Suspension

[ceejam]

I want to limit the body roll on my elise (attached a pic, but it's huge)

And don't want to spend a fortune, want to keep the car comfortable on the road, but make it a wee bit lower, flatter and stick a bit better on the track.

I'm thinking the S2-S1 Bilstein / Eibach kit, but where from?? Stevge Butts seems to get a good writeup, the Eliseparts kit and the genuine Lotus one fomr Bell & colville all seem much of a muchness?? I found GAZ coilovers on ebay at a keen price, are these as good as the Bilsteins?

Also, if I got for Yoko A048s next, do I need an uprated rear toe link kit?

Also need to replace a couple of ball joints whose boots have split, before they get too sloppy, and may do arm bushes while I've just about got the whole thing apart anyway!

[ABZ-Elise]

If you want firm don't go for Bilsteins. I fitted a set at the start of the year and have now just ordered a set of Nitrons...saying that it depends what you're using the car for. If its everyday driving then the Bilsteins will be spot on but if you're tracking you car chances are you'll be the same as me and really not like them. If you did go for Bilsteins then I'd say Steve Butts is the guy to get them from as you can get a load of different ride height choices and he seems sound enough.

Kev.

[Rich H]

Gaz have been around for years, used to be renouned as being sh!te but have supposedly fixed the issues

Billies are exactly the same form Lotus/SteveB/Eliseparts mine came from Steve B and he was very helpful on the phone when I had an issue (Had to check the brackets were right) they are a 'factory upgrade'

Nitrons are the standard trackday choice of many. They are the standard against which all others are measured.

I love my S2 billies, but my car is a road car.

As with anything it depends on what you want them for.

[ceejam]

Kev, what you doing with the Billies that come off

Here's a piccy of what the car was doing

Macintyre's

[Rich H]

Ditch the pax

[ceejam]

Was doing that without him aswell. You should see how much the nose dives under braking for the hairpin!!

[alicrozier]

Worry when it's this bad...and your pax weighs 4 stone.

[philthy]

LSS on jjs s1-



not a competition though

[StiflerMR2]

Not a close one anyway! , thats mental!

[mckeann]

Lardy Honda elise




I've got holes in all my wheel arch liners after the weekend, that was on S2 LSS. No piccies tho.

[ceejam]

So, will an S2 Bilsteins kit make it handle better than it does at the moment on newish Konis?
Will they help me be a bit quicker round Knockhill?

I understand Nitrons are "the ultimate", but is that a step too far for a mainly road car?

Any thoughts on A048s and toe links?

[tut]

Nitrons are fine for road and/or track, just do not go mad on spring rates or wind them up too far.

Rear toe links should be upgraded regardless if you are going to track, essential if you go onto R tyres and Nitrons.

Steve Butts set up is probably the best all round for mostly road combined with some track.

Any upgrade will be an improvement on standard S1/S2 Konis.

tut

[graeme]

Worry when the inside wheels start lifting...



EDIT: Sorry, meant to add some advice, but got caught up digging cool pics out the archives

Match the tyres to the suspension. If you go for LSS or an S2 kit, stick with Toyo T1-Rs or Advans. If you go for Nitrons then choose R888s or 048s. Don't use sticky tyres and soft suspension or you end up with the kind of body roll in all the photos above. The best handling is found when you match grip with dampening.

[robin]

The front inside is commonly lifted out of slower corners like the hairpin and in particular with nitrons that don't have enough droop travel - it is not necessarily indicative of excess body roll.

For me, the S2 LSS is good enough. I use it on road tyres, but it also works on R-tyres. Of course you get too much lean when pushing on, and you do wear holes in the wheel arch liners as a result But the whole setup works well enough and it was already fitted to the car, so free Body roll is not necessarily a bad thing - on the elise the camber adjusts with body roll, so you get more -ve camber on the outside wheels (and thus push some of the thrust through the tyre rather than across the face) - but obviously a flatter car will ultimately corner faster - you need to add more camber to start with on a more heavily sprung car.

The only way to make the car lean less is to increase spring rates or ARB. For normal elise weights 400/500 is about as firm as you would want to go if you plan to drive on the road also. Looking at your picture I would guess the roll across the front is worse than the roll across the back - you may actually just want to fit a stiffer (adjustable) front anti roll bar and don't go mad on spring rates. This has the advantage of keeping the handling on the road more compliant.

I think the S2 bilsteins have about 20% heavier springs than S1 konis - nothing compared to typical Nitron spring rates, but in conjunction with the stiffer ARB might well make a significant improvement to a car running road tyres.

If you plan on running R tyres, I think you really do want the heavier spring rates of the Nitron-type setup. If you decide to go that route, you may as well buy the Hoffman's spec ones that everyone raves about, including our very own Ape, so probably quite good really.

If you decide to go the GAZ route, let us know how you get on please!

Cheers,
Robin

[ABZ-Elise]

Kev, what you doing with the Billies that come off

Here's a piccy of what the car was doing

Macintyre's

Sorry they're already spoken for.

Match the tyres to the suspension. If you go for LSS or an S2 kit, stick with Toyo T1-Rs or Advans. If you go for Nitrons then choose R888s or 048s. Don't use sticky tyres and soft suspension or you end up with the kind of body roll in all the photos above. The best handling is found when you match grip with dampening.

That will be why I don't like the Billies...I'm running 888's

Kev.