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Dry Sump Turbo Suspension


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I'm well aware there is 'another thread' containing information on suspension but to reiterate one of the comments from that same thread it has become convoluted with a garble of bush, spring, damper and all manner of associated chat.

My esprit sits pretty low, annoyingly low, and I'm constantly clouting the front. in fact some of last years 'hard' driving was hampered by the nose scrubbing the deck under hard breaking and where there is a strong camber. It has also been remarked that my springs/dampers could really do with being replaced when the car visited Max500.

So what do I go for? the car is 81 Dry sump, as discussed currently sits low, I would like to raise ever so slightly (but not much) it would also be nice to have that firm but subtle Lotus ride back.

If you could please let me know your thoughts on the options currently available to me I would be most grateful.

Regards,

Jon 

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Hi Jon, I have the standard Lotus spring (new provided by SJ) and AVO shocks on mine (PMN provided) - much happier with these. I also had Mr Sparky replace the rubber top mounts as well as these can collapse / compress / fall to bits which means the car is too low. Mine still sits pretty low (as you will remember) but I think that is more to do with how it was repaired back in the 80s when a new nose was put on...I guess you could try air con car springs? Which might raise the car a little? But I would guess that sagging springs are likely to be a lot of your problem...

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I have found after throwing away several springs the best option is the SJ non-aircon springs even if the car has aircon, and with the SJ poly spring platforms which probably compress a little less than the rubber. 

I am not a big fan of poly but they were already on the car.

Dampers will not make any difference to ride height.

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Generally concur with points made, however would add the following:

Though it would seem that dampers should not be able to establish ride height they can and do owing to the "stiction" effect on suspension articulation due to tyre scrub, etc. Thus a set of dampers with rather fierce rebound setting will jack down a car on its springs despite the fact that the springs should determine height, all else remaining equal. Still agree with Andy and Henry suggestions for the most part, no doubt faded dampers will contribute to bottoming and ancient rubber spring perches could result in lost height. On perches either material will be too firm to result in different levels when new.

Does sound like time for a measure of refreshment.

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Agree with dr doom but to add an additional thought more bump damping at the front will prevent the car diving so much under braking. BTW the effect can be quite big in terms of jacking, it's used a lot in most form of motorsport. 

FYI I removed the dampers from my 84 turbo that had completed 70k and the front dampers were good, one of the rears was very low on bump damping from the dyno plots (I am lucky enough to be able to produce force v' velocity curves for the dampers). Lotus dampers are originally quite soft compared to the modern AVO equivalent, unfortunately there is not much we can do about it.  

My rear was low and when I stripped it I found on of the rubber platforms was missing.

cheers

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33 minutes ago, C43 said:

(I am lucky enough to be able to produce force v' velocity curves for the dampers). Lotus dampers are originally quite soft compared to the modern AVO equivalent, unfortunately there is not much we can do about it.  

 

Still-available Lotus ones can be fitted by cutting off the spring platforms of the post-85 dampers.

The AVO, Protech etc are all single-adjustable and in my experience can never be set correctly because the bump/rebound ratio is wrong and not adjustable. Lotus dyno curves were let out of the factory because there was a series of limited edition cars (forget which one of the endless Lotus limited editions!) were supplied with dyno plots of their dampers, if you want to compare your test with theirs.

 

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22 minutes ago, Andyww said:

Still-available Lotus ones can be fitted by cutting off the spring platforms of the post-85 dampers.

The AVO, Protech etc are all single-adjustable and in my experience can never be set correctly because the bump/rebound ratio is wrong and not adjustable. Lotus dyno curves were let out of the factory because there was a series of limited edition cars (forget which one of the endless Lotus limited editions!) were supplied with dyno plots of their dampers, if you want to compare your test with theirs.

 

Thanks Andy, I was forgetting about the spring platform sketch. Worth doing if you are that way inclined. 

I did see the released damper curves but tell the truth did not double check. My front were bang over each other so very unlikely to be a problem there and one of my rears was obviously soft in bump so got a new pair. I have one off good rear damper if anyone is every interested!

My brothers S2 is running on Koni and feels good so I am probably being a bit OTT, but given everything else I have done seems worth going the last mile!

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