Elite 4.9

Welcome No 7. Glad to have you on board here at the Lotus Forum. Spend some time (last couple years ) near Nez Perce and I have a few friends in Boise. You definitely have the Lotus fuel running in your veins. atb, Richard

Hey Oz and welcome to the Lotus Forum and good to see another US Lotus guy. Lived in San Diego, just south of La Jolla, for a few years so love your constant sunny, warm, dry, summer weather. What you need is the doc (on here somewhere) that shows all of the inter-changeable parts and what actually was used, many times, when these cars were new. atb, Richard

Grew up with coffee the first thing I smelled each morning as my dad had his normal first cup at home before going to work. Me, vast majority of my life, loved the smell didn't like the taste...way too bitter. But then my daughter got me started drinking an espresso, the darker the better, with some liquid stevia sweetener, in various flavors. Couldn't believe how people could drink it black but that is how I enjoy it today. And HOT! . Tea is ok.... just not something that drives me to it all that much. But one of my all time favorite racing drivers, "Teddy tea bagger" Ken Miles. I knew it had to be a great English drink way back the 1960's if K. Miles has to have it. Coffee is just king in the US especially in the Pacific NW. It is also one of the most powerful antioxidants. What better way to start your day in wet cold damp conditions that are now upon us closing in on winter soon. One thing I just learned is that the caffeine, in coffee, has a half life of 8 hours meaning you still have half the caffeine in your body after 8 hours. cheers, Richard ps love coffee ice cream..BEST...Starbucks "Java chip" dangerous substance !!!!

Welcome JT to the Lotus Forum. Nice looking ride you have there. Great color ! atb, Richard

Make sure you check the top of the exhaust pipes for holes as this is where it corrodes first and they are right next to the frame and if so, it won't be long before the rust will damage the thin sheet metal frame. My Elite, with just 28,000 miles on it when I bought it, had holes in the top of the pipe. No real damage had yet occurred on the frame but then mine was only 8 years old when I got it. Nice find and really not all that bad to start restoring your classic Elite. atb, Richard

Most cams I have seen are measured in degrees @ .50 lift Not sure how Lotus does it though. Find and Lotus engine builder who knows is my best advice. atb, Richard

Welcome David to the Lotus forum. One of my all time favorites is the Elan since it was new. Great choice ! By the way, my grandfather left Devon, England, real close to Plymouth way back in 1902 just after queen Victoria funeral. Maybe that is why I have had so many English sports cars over the years. It's just in my blood. lol atb, Richard

Yeah, Pete is right, it can be done but is just better to drop the rear end. Makes the job quite easy when you do that. Just the opposite if you don't. Ask me how I know? Richard

Kind of sounds like a bad or loose ground but these days your computer controls pretty much everything and they do, like all electrical devices, have a life expectancy and don't last. May need to put it on a scope to find the problem. atb, Richard

Welcome to owning an Elite. But you have to remember these cars are old so most systems on these cars that aren't lovenly cared for, just have to been gone through especially the brakes. When Road & Track magazine, road tested the first year second gen Elite, it had the shortest stopping distance of any car they tested with the exception of a racing car. That was the first thing my dad taught me as a kid working on my '57 Ford, brakes.

This is one thing that even the Lotus factory changed later getting rid of the same basic system that they used since the Elan. This was never changed on the Elan that I know ( they worked just the opposite from the second gen Elite...vacuum powered down and spring loaded up ....till they figured out you after you use all the power, like accelerating uphill, the old Elans headlamps would fall back down as they were vacuum assisted in the up position. Not a good design for night time driving. Older Fords had this system of vacuum powered wipers and one had to let off the throttle. for a second or two, to clean the windshield in a rain storm. After owning my '74 Elite and getting tired of seeing my headlamps in the up postilion which would only say down for a max of 12 hours and that was after I worked hard getting all the leaks as best I could eliminated , I decided to modify them with electrics lifts like I had on my TR8. Mazda uses an electric system that also works well for this mod and they stay where you put them. Well worth the time do so IMHO. atb, Richard

To drop the rear end is no big deal. Once you do it a couple of times, it can be taken out in less than an hour. I used an air powered rivet gun with a flat hammer end to drive out the long bolts holding the whole rear end in place. Just use a smaller diameter long punch to drive out the bolts completely. You will have to disconnect the emergency brake cable right at the rear end. This seemingly simple step can give you fits if you try while the rear end is up in place unless you cut holes behind the rear seats to easily access the cable. You can lower the whole mess down to better access this step but rear end won't be totally free until the cable is disconnected. Not only will you need new seals on both sides , you will need two steel rings, one for each side, which is the most difficult part to deal with. It has to be cold chiseled off by smacking it with a hammer. Then when putting the new one on, you may have to take a few thousands off the inside of the steel ring with some light 220 grit wet dry sandpaper, like I did, and you will also need to heat the ring up in your oven to help expand it enough to slip it over the axle after you have carefully slid the new seals on without tearing the thin rubber which is the actual part that fails and is easily torn. Ask me how I know that? There is another thing you may have to deal with and that is the valve in the brake line ( located on my '74 Fed Elite in the engine bay, passenger side, low just before the brake line heads back to the rear. This part, can and will stick and not allow any brake fluid past to actually actuate the rear brakes. I tried to power bleed my rear brakes and even 160 psi was not enough to pump fluid to the rear brakes. Like anything new it may look a bit intimidating but after if you regularly do major stuff on your Elite it will just be another step necessary to keep these cars with all the original parts on the road. However, this is not all that difficult. atb, Richard

Welcome Jason, From out on the northwest coast out of Seattle. Sounds like you have Lotus in your blood now. Enjoy this site. hope you get what you want. Richard

Why people want to even think of altering or modifying any Lotus suspension is beyond me. Just because Lotus was so innovative in F1, that for many years, Lotus was so far ahead of the rest that the races became a race for, who was going to take second. Lotus road cars are a direct derivative of their racing cars so any modification that alters anything that has to do with handling should be an obvious no. no if you ask me. Why else do people buy these cars if not for the way the are designed with road manners a cut above the rest. Great fun ! These Elites give the impression of a larger car ( Body shape to allow 4 seats and could easily been a two seater...same wheel base as many Corvettes of the past.) but are so well sorted and designed to give much pleasure to those of us who love to corner fast.....much faster than most anyone drives simply, because you have to try really hard to find the limit in the Elite. I installed a Buick V-8 but it is as light as the original 907 Lotus twincam otherwise I wouldn't have done it because the sensitiveness of the front end springs, as they would have to be changed for most larger engines. And my Elite is already too low for some parking lot speed bumps so why would you want to lower it and mess up a car that is simply mind blowing in its' road manners especially around corners. I have made a good number of improvements and modifications on my Elite but this was one thing I really loved about the Elite, the fact that I didn't have to lower it because it already comes that way from the factory. Cheers, Richard

I always add Lucas oil stabilizer to my oil which is a thick, VERY sticky additive made for all engines. It not only will increase your oil pressure but will also eliminates dry starts when cold and sticks to all bearing and rotating engine parts to make them last longer. It will also give you better cylinder ring sealing which will raise your compression slightly and give you more power and mileage. I have used it for many years in all my engines and the big truckers swear buy it, buying it by the gallon. A friend with a Detroit diesel ran his 14.8 liter straight six to a million miles before overhauling it ! He also got up to 8.7 mpg (US) Pretty good for such a large loaded truck powered semi engine. It also allows motor oils a higher degree of lubricity which reduces oil consumption. Great stuff !! It has been around for a long time and has been tops in my book for many years and I never drive without it. https://lucasoil.com/products/engine-oil-additives/heavy-duty-oil-stabilizer cheers, Richard

yes please include me for best recovery and thanks for all the work in the past done for our enjoyment. Bought my '74 Elite in 1984 and still own it. ATB, Richard

Stay away from the original GM unit. I took mine off and haven't as yet replaced it but then I live in a climate that really doesn't get all that hot so not really needed. It also took 8 hp to run which in the federal version was too much to loose. Lotus said it was and extra 135 lbs (whole system ) so different front springs were required to offset the added weight. And it uses Freon 12 which is no longer manufactured. R-134a replaced that so get a modern one for sure. An aluminum housed sound better for sure. Probably many from newer cars will do the job. atb, Richard

Hey Richard, Welcome to the forum ! Nice find! Love that color. It looks like at least one of the rad fans has been replaced and I would guess it is the orange fan bladed one. These are dc motors so you should be able to switch the 2 wires and run it the other way, sucking in the air, as it is suppose to simulate just like when driving down the road. There are jacking points on the bottom of the body but not the chassis. I jack mine Elite with a hydraulic jack on the rear end and on the front cross member only. You will need to find a workshop manual or wait for someone to post a picture of where they are. Your scissor lift may fit as the places for lifting it are inside the wheelbase of the car. atb, Richard

I have a workshop manual from Dr. Christopher Jacobs an electrical engineer from back a few years. The name of the book is call "optimizing your ignition" and he tells all the secrets of his trade to maximize what you have, for most power and efficiency. He said 90% of all electrical problems on cars are bad grounds which you found. Great job! My Elite, when I purchased it, had a good number of melted wires, mostly under the dash. Not the optimum of electrical design with only 28 k on the OD and less than 10 years old. I, like you, just ran new wires. What kind of new upholstery are you going with? These cars came with a cloth originally and then leather was an option some time later which is the way I went. But there is a lot of interior in this car so it probably won't be cheap to do. Are you keeping the same color exterior and what did you pick for your interior color? Not too many of these cars are in the US and running so this is going to be somewhat of a rare one. In my Lotus club we only have 2. atb, Richard

Hey BK, Nice find. Looks like a twin to my car, that is, when I purchased it in 1982. Same color but mine had the federal black, rubber bumpers and all which I took off and bought the better looking Euro styled ones along with the front air dam. Mine is slightly modified in areas for more performance and a bit of cosmetics too with many hours into it but these cars as you know can really be a lot of fun to drive fast and were made to corner from the get go. Look forward to what you do with it. I have some pictures in my album folder if you care to see them with my upgrades. cheers, Richard

I looked at putting a Jag rear end in my Elite many years ago. I even shoved one up in place to see just what needed to be done and concluded it was just to difficult a job that I didn't want to do and figured out there must be another rear end that would fit. And all your work just shows how difficult it would have been. Yours looks very well done and some great fabrication is evident but certainly a lot of work. Great job undertaking a much needed improvement IMHO! The other reason I didn't proceed with the Jag rear end is that it is some 30 lbs heavier as I remember it, but certainly much more robust and would not be over stressed in a much lighter Elite. And of course having the disc brakes is a huge benefit as far as I am concerned and getting rid of problem of rear end grease leaking past the seals onto the rear brake shoes. Mine were totally soaked in only 28,000 miles, making the rear brakes totally ineffective. Not matter what rear end one wants, to replace the original forklift rear end of the Elite, will take a bunch of clever well designed effort like you have to done here. Great looking and well done Nick ! Actually, it is easier now, to find one, than ever before because of most cars including almost every SUV have independent rear ends. AdvanTEK made by Dana, has many to pick from and these have aluminum housings and are much lighter, smaller in size and computer designed with a limited slip locking rear end. These are much more efficient in transferring power but of course would be quite a bit more expensive than the Jag unit. https://spicerparts.com/parts/axle/automotive/advantek-axles cheers, Richard

One other factor that no one has as yet mentioned is the roll over center that the whole design dictates of the rear suspension on the Elite which is just above ground level. All the geometry in this design works to put it there which also makes for one VERY fast cornering car. I have taken corners so fast, I though I was afraid, in mid corner, of over doing it and may be in trouble when in fact, I wasn't even that close to the limit. No sliding whatsoever even on very old nearly worn out tires, years ago. It actually blew my friends away that were riding with me. They were simply amazed at the road manners of this car. So was I!! This is one thing I love about the Elite, in that, one can drive very enthusiastically without getting close to the limit and enjoy this car like it was made for such fast driving. It was touted, by the Lotus factory, as being able to corner 15% faster that the Europa which is saying quite a lot. Some Europa guys think this could never be but I have driven both cars and believe it. The stance of the Elite is very similar to two cars considered to be the top performers of their day, the F40 Ferrari and the M1 McLaren both of similar wheel base, height, width and weight. Lotus didn't go backward in design and you will never see an F1 car with the Europa dimensions. This is not to say the Europa is a bad design, as I think it is a great one and love driving them. It just is too narrow and small for fast corning like the Elite can do and similar more modern Lotus cars. The Elite could very well have been a two seater as it has the same wheel base of the older Corvettes and no one would think this car would ever be a 4 seater. Just imagine what the body could look like with just two seats? I think all Lotus had to do was make a two seat version of this car and sales would have gone through the roof along with a Rover aluminum V8 to match. And maybe even a rag top.

If you follow Lotus's F1 evolution in chassis design in the later part of the 1960's, you would see they went from a F1 design that the Elite had a close copy of, to a design that had a top link and didn't use the drive shafts as upper links. It is a sound design and does work better but uses more parts and is more complicated. And most other F1 constructor teams followed suit as did much of the road production design of suspensions in sports cars and now in many other cars as well. It just works very well but it took Lotus to figure it all out early on. Lotus had another company, other than their road car production company, that did work for many other car manufactures of street type cars and help them figure out their suspension designs as well. Not sure this Lotus company still exists and are still in business but, some companies actually bought Lotus like Toyota, and GM to finely get a similar system working in their street cars. The Toyota MR2 and the Corvette were just two customers that benefited and used Lotus Engineering to help them in suspension design. Smart move on their part for sure.

You are right Pete in that, anything can be made better and it all starts in ones head thinking about it. Lotus did have great suspension and chassis designs as proven in their domination of grandprix cars and these designs ended up, many times, in their road cars thankfully. But you need to remember, a racing car only needs to stay together for, at best, a couple hundred miles to be successful and Colin only built street cars to subsidize his racing program. These are not 100,000+ mile commuter type autos. They will need much more maintenance that most road cars that are built to get to work and the grocery store and back home. Not to go out and be Joe racer on the back highways like many who buy these types of cars want to do. It would take a bunch to improve the road holding design and put it on an Elite, IMHO, for one simple reason and that would be that the pickup points on the chassis are very difficult to change as it is so light weight in construction being mostly thin sheet metal. The reason the Elite and many other Lotus street cars can hold the road so well in the corners is that the whole of design keeps the tire flat on the road giving maximum tire contact (adhesion) with the road so as to take advantage of the whole width of the tire during hard cornering. Hey.... Lotus cars being so finely tuned are the reason many, including me, buy Lotus street cars in the first place. I have even, in the past, tried to buy a couple of Lotus racing cars but the deals fell through not being my fault whatsoever, sad to say. A Lotus 11 and a 30. Dirt cheap too in the day !!

Not sure why you would want to alter the rear suspension design on the Elite. I have driven mine into corners that few cars could do as fast and as comfortable with ease of control that can only be described as awesome. And most people, owning this car, seldom will reach the limit and really can't with the tires available today on the 14 inch rims it came with. That is why I went to a 16 inch wheel to be able to buy Z rated high performance tires. I realize that these wheel bearings do take a lot of stress and have read where they many times only go around 25,000 miles before needing to be replaced. I have yet to replace mine but think that I may go to a larger bearing, in the future, like used on the older Jags and Corvettes as they are the same design and don't have any issues like the Elite does. I think replacing larger u-joints as well for the same reason is a good idea especially if you have more power like I have and want to use it. Others have tried to alter the design with an upper link but it doesn't work all that well from what I have read. These cars where made and fine tuned to be driven fast and Colin's favorite driver was an Elite. This is the same rear end design that was used on Lotus's F1 cars in the early 60's so it is a tried and proven system even though it may be somewhat flawed. Like many flawed or weak designed things on the Elite, one can try and fix them or just live with them and fix it when it breaks. Talking about it and making a change for the better are two different things and I would be surprised if anyone could make an improvement with this design without really making a number of major changes in the total package design and make an improvement from a company that dominated F1 grandprix racing during the time this car was produced. Many have tried and I don't know of any that have been successful. Just my two cents. Richard