It's not clear how much negative camber the car needs for things like autocross, for example. Some of the early efforts used Hoosier tires which seem to have some edge wear issues on some other cars, but not all tire sizes. EDIT: I just looked over many PICs of the Elise race cars run in various European series and built/modified by the factory. None of them show much static negative camber.
In any event it is trivial to add more, if you don't need to worry about stock class rules.
Just machine the upright and or upper arm mount to suit. For every one mm removed, about 1/3 degree additional negative camber can be achieved. I'm taking about the area where the shims live. Or make some offset a-arm bushings or something.
Note that this car has a double a-arm suspension, which gains negative camber more quickly and in a prescribed manner with suspension compression than do lowered strut cars for example. So not as much static negative camber will be needed than a BMW, for instance. BMWs want a bunch of static negative camber. Not only that, but the Elise has only 38% of a very low curb weight pressing down on the front tires. And lower amounts of negative camber do tend to increase all-out braking capability. You can grab an Elise front tire and "steer" it - try this out on any other car and it won't work!!!
Also, note that when push comes to shove, the rear of the car with it's high, heavy engine mass tends to let go in certain circumstances. So Lotus tuned the front of the car to give up first and one of the ways they did this is by losing some grip up front at the limit. Not to mention the differential tire diameter and width. It's a balancing act.
In any event it is trivial to add more, if you don't need to worry about stock class rules.
Just machine the upright and or upper arm mount to suit. For every one mm removed, about 1/3 degree additional negative camber can be achieved. I'm taking about the area where the shims live. Or make some offset a-arm bushings or something.
Note that this car has a double a-arm suspension, which gains negative camber more quickly and in a prescribed manner with suspension compression than do lowered strut cars for example. So not as much static negative camber will be needed than a BMW, for instance. BMWs want a bunch of static negative camber. Not only that, but the Elise has only 38% of a very low curb weight pressing down on the front tires. And lower amounts of negative camber do tend to increase all-out braking capability. You can grab an Elise front tire and "steer" it - try this out on any other car and it won't work!!!
Also, note that when push comes to shove, the rear of the car with it's high, heavy engine mass tends to let go in certain circumstances. So Lotus tuned the front of the car to give up first and one of the ways they did this is by losing some grip up front at the limit. Not to mention the differential tire diameter and width. It's a balancing act.
