Ultimate suspension on Stevens SE?

[Bibs]

TLF are a Nitron dealer, I'll call them on Monday and get some pics and the items up in our shop

[MrDangerUS]

Has anyone tried fitting a rear anti roll bar onto our cars?

Edited November 28, 2014 by MrDangerUS

[Trevsked]

Hi Trevor,

Sounds great. I would like to ask about this new suspension.

How does it look? Is it the specific colour light blue and gold anodised surface?

Can we see a few pics?

 

Kind regards,

Jacques.

Jacques,

Yes blue and gold with blue springs, looks good I think. I'll see if I can get some pics from under the car tomorrow.

I forgot to say that I had hoped the greater suspension control would lead to better traction as the V8 produces quite a lot of torque and tends to break loose on uneven surfaces. Whilst I haven't given it a proper test, initial impressions are that this is much better than previously, albeit our suspension would be past it's best by now.

Trevor.

[Jacques]

Thanks for your answer, Trevor.

While I am certainly no expert on the subject at all, I have a feeling that a combination of a specific spring and a certain valveing for damping and in this case return, is giving a better traction. This would be the case even if you had fresh original suspension, I believe.

Now, I don't know the V8 suspension setup, but I think I've read somewhere, that is is slightly more comfort orientated, compared to the four-cylinder cars, so it this may widen the difference slightly more.

 

Looking very much forward to seeing it for sale on this webpage, and I would like to know if this is a one model kit only, or there will be variants to the four-cylinder cars, or there will be even more adjustability options, or one fits all.

 

Kind regards,

jacques

[Trevsked]

Jacques,

I may be wrong but I came away from Nitron with the idea they will be offering two variants, one fast road as has been fitted to my car and one for track without the rubber mounts and stiffer rates. I believe all the later cars 4cyl or V8 will fit the same units and the springs are I believe circa 30% uprated over the standard springs on my car ( keep in mind my Esprit is the Sport 350 so on the sporty side). One fits all, correctly.

Trevor.

[Jacques]

Could it be arranged so with Nitron, that they can valve their set individually to the customers wish?

 

Sorry about my V8 remarks, as I had overlooked, that you have the Sport350.

 

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Trevsked]

Jacques,

No problem about mine being the 350, I just wanted to clarify that my V8 wasn't soft. I would imagine Nitron could tailor the shocks however you would like them, at a cost and if you were specific about settings. The units are adjustable anyway so perhaps there is enough adjustment to suit your needs? Just been out in the rain and it's definitely stiffer than it was and almost no roll and traction out of the corners a huge improvement over my original (tired) units.

Trevor.

[Jacques]

Thanks Trevor. Sounds good. I look forward to see the items in pics.

 

Kind regards,

jacques

[Trevsked]

Took a couple of pics as promised yesterday. May be a tiny bit low on the rear but I think it looks pretty good.

 

Trevor.

 

[Jacques]

Looking very good. And a helsper spring too.

Thanks for sharing.

I look forward to seeing it on this page's webshop.

 

I have a question though. The top bush kit front and rear, have you changed this as well? Maybe to something more sustainable than rubber, while still able to absorb and not send reflections into the chassis?

 

 

3-2-1-Go!

Jacques.

[Vulcan Grey]

Trev,

 

what length are the front springs?

 

Mine are 8"x2.5"x300lbf/in and I had to crank the pre-load up quite a bit to get to a normal ride height.

 

The Nitrons are looking good btw.

[Trevsked]

Jacques,

Nitron said they used my original top mount rubbers so must consider them worthy.

Travis,

I'll check to see if the spring dimensions are on the info sheet Nitron gave me but I do know that they used 350ftlb springs all round. I'd the dimensions aren't on the sheet I can always email and ask.

Trevor.

[Vulcan Grey]

They look great.  Am I correct in guessing that the rear springs will require upper adapters to fit on an SE, to adapt the smaller diameter springs to the chassis perch?

 

The rear upper spring perch on the SE's has a lip that will interfere with a 2.5" spring

[Trevsked]

Hi Travis,

I'm afraid I can't shed any light on that as I don't know the setup on my car. Best thing to so is email Nitron and I'm certain they will be happy to help.

Trevor.

[Vanya]

On 11/28/2014 at 20:31, MrDangerUS said:

Has anyone tried fitting a rear anti roll bar onto our cars?

I just thought about this today. 

My SE is running new springs and dampers all around (OEM in front, GAZ in rear) but it rolls so much more than my V8, and not to mention my Peugeot RCZ which I swear doesn't budge a degree (well, it's a modern monocoque with sports suspension so...). With the comfort seats it's a real pain going round corners and I swear it'll tip at anything higher than 40 km/h in a roundabout. And I had ballast in the car when doing the suspension! 

It's gonna be a pain shelling out for new shocks and springs all over again, but the V8 handles a lot better round corners (in terms of body roll!) which tells me there's lots of capacity left before the chassis starts becoming a major issue. 

That said, any stiffening of springs and the chassis should probably be attended to around the gearshift aperture and other weak links (anyone know exactly which locations Lotus strengthened for the S4/S4s/V8 chassis?)

 

[sailorbob]

Excluding the S350, which had a thicker gauge for the engine bay chassis tubes, the main improvement that stiffened the chassis from the later S4 chassis onwards was the strengthening of the gear lever aperture. For a DIY improvement see http://www.exit109.com/~mfennell/lotus/chassis/

[Jacques]

Well, there may be a few other differences more across the Esprit range.

On the SE, at least model year 1990, the font arb is thicker than on the Turbo and the later Stevens and v8 cars. Except for the Sport350, where it Again became the same thickness as on the 1990 SE.

A good idea is to delete the two sloppy very very soft original rubber bushings that is on the center of the front arb, and install hard, very hard poly ones, exactly for this application. SJ know exactly what it is, where as the others don't and keep sending me wrong ones from a later model year. They are purple and hard. Good for lesser roll.

So, the outer bushings are made from Lotus' Lotac programme, and are also stiffer than the rubber nonsense.

There may be something with your suspension setup Vanya. Maybe too Little oil? too Little gas (if any?)? Wrong springs?

Generally speaking, the V8 cars are softer than the early SE. So should be quite good with only Little roll. Later they became softer still.

Mine is on "newish" original dampers and springs, and it does not roll very much. Actually very Little. Actually very Little indeed. But I want it flatter still. I'll go for the gearmaster chassis brace, the Sport300 rear engine uper craddle and the Nitron adjustable suspension +5%.

All bushings changed to Lotac poly ones as well.

Many dampers become harder as they go lower (shorter).Is your car at standard height, or lower or higher?

There are companies who revalve dampers etc, so they have the hardness the customer want. I had that done to my Öhlis suspension on my Laverda.

Another quick solution: drive slow and respect the spped signs? Oh well, forget that. You drive a Lotus, so never mind I said it

Bigger Wheels and modern lower tires. Read: V8/S4s Wheels. Does tighten Things up a bit. So try swapping Wheels, if you have installed later front hubs on your SE. If not, pass by me, I'll buy you a beer, and we try different Things out. If you wait a month or so, you can try some 315/30-18 rubber at my place   The standard height on SE tires are quite high and soft. More slobbyness, more understeer and more roll.

Seriously, the purple arb bushings really help. So does the end ones. Measure your front arb and tell us what diameter it is?

As far as I remember, thicker front arb, can introduce more understeer, but you can correct for that.

The front cross member stiffening Square tubes are welded in per factory on my 1990 SE, but bolted on, on  later models, as they have servicable power steering.

Less weight promote less bodyroll and less weight shift

Kind regards,

Jacques.

 

[Jacques]

I may be wrong, but I think it was possibly Travis, who once mentioned, that springs on an Esprit cannot be very stiff, as the chassis is too soft for that. Hence the strenghening.

Kind regards,

Jacques

[set]

My SE just failed its MOT because of leaking front shocks. They are Protech's (fitted I don't know when) so I need to get replacements but don't feel like shelling out £1,000 on Nitrons. Are Protech a reasonable option again?

[Vanya]

SJ has original coilovers available!

[set]

Thanks Vanya - I'll contact them.

Any idea if Protech shocks are better or worse than OEM shocks ( and who made the OEM shocks for 1990 SE models)?

[set]

I've gone for replacement Protech adjustable dampers from SJ. Should arrive tomorrow. Thanks for the pointer!

[Guest]

Thanks to @Bibs

i fitted full Lotac and then had bell and Colville do my geometry.

transformed my gt3, it is pin sharp now and also improved braking! I guess because the rubber is better planted.

it made my GT3 a sports car, it used be a grand tourer. Have to say that my dog now doesn’t like it, too hard for her.

So I guess it is equivalent to sport versus tourer.

 

incredible difference and a top quality upgrade.

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Laika

[MrDangerUS]

Nothing exotic, on the budget, but quite effective!

On my S4s, I've kept stock frt springs ( 234#) and shocks, but replaced ARB with 17mm dia rod off S350, and increased rear spring rate to 275# (Eibach # 1200.300.0275 S ) with LOTAC 05405 shocks .

Car handles fabulously, no roll in corners, rides like "on rails"! I like it very much. 

Above changes were NOT expensive, yet very effective!
 

 

[MrDangerUS]

I'm curious if anyone has installed 315/30 (35?)/18-s on 95 S4/S4s Esprit?
If yes, what is the brand of your wheels and offset?

My measurements revealed, that with the current OE offset, 315 tyre will stick out ~5mm beyond the edge of the wheel opening.
Solutions: add V8 flares or... reduce wheel offset to from +17mm to +10mm, but that means custom made rims.

315 tyre requires 11" wide rim. Since I quite like the looks of my  Novas (10" wide rr), I'll keep 295-s skins for now.