Ultimate suspension on Stevens SE?

[Jacques]

While I don't have a S4/S4s, so I don't really know if this is relevant after all, here's my two cents on the matter.

As far as I remember, the Sport300, while having 16/17" wheels, are 10,5" width for it's 315 width tyre.

When I looked it up at some tiremakers pages, they fully accepted 10,75" for the 315/30-18 I use, Pirelli.

The tires sit nicely on the rim, no stupid German looking non-vertical sidewalls and no fully exposed rim edges, and on my 1990 SE, the wheels/tires do not stick out under the arches, exactly. Veeeery close, I'd say from measuring. Passes MOT where they also inspect for this. And at MOT here in my waters, there is no mercy, no exceptions.

As you know it's S4s European Futura's I am using, and I rebuilt them with Radinox outer rims. At the time I did this, I couldn't get a rim which was 1/4" wider to reach 11", but that also saved me from having to use arch extensions (which I will probably add anyway). Also, apart from the driving behaviour, the looks are fully acceptable to me at least, being not loo low sidewalls, and not too high, when using 315/30-18" rubber on the rear.

The grip is extreme. So is the cornering. I'll phrase it like this: if I have need for more grip, I would be driving like a absolute lunatic. And in my country, if you drive like that, they state will take your car permanently. As in 1700 cars since start of 2022. I didn't feel aquaplaning with this setup the few times I unfortunately have met serious rain.

I felt a marked difference between using 10" rears with 285/35-18" and 10,75" rears with 315/30-18" rubber. I perceive the difference just as big as going from 245 on standard 1990 SE 8,5" 16" rears, to the 10" 18" rears with 315/30-18".

While doing so, one other noticeable difference, is the surefootedness, from using tall side walls, to lesser ditto, and then again one step lower side walls. The car sits more planted and reacts better on steering input in turning, and feel less wobbly. Actually not at all any more. No, my suspension was not dead but fairly fresh.

Further, I don't feel at all, I repeat not at all, a sacrifice in comfort. And i am sitting in a Sport300 seat and using all Lotac bushings. On my 1990 SE, I have bigger wheel arches, at least bigger than on a 1988/1989 model, so no problems using these various wheels.

I should also add, that I've been using this setup both with standard Lotus suspension (for my model) and with Nitron adjustable coilovers (very good). I do feel that the Nitrons could be a tad firmer. I think I will try 1 number stiffer springs. There are several to choose from, when I spoke to Nitron. I did experiment with damping/rebound, and I now use 1 click harder. As Lotus changed the whole suspension setup a few times over the near 3 decades, they changed between anti-dive to pro-dive and back to anti-dive. My SE was a pro-dive, now an anti-dive in the whole setup. Far better in my humble view. I don't look at wheels or tyre dimensions separately, but I look at the geometry and setup as a whole, so I included geometry, tire dimensions, wheels, suspension, bushings, stiction, roll or anti-roll, pro-dive/anti-dive, weight and more. I think that is very important. Just my two pence.

Kind regards,

Jacques