f1karting

It sucks when you loose a good stream of thought to the "back" button... The numbers I believe I got from Tim Engle last year. I dont know if you know of Tim.. he is a true lotus guy.. lots of good knowledge.. based in CA. I think the kits produced by Lotus will likely be very good. For most owners there is comfort in running factory stuff vs aftermarket. I am pretty confident in my own design and fabrication work, and would be happy to pass on my knowlege base to anyone who would like it. I firmly believe that sharing knowledge and information does nothing but speed up the development process. To the contrary, it seems to me that Lotus tend to hand out a lot of hype and propaganda...everything is so secretive... the information they hand out is too little to work with. I dont undertstand why?? They should be more forthcoming and sincere with information, we would all be better off, and lotus would be more respected as a result. to all of you here on the forum..have a great chistmas

Agreed.. however in the case of the Esprit.. Lotus, or anyone else for that matter, have to work within the existing framework of the chassis and suspension. You can only do so much given the fixed points and limited variables available for tuning. Here is some spring rate information I have been able to locate: 98 V8 GT - F211/R245 V8 - F260/R250 SE - F171/R154 S300 - F313/R345 S350 - F350/R314 SE V8 - F327/R316 S3 - F125/R155 As far as your GT3 maybe you know the rates? Given the general trend that the rates for the sport series are about 300# and the MR for the cars are at about 1.1 rear and 1.5 front, your 10mm ride height would add up to a car that has about 270# less rear weight and 200# less front weight.. Is your GT3 470# lighter than the rest?? Damping is tuned to control suspension harmonics, acceleration, and load transfer rates. Tuning will vary according to the spring rates selected vs the sprung and unsprung weights. Spring selection is generally based on weight transfer and ride comfort requirements. In racing, suspension travel and geometry change limits are considered as well. The fact is that the chassis beyond the S3, all except for a few cars (eg:x180), did not get get a stiffening excersise. What you say is basically correct...Spring and damper tuning is all abount managing the rate and amounts of weight transfer front to rear, side to side and x-weight. That has to be balanced against the total vehicle weight, weight distribution, roll centers, moments of inertia, tire selection, and ride comfort amongst other things. Geometry determines how efficiently all that gets transfered into the road surface. Its all a compromise... each condition requires a different setup...optimizing everything to work well together and for a wide range of vehicle states and road conditions requires lots of testing and tuning... something that Lotus specialize in.

now that would be worth 250 quid!! why not reproduce them for us to buy.. I am sure the confidential nature is past.

We are Canadian

Hi Louis.. best of the season to you I would also check 1) that the jets are seated fully; 2) that no crap has gotten into the idle or main jet air correctors; 3) to make sure the accel pump check-ball is seating. If it isnt, small amounts of fuel may leak thru the accel circuit/jet under normal running making the cylinder rich; 4) make sure the starter circuit is not bypassing fuel under normal running. cheers J

Right on!! ahhh.. I see.. I bet your car looks great... Mine did look like a 4b4... and the front suspension angles were god awful as a result. I am surprised it handled as well as it did. What rates are the 1980 springs.. the federal ones on mine were 125F/155Rg.

Thats Richard Jenveys car.. he even still has the molds for those body bits.

I don

Realized after posting you had a later car.. I guess I should have replied to the quote from Bibs instead "We are currently looking at what we can do for models 1980 - 1984." My cost included new CrMo lower arms, upper mount, and rose joints. Youve got quite the catalog of pix on your site ..wow

I didnt think the cars qualified for historic.. I have friends involved in the Vintage Racing scene.. Ill ask them what they know as well. If that group of cars run at the events, that would be great fun! Thanks for checking stuff out.. nice picture fo the Esprit.. they do look nice lowered dont they? Speaking of which, on another thread you mentioned your cars ride height.. at 6.3/6.5".. that cant be OE.. I just mocked up my new suspension with the ride height set to about 6" on the sills and it sure as hell aint stock... its about 1.5" lower. If yours is at that height, I bet it looks absolutely great!...

not ready to be relegated to page two.. lets have some more input

It was very good, but like Wayne said .. could have had more.. I realize the time constaints, however his "gloss over" on the road cars was obvious.. he looked like he was in a hurry to get thru them, like they were embarassed to show them... and bad angles to boot. A copy of the 67 Jim Clark 49 would have been a treat... The Esprit in GT1 would have been nice to show... They didnt mention the trusty old twin cam engine that served them so well... They could have mentioned the Lotus Cortinas, Escorts and Sunbeam Talbot as well as their contribution to motorsports.. I think there may have been some Lotus Cars sponsorship to plug the Elise/Exige

The cooling fans on our cars are to keep the driver cool... ..watch him sweat when they stop!!

I think 4-cyl as well.. however the rules I found for SCCA dont seem to allow turbochargers. Messrs. Kemp would have to build a NA motor.. Richard Jenvey in UK raced an S2/S3 in the 80s.. it would be nice to get his input. It seems that GT2 is the class the Esprit fits in SCCA, however it would be nice to be able to get accepted into Improved Touring to keep the cost down. SCCA Grand Touring Regs SCCA Improved Touring Regs

I am serious about the possibilities here... Im not talking about lotus doing a racer either...

Heres a question that may yield interesting results.. If one were to decide to build an Esprit race car today.. what model, (built within the scope of the applicable class rules), would have the best chance of success, and in which class? Lets get some ideas for the Esprit, and how they would have to be built to compete in different countries.. UK, EU, AU, and SCCA in NA. Hopefully, there are people on board that are familiar with classes and rules otherwise I fear this may be a slow thread. Jan

See what I mean about the economics Thats why its 27USD for the basic version of the book.

Hi Jim.. good to see you made it here.. youll like this group. A few people I know of.. Mike Rodregues on this forum has huge practical experience with the lotus engine, turbo, clutch, gearbox and aftermarket ECU stuff. Another fellow, Jens Petersen (hovegaard) is another good source. There are others like Tim Engle, but I dont know if he hangs here much. Hes a pistonheads guy I think. If you hit the Stevens technical page youll find most of the sources you'll need including the CF stuff you asked about. I dont know who is the best for info on the suspension and brake stuff for the S4. I can help with composites repair and brake/suspension setup. I am also doing a lot of custom fabricating, so special parts can be made if you need something. enjoy,, Jan

For 250 quid, I would expect Colin Chapman to have signed it.. You realize that 250 quid over here would be nearly $650 dollars landed!! Thats 130 pints of beer You guys in UK need to understand, that for us here, the cost of one pound is effectively 2.5 times that in CAD. It makes it very costly for us to buy anything out of UK. The trick here is we dont earn 2.5 times the wage.. basically for a wage earner of equal standing, if one were to earn say GBP100,000 in UK, a similar Canadian would earn CAD$100,000. So you can see the impact it has on Canada/UK commerce. It is actually cheaper for us to by a Ferrari here than to import a used lotus from UK (even if it did have LHD) Alternatively, for you guys in UK, doing business over here is a bargain!! Appreciate the offer.. buts its just not feasible!!

Back to the Elise.. maybe Lotus should consider upgrading to the new cosworth 2.3 Atlantic engine and get rid of whatever lump they use now.. just a thought.. After all, all lotus guys do love the cossy stuff... and Cosworth do do have a long and successful history with Lotus..

The Powertec V8 and 6-speed box would do the trick.. its very light, and it sounds aaammmaazing.

How about the Ricardo 6-speed that was produced for the Ford GT.. Ford Competition list them for USD13,000

Curious why all the Lotus range of cars are all given names that start with an "E" Thx J

Whats not to like?? This works just fine for me.. forget the supercar for now.. this is their roots isnt it?