[advanracing62]

coming from a heavy saloon and going (hopefully) to an Elise. Would it be appropriate to run pillowballs in place of the stock bushings on the control arms? I didn't come across any threads where anyone has done this. Just not sure on the reason why you would or would not do this on the Lotus. Anyone that can provide insight?

 

[xtn]

I've never heard of anybody refer to pillowball mounts in reference to any control arms. Common usage defines them as a type of upper strut mount. Having no struts, the Elise does not make use of any type of upper strut mount.

I wouldn't start trying to harden up the various bushings on the Elise unless you:

1. have specific knowledge that any of the rubber bushings are inadequate for your intended purpose, such as real racing...
2. have the suspension engineering expertise to determine that a particular solution would actually address such an inadequacy without causing more problems than it solves...

xtn

 

[advanracing62]

I'm well aware of changing from rubber to pillow- just didn't know if it was really warranted on the car. Are the bushings rubber on the Elise? does the car have much flex as is? etc. I'll admit that going to a way less compliant bushing would probably destroy a back or two.. but then again, it's what I do. ;-)
Honestly, for the street going to anything harder than urathane is not warranted, but never-the-less I was curious.
thanks for the response!

 

[MaineLotus]

Check out EliseParts.com They have poly and nylatron bushings designed for direct fit into the A arms.

 

[xtn]

I'm still confused by your usage of the word pillow. I've only heard it used in reference to upper strut mounts, where the rubber is replaced with a rigid mount. There is no use for such an item on an Elise.

The control arm bushings are rubber. There are poly and nylatron bushings available as per the previous post. This car has less slop than pretty much any other street legal production car available. I wouldn't worry about those products unless you're really building a pure race car.

xtn

 

[fpitas]

I believe that what you are calling pillowball bearings are normally called spherical bearings:

Bearings

No reason not to use them, although on such a light car Nylatron bushings will give you 95% of the effect without having to design your own mounting scheme for spherical bearings.