What do you get with LSS and a Lathe?

[turbophil]

If you guessed lower ride height, then you guessed right!

[Dave]

Hey Phil, I knew someone would finally do this - Excellent! Want to do mine?

[darkSol]

Ahh, this explains a lot... like why someone didn't call/show up at my place this morning to help change out my pulley...

Looks good dude!

[turbophil]

Darksol, I know I'm a bad friend! I will make sure that we get hooked up to work on your car THIS WEEK! I should have some time-- finally. I've been itching to do this shock mod and my on-going diffuser mod. We'll make it happen for sure

Dave,

Thanks! It's a pretty slick/cheap way to lower the car I feel. I've got the math down pretty close so that if you tell me how low you want it, I can cut in the ring respectively. I say pretty close, as I'm sure it will vary a bit from car to car. If you want this done, shoot me a PM or give me jingle and we can go over the details. I would recommend measuring the ride hight front and back so that you can dial in your car correctly. I found that mine sat quite a bit higher than what lotus specs (I believe I read LSS is set to 130mm OEM)... Albeit, I did not load the car with all the weight they have in their spec. Maybe that would have made the difference

In any event, I'm lower now by 80mm. I will likely take it down a bit more over the course of the week before I do my final alignment. FYI, I'm just now at ~130mm ride height unloaded. My car is factory LSS. Tires are in sig, which are smaller diameter than stock... go figure...

I'm lowering the car mainly for aero/down force. For every cm we can get down to the ground, that should help speed up the air under the car and create that much lower pressure, thus more downforce. A better diffuser will help that much more. By better, I simply mean deeper skirts with longer strakes... and possibly a smoother transition from the "flat" to the diffuser since that transition it where a good bit of the down force is created...............

There's also a nasty void directly behind the exige splitter that needs to be filled, so I'll be making a panel for that before long to hopefully kill any stalling that occurs there.

If you can't tell, I'm on an anti-wing downforce mission and from what I'm finding, there's a lot of DF to be found *under* the car

Best,

Phil

[wildwhl]

Bravo

I did this on my CTS-V as there were no lowering options at the time...bravo my man.

WW

[darkSol]

Originally Posted by turbophil

I will make sure that we get hooked up to work on your car THIS WEEK!

Yeah, I believe ya...

You know the wifey is back in town again... it was PERFECT Saturday morning but as I can see you had a date with a tube and a lathe

Originally Posted by turbophil

In any event, I'm lower now by 80mm.

80mm LOWER? Gotta be a typo dude - that means you're 3.14" lower than stock. You're now have 1.5" of ground clearance. Better hope there are no large acorns on 167th street on the way to your house

I'm sure you meant you now have 80mm of ground clearance (3.14") which is STILL very low but at least you can run over prone pop cans...

[turbophil]

Doh, I meant 8.0mm lower ride height... I'll chalk that typo up to too many shop fumes

See you this week!

Originally Posted by darkSol

Yeah, I believe ya...

You know the wifey is back in town again... it was PERFECT Saturday morning but as I can see you had a date with a tube and a lathe


80mm LOWER? Gotta be a typo dude - that means you're 3.14" lower than stock. You're now have 1.5" of ground clearance. Better hope there are no large acorns on 167th street on the way to your house

I'm sure you meant you now have 80mm of ground clearance (3.14") which is STILL very low but at least you can run over prone pop cans...

[turbophil]

Originally Posted by MyElise

Now you've got a lower ride height and the same crappy shocks & springs.

Well I suppose that's all relative. Those "crappy shocks and springs" (BTW, the springs are Eibach--the same brand used on many of the aftermarket units) don't have to work as hard to keep the car under control, as the CG gets closer to the ground... that may give the perception that they're not as crappy as you might think

Most people with their aftermarket shocks also lower their ride height a cm or two... dropping the car 10-15% lower to the ground is going to make just about any car handle better due to both increased downforce and lower CG... Therefore, I'll venture out a step and say that *some* of the perceived increase in handling from an market shock is due to lower ride height, not *just* the better valving/spring combo...

Food for thought...

Best,

Phil

[Gideon]

Looks good Phil!

I know RT did this with his setup as well a while back. Maybe he can chime in in regards to his thoughts on the handling difference with the lower grooves.

[turbophil]

I think this would be good for those on standard suspension too. Might even be a nice compromise for those who like their ride, don't want to spend the bucks on aftermarket shocks, but would like better handling... A smooth ride with better handling on the cheap

Again, a car like ours (we have functional ground effects) will benefit from lower ride height if anything from downforce... the lower CG is an intuitive benefit as well...

Best,

Phil

[R T]

Originally Posted by Gideon

Looks good Phil!

I know RT did this with his setup as well a while back. Maybe he can chime in in regards to his thoughts on the handling difference with the lower grooves.

10+ trackdays later and nothing gloomy and/or doomy yet

The only real concern I had was bottoming the rear since I cut the bump stops down a little too. So far, on the tracks I frequent, no probs w/ bottoming.

[Serebo1]

Originally Posted by MyElise

Now you've got a lower ride height and the same crappy shocks & springs.

Yeah, if only Lotus could get that "ride and handling" thing right.

[turbophil]

Originally Posted by MyElise

True, they didn't get it quite right on this car. A bit underspring'd and overshock'd. Wheels & tires a bit too big and heavy. Good for the bling, bad for the physics. Mine bottomed out badly on the street and track with the LSS suspension. My stock '68 Elan rode and handled better. Best money spent was on the Nitrons.

Guess it all depends on how hard you're driving it.

ME-

I agree on some accounts, but...

A bit underspring'd sure, but do you really feel the LSS is "over shock'd" for the track? I've been feeling that LSS may be "shock'd" about right for *many* at the track, but a bit "underspring'd" for some... For the average track junky that goes once or twice per month, I bet that a stiffer spring or simply lowering the LSS a bit would make for a nice compliment to an all ready reasonably decent handling car Remember that lowering the car will give somewhat of an illusion that spring rate went up simply due to the lower CG, i.e. less body roll as a result...

If you're bottoming LSS on the track frequently, I'll venture to say that you're a better driver than many.

On a side note, I think it's kind of fun to come up with some cheap ways to spruce up the handling of the car. Not trying to sound like a cheaparse though, as I've dumped more money into this little go-kart than I care to admit

Best,

Phil

[choi0706]

Originally Posted by darkSol

Ahh, this explains a lot... like why someone didn't call/show up at my place this morning to help change out my pulley...

Looks good dude!

which pulley?

[darkSol]

Originally Posted by choi0706

which pulley?

Nothing performance related... no worries.

Bearings on the idler pulley were falling out. Greddy sent a replacement piece.

"This isn't the 10psi pulley you're looking for... move along... move along... "

[flyguyskt]

i'm confused what exactly did you do to the shock?

[turbophil]

Here's the project. I'm simply making the stock suspension a little better. It's a cheap(er) way to make the car a little more track oriented. The idea is two fold. With the ability to cut additional rings into both LSS or Standard shocks, one could lower the ride height of the car. Moreover, even chagne the springs out on the shocks. This wouldn't be much of an option if one couldn't cut his own grooves in the shock since aftermarket springs would need relocated collars...

A lower car will generate more downforce and have lower CG. Imagine wanting a standard car ride with a little better track charecteristics and the cost was just a couple hundred bucks opposed to a couple thousand. Granted not as good as aftermarket shocks... This is simply a middle ground sollution for those not wanting to spend the big bucks on aftermarket shocks but do want a little more track oriented suspension...

I'm a distributor for Eibach and will be trying a few different springs on the LSS shock bodies to try and tune some of the body roll out of the car... First attempt will be a 10% stiffer spring front and rear and see what happens...

Hope that helps...

Best,

Phil

[xtn]

Is it not the case that the tube wall is thicker behind the existing grooves, and that you may have cut into an area that is not as thick? Do you think there is any chance that you have created a potential failure point?

xtn

[fpitas]

Phil,

Looking at my base coilovers, it looks like it would be possible to machine new spring seats to fit standard 2 1/4" ID springs. That would make changing spring rates much easier, although the coilovers would no longer be SCCA stock.

[turbophil]

Originally Posted by xtn

Is it not the case that the tube wall is thicker behind the existing grooves, and that you may have cut into an area that is not as thick? Do you think there is any chance that you have created a potential failure point?

xtn

XTN,

You're right, it is not the case It's a straight piece of tube of uniform wall thickness. There's no buldge on the outside and the inside must be uniform to allow for piston travel. The machining of the actual shock body is pretty straight forward and inexpensive to produce...

Cutting addtional grooves won't weaken the body as long as the grooves don't go too deep... I must admit I was asleep at the wheel when I cut my first one and went a bit deep, as I hadn't made a bit for the grooves nor had I set up the dial indicator for the job. I was just in "play around mode"... I then got serious, made the right bit, and set up the machine for accuracy. The other three shocks are cut just right. I've found that the shock bodies are quite thick actually and will put up with a fair amount of machining. Gotta remember they're designed to deal with "real" springs for "normal" cars Our cars and springs don't load the shocks like those other heavy cars do

Best,

Phil