Great video as usual and I’m glad you decided to keep the Lotus for a while. I’ll be doing a few of the same modifications to mine so I’m interested to see things like which toe links you went with and why. Seems to be a lot of them on the market which strong opinions for one vs. the other.
I am using the BOE links. The downside is you have to drill the frame. The upside is a larger fastener diameter. My first lotus had a failing toe link.. it looked like a necking type failure. I couldn't tell that it was failing until I pulled it off the car. If you decided to stay stock while tracking the car, it is important to not only torque the toe links to spec periodically but actually pull them out and inspect for deformation.
So this explains a little.. I tried to ask about your Elise when it was for sale on TRED? But received no response.. glad to see you are keeping it! That being said, I was considering stock one (yours) to compliment my CO 05 Elise that I am running in SCCA AStreet. Currently sporting Custom built DA Penskes with remote reservoirs from BWR machined to fit the OEM mounting brackets in front and having to utilize the OEM springs. Like you said, even rides better than OEM!! Love these cars, so fun!!
Hey there. I'm just about to pull the trigger on these Penske DA's. I was wondering why you went with 600/800 instead of 550/800? I've been going back and forth on which "track" rate I want since, due to SCCA Street Touring rules, I can't switch out the steering arms to gain any camber. There are some $$$ ways around that but for the time being I'll be stuck with ~0.8 degrees up front. Do you think 550 or 600 would be better up front with a low camber, open differential elise?
Can you remove shims or machine your factory steering arms to get more camber? Or is 0.8 the limit? It’s been awhile since I’ve played with the lotus set up but I’d lean toward 550 in your case
@@ZentRose The current options for SST are to shorten the upper a-arms or switch out the uprights to gain camber. I've removed all but the ABS shims already, we aren't allowed to machine the steering arm or swap in an aftermarket one. I'm not positive if 0.8 is the limit on OEM arms as I haven't measured. I'm just guesstimating as I'm sure that most folks report barely a degree taking out the shims. Just adding on, the car was running recently street category so the only real performance mod is BWR street/track sway bar and Bridgestone RE71-RS in 215/45/16 and 245/40/17 sizes
I am not an expert on suspension but I always thought Ohlins were the best. I have not heard of Penske. What’s your opinion between the 2 brands? Great video by the way.
I run both Ohlins and Penske on different cars. It just depends on the application. At $3000, the Penske set up from black watch racing is a no brainer on the Elise (price point, serviceability, damper performance). If I went ohlins on this car, I'd be looking at the TTX which is around $5,000 for just the dampers.
Could you please let us know: * What steering arms did you use? * How much negative camber were you able to get on the front with the new steering arms? * What ride height are you running front and rear? Thanks for the video and information.
I got the arms from blackwatch racing. You can get a little over 2 degrees at stock ride height. I kept the ride heights at the stock 130/130. You can get more negative camber by lowering the car.
Both are good. JRZ seems to work better on the street when you soften up the damping but the JRZ dampers are incredibly expensive to service. Penske is more user friendly
Cost to race in fluids/pads/tires, zent said, is all due to less weight, and thus less heat and less demand on brakes etc.. Cost to own, I'll guess, is heavily influenced by depreciation (or lack there of)
