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391 Posts
I have installed and used these shocks/coilover for three trackday events now. The trackdays have gone pretty well. The shocks also performed well. I had just installed them and with little time to sort them out for the first track day. I started with an initial setting of 16 on the front and 19 on the rear with a BWR adjustable sway bar (track) set to the second hole from the end (second softest position) During the day I reset the bar to the third hole and adjusted the shock up & down a couple of times I finally got to 21 on the front and 28 on the rear. One track is a fairly short twisty one that favors handling over hp and the shocks were more than up to the track. I would like to see a slightly wider split between the front & rear rates for the Elise than the 55 lbs (1k) offered now. I would suggest a 2k spilt as a minimum. That being said the shocks did make a huge difference over the stock ones.
I have settled on moving the sway bar back to the second hole and increasing the rear shock setting to 30 (out of 32 possible) and 26 on the front for the track. This seemed to work well on the longer higher speed track.
For the street I back off each setting by 6.
The shocks are not an inverted design and that puts a slight amount of extra weight on the arms but probably not enough to make a great deal of difference on an predominantly used road car that sees occassional track use.
The ride height is adjustable although there is not enough adjustment in the fronts to really slam the car without having spring rattle when the shocks are not loaded up. I would speculate the shocks lower the car to where bump steer would start to become an issue so that probably as far as the street user would want to take them anyway.
My impression overall is that for a Lotus owner looking for an upgrade to stock shock/spring and is interested in improvements for spirited driving and occasional track days these 7/8 shocks are worth considering. I would like to see them offer a 8/10 spring combo valved appropriately for a driver after a more track oriented car or autocross car using single adjustable shocks. For a very focused or pure track or competition setup the single adjustable shocks, no matter whose are not what the driver should consider anyway.
I have settled on moving the sway bar back to the second hole and increasing the rear shock setting to 30 (out of 32 possible) and 26 on the front for the track. This seemed to work well on the longer higher speed track.
For the street I back off each setting by 6.
The shocks are not an inverted design and that puts a slight amount of extra weight on the arms but probably not enough to make a great deal of difference on an predominantly used road car that sees occassional track use.
The ride height is adjustable although there is not enough adjustment in the fronts to really slam the car without having spring rattle when the shocks are not loaded up. I would speculate the shocks lower the car to where bump steer would start to become an issue so that probably as far as the street user would want to take them anyway.
My impression overall is that for a Lotus owner looking for an upgrade to stock shock/spring and is interested in improvements for spirited driving and occasional track days these 7/8 shocks are worth considering. I would like to see them offer a 8/10 spring combo valved appropriately for a driver after a more track oriented car or autocross car using single adjustable shocks. For a very focused or pure track or competition setup the single adjustable shocks, no matter whose are not what the driver should consider anyway.
