the standard dimen-

sion of 110 mm front and rear, to an initial revised position of 104 mm front, and 102 mm rear as shown in the

illustration:

After setting the ride height, the front wheel alignment should then be adjusted back to zero (tolerance

+0.7 to -0.5mm toe-in total). All other settings should remain within specification (see below).

Damper Adjustment

Note that the front dampers are equipped with remote gas reservoirs secured to the front face of the body

side panels and are protected by the wheelarch liners. Damper adjustment is common to front and rear damp-

ers, and comprises a single knurled ring below the spring lower platform, with printed numbers 1 to 10 to be

viewed from outboard against an orange alignment dot on the damper body. 1 is fully soft, 10 fully stiff. Turn

the front wheels to full lock to view the front damper setting.

Rear shown. Front similar

Std. front: 110 mm. Lowered: 104 mm

Std. rear: 110 mm. Lowered: 102 mm

Locking ring

Spring seat

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Lotus Service Notes

Section DH

Recommended settings are as follows:

Road use: Front 3 Rear 2

Track use: Front 8 Rear 7

Anti-Roll Bar

An anti-roll bar with 5-hole adjustment is used, with cars built before August '06 using an uprated bar and

early type re-positioned hard mountings, whereas later cars use a yellow painted standard rate bar with revised

hard mountings in a position common with standard cars. Refer to sub-section CI.3.

Use the foremost hole P1 (shortest lever arm) for maximum stiffness and rearmost P5 for minimum. In-

creasing front roll stiffness will tend to promote understeer. Recommended position for road and track use is

central P3.

Chassis Rear Brace Kit

The chassis brace kit is fully described in sub-section DH.5 but is reduced in complexity for this application

by the use of a simple tubular brace to link the rear ends of the toe-link inboard fixing bolts. In this configura-

tion, a flat washer A120W4199F (7/16 x 7/8) must be used between the head of the toe link pivot bolt and the

crossbrace tube.

Forged Wheels

The lightweight forged wheels offer a saving of 14.4 kg/car on Elise and 20.4 kg/car for Exige, and feature

a wider front rim width of 6.5J. Insets are unchanged.

Yokohama A048 Tyres

The Yokohama A048 tyres have been developed jointly by Lotus and Yokohama to suit the requirements

of the performance driver, with special emphasis on track use. Compared with the standard tyre, the front tyre

width is increased and the profile reduced from 175/55 to 195/50. The tyre tread design is directional, such that

each wheel/tyre assembly is dedicated to a single vehicle corner. Tyre pressures are unchanged.

The Lotus specific construction is identified by the letters 'LTS' moulded on the tyre sidewall. Ensure

that any replacement tyre is so marked. Note that an edging strip is applied around both front wheelarches to

provide the necessary tyre coverage.

Geometry

Front

Mid-laden ride height (reference height for geometry check)

- front 120 mm below front end of chassis siderail

- rear 120 mm below rear end of chassis siderail

Castor - optimum + 3.8°

- tolerance range + 3.5° to + 4.1°; max. side/side 0.35°

Camber - optimum - 0.2°

- tolerance range + 0.1° to - 0.3°; max. side/side 0.2°

Knurled

ring

Rear Shown

Alignment

dot

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Lotus Service Notes

Section DH

Alignment - optimum Zero

- tolerance range 0.5 mm toe out, to 0.7mm toe-in overall

Rear

Mid-laden ride height (reference height for geometry check)

- front 120 mm below front end of chassis siderail

- rear 120 mm below rear end of chassis siderail

Camber - optimum - 2.5°

- tolerance range - 2.0° to - 2.7°; max.side/side 0.2°

Alignment - optimum 1.8 mm (0.24°) toe-in each side

- tolerance range 1.5 to 2.0 mm (0.20 to 0.27°) toe-in each side

max.side/side 0.3 mm (0.04°)

Super Sport Suspension Retrofit

To retro-fit Super Sport suspension to a Toyota powertrain Elise/Exige, the following parts and procedure

may be used:

Parts Required Part Number Qty

Front Damper A120C0018H 2

Rear Damper A120D0046H 2

Front Spring A120C0019H 2 31.5/47.5 N/mm

Rear Spring A120D0047H 2 46.6/65 N/mm

Front Spring/Damper Unit A120C0017F 2

Rear Spring/Damper Unit A120D0045F 2

'C' Spanner, spring seat adjust A120C6001F 1

Cradle, tie wrap, reservoir mounting A082W6293F 2

Tie Wrap, reservoir mounting A075W6038Z 4

Screw, M5 x 20, cradle fixing A075W5084F 2

Rawlnut, M5, cradle fixing A075W6074F 2

Anti-Roll Bar, stiffened, adjustable A111C0134S 1 Black

Mounting Clamp, Nylon A111C0052F 2 >

Spacer Sleeve, mounting clamp A111C0060F 2 >

Bolt, M5 x 45, cap head, clamp fixing A082W2106F 2 >

Washer, flat, M5, clamp fixing A075W4011Z 2 > Use with bar A111C0134S

Nyloc Nut, M5, clamp fixing A100W3113F 2 >

Pivot Bolt, M10 x 45, lower wishbone front A075W2065F 2 >

Washer, flat, M10, clamp to chassis A075W4024Z 2 >

Anti-Roll Bar, std. rate, adjustable A120C0020F 1 Yellow

Clamping Block, a.r.b. bush A120C0021F 2 )

Pivot Bush, a.r.b. A120C6002F 2 )

Bolt, skt cap, M8x65, clamp to chassis A125W7218F 4 ) Use with bar A120C0020F

Washer, flat, 25mm, clamp bolt B075W4021Z 6 )

Washer, flat, 16mm, clamp bolt A111W4175F 2 )

Nut, Nyloc, M8, clamp bolt A075W3010Z 4 )

Optional Additions

Chassis Rear Brace Kit (recommended for track use and/or A048 tyres)

LOTAC05377 1

Forged wheels & A048 tyres Refer to Parts List

Edging Strip, front wheelarch A117B0559F 2

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Lotus Service Notes

Section DH

Procedure

1. Anti-Roll Bar - stiffened rate adjustable

Remove the anti-roll bar after first drilling out the rivets securing the reinforcing brackets between the

bottom of the crash structure and the chassis.

The adjustable anti-roll bar is secured by two Nylon clamps, fixed to the chassis via the front lower wish-

bone inboard front pivot bolt, with a 'top hat' section steel spacer preventing the clamp from being crushed.

These hard type mountings provide optimum steering response but will transmit more noise and require

periodic lubrication with MoS

grease at 3,000 mile (5,000 km) intervals.

Modify the crash structure support bracket as necessary before refitting.

Anti-Roll Bar - standard rate adjustable

Remove the anti-roll bar after first drilling out the rivets securing the reinforcing brackets between the bot-

tom of the crash structure and the chassis.

Each split pivot bush incorporates a raised shoulder around its centre in order to engage with a groove in

the two part clamp, and provide lateral location. A pip on this shoulder locates in a hole in the clamp cap

to prevent rotation of the bush. No lubrication is required.

Each bush housing is clamped to the front face of the chassis with two cap head bolts inserted from the

front, using large washers under their heads and lower fixing nuts, and a smaller washer beneath the up-

per fixing nut to fit within the chassis extrusion. Torque tighten the clamp bolts to 25 Nm.

Refit crash structure brackets.

Anti-Roll Bar Mounting - Stiff adjustable

'Top hat' spacer

Clamping block

M5 bolt

Lower wishbone pivot bolt

Anti-roll bar

c40a

Anti-Roll Bar - Standard rate adjustable

Bearing clamp rear

Alignment dowel

Anti-rotation pip

Smaller washer

Cap head bolt

Chassis

front face

Anti-roll bar Plastic split bush Bearing clamp cap Flat washer

c40b

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