Adjustable Rear A Arms

“Make it adjustable, and they’ll get it wrong”.

The quote made famous by the late Colin Chapman …  I’m sure you’ve heard it before.

With due respect for the late ACBC, but in this day and age, it is almost considered essential to be able to fine tune the suspension system on a high performance sports car.

So I think just this once, we will have to disagree with Mr Chapman’s famous quote.

To gain optimum performance from a lotus elan today, given the vast improvement in tyre compounds available, there is a potential for far better handling via adjustable front and rear suspension, but I can understand that there are elan owners who would disagree …
And that’s fine if you’re totally happy with your elan.

… But what if you’re not happy.

Does Your Elan Handle As Good As It Should?
There are many “died in the wool” purist lotus elan enthusiasts who would testify that “My elan handles perfectly, I don’t have the need for any suspension adjustments”.

If that is you, then ask yourself this, how would you know if your elan really does handle perfectly if you have never taken a ride in an elan that has been kitted out and professionally set up with a refined and fully adjustable front and rear suspension system?

Adjustable Wishbones Can Make a Big Difference.

In it’s day, the lotus elan suspension technology was absolute cutting edge, and considered light years ahead of most sports cars of the 60s era, especially when applied to chassis and suspension dynamics, and a few other areas as well … but the automotive world has caught up, suspension design and technology has come a long way since the 1960’s.

Don’t get me wrong, the elan suspension can still be considered a bench mark, but it is possible to tweak it more for better handling, and there is no need to be afraid of losing the soft compliant feel of the suspension, as long as you don’t go over board with spring rates.

(I often smile while reading current motoring articles written by young journo’s who wax lyrical about the handling of the present day hot hatches on the market. It is ironic that those same hot hatches that set the journo’s hearts pumping, I have actually met from time to time while ascending or descending the great driving roads in the Australian Alps throughout the summer, and when pushed by a hard charging modified elan, they are really not that quick, and they don’t seem to handle or corner as well as some of these young motoring scribes might have you believe. I would be surprised if many of the “scribes” have ever bothered to take the time to sample the pure driving fun of the elan. But then again, they would be petrified of not having any form of electronic stability control at their disposal. But we elan drivers of old enjoy true “seat of the pants driving”, and probably possess driving skills that many young guns will never learn).

The suspension design on the best of the modern high performance hatches are sophisticated, the best of them do deliver exceptional handling, which leaves one to ask the question, has the elan lost it’s edge in the suspension/handling department?

But on the other side of the coin, the chassis and suspension design of the early Lotus elan S1 & S2 are now more than fifty years old, so when you bring it all back into proper perspective, today’s hot hatches haven’t really advanced all that far in the handling and performance department have they?

You might be wondering how the tweaking and fine tuning of the elan suspension system can provide even greater cornering ability. Well, It can, but it does not come with out a lot of hard work, and the changes required for fully adjustable suspension will mean alterations to some components.

Let me share with you a personal discovery.

Like many elan owners, I’ve always thought that the elan handled pretty damn good … well, that was until we made the addition of:

• Adjustable tubular front upper wishbones.
• Urethane (Red compound) suspension bushes through out.
• Adjustable spring platforms, (front and Rear)
• Uprated (120lbs) Eibach front coil springs – 80lb springs on the rear.
• Matched with the Koni shocks. (You may prefer another brand)

On the rear, the system also consisted of adjustable spring platforms, with uprated narrow wound coil springs and fully adjustable (For toe and camber) rear lower A arms.

The upgrades were carried out over an extended period of time, and generally just one modification was done at a time, so that each change could be evaluated.

Make Sure To Log The Original Suspension Bench Mark Settings.
You need to log the original bench mark settings, and if need be, it should be possible to revert to the benchmark if things do not work out as expected.

Likewise for the rear suspension, adjustable spring platforms with slightly stiffer (80 Pound) coil springs have been fitted, along with a blade adjustable rear ARB. The lower rear “A” arms have also been modified to achieve dead accurate toe adjustment, and the piece De’Resistance was the fabrication of a set of custom made inner adjustable “A” arm bush mounts, designed, fabricated and installed, these components enabled the “dialling in” of the perfect 1Deg – (Neg) camber on both left and right hand side rear wheels.

The lower “A” arms also incorporated toe adjusters – (Another awesome tweak)

You might be thinking, was all of the time, effort and work really worth it?
And you might also be wondering if the detailed suspension tuning work help make a difference to the handling of the elan?

The short answer is yes, it certainly did, the changes and mods made an enormous difference to what the car was like previously.

If you are a purist, this is most likely the point where you will stop reading.

Other more open minded owners may want to keep reading to explore and learn a little more about improving the handling of the elan.

Race Car Or Fast Road Car?
Lets be clear right now, the elan we speak about was built as a fast road car, not a race car, but I would imagine with a bit more tweaking and a fresh big horsepower engine, it would be a pretty good track car.

The result of the work carried out over several years is quite astounding, the S2 elan is a very different car to what it was prior to any changes being made, and to be honest, I would not want to return to the former elan, as it were.

You see, the point we are making is this, wheel alignment centres might tell you that your chassis or suspension is within specifications… but the difference that “within spec” and absolutely “dead accurate” suspension geometry will make to the handling of any elan can be quite remarkable, providing that the set up has been done correctly.

Alignment Method: String Line Or Laser.
When you watch a good laser alignment operator in action, you will realise that laser wheel alignment technology is excellent, and one of the most accurate methods to achieve exact suspension settings. You may think you can get it right with a couple of string lines and trammels, you could get really lucky and be spot on, (After a lot time and effort) but why be just somewhere in the ball park when you can kick the ball through the goal posts and achieve dead accurate settings with laser alignment, a string line (Yes, it is dirt cheap) just seems like a lot of hard fiddly work, when laser alignment is much quicker to perform giving dead accurate results.

The Tweaks – What Are They?
The following article and content will explain what was carried out in the writers workshop, the sole aim was to achieve better than standard handling of the elan, and over time that aim was definitely achieved.

Should You Venture Down This Road?
We are not saying that if you decide to go down this road, that you will experience the exact same gains, or that there will be any improvement at all, because no two people will ever go about the completion of a project in the exact same manner, or have the same engineering skills or equipment at their disposal to work with, there’s simply no shortcuts or magic involved, most of what has to be carried out is just plain hard work… very slow, painstaking, tedious work…. Just pre warning you before you rush out to the workshop to make a start.

Disclaimer.
If you should choose to decide to follow what we outline, there will be no warranty expressed or implied in any way, shape or form, you’re fabrication and mechanical building skills will determine the final outcome, you should also consider that any changes to components may compromise your safety, this project involves many engineering, machining, fabricating and welding skills, if you are unsure about any, or all of your skills in any of the particular area’s mentioned, then you should consider engaging or consulting a professional for advice, help and guidance, as to whether you should decide to become involved in this project at all.

The Parts Required To Build Toe Adjustable Rear Lower A Arms.

The photo above illustrates the custom machined parts that make up the A arm toe adjuster kits. Toe adjusters can be installed into existing or standard wishbones, or when fabricating new lower A Arms. These adjusters make it possible to dial in the exact degree of toe on the rear – whether your car is for fast road – Targa style tarmac events, or for the race track.

Above is an example of the LH-RH toe adjuster installed into the rear most (Straight) tube of the rear lower A arm of the Lotus elan. The exposed threads have been wrapped with plastic tube for protecting against damage from stones and road grit.

It only takes a very small rotation clockwise or anticlockwise of the rear tube adjuster to arrive at the correct toe settings.

The A Frames Can Also Be Converted To Adjust The Camber Setting.

The inner adjusters can be screwed in or out to affect and change the camber setting – Normally they are screwed out for a distance of 4mm to 8mm from standard to produce 1 Deg Neg Camber, which is an ideal setting for superior handling.

Side Note: Elan cars fitted with CVDS may need spacers between the adapter plate and the diff output and wheel input shafts – Caution may also be required to check for tire rubbing on the guards of the body. The writers elan S2 has 26R style flared guards and there is no problem with any rubbing of the tires on the guards or flares.

Both of the inner A arm adjusters use the standard or the later design poly bushes, the best type of bush is of course, the top hat design of two piece urethane bushes. (Not shown here).

There are many parts that go to make up the toe and camber conversion kit, a lot of machining involved, and a lot of custom fabricating to do – This work does not come cheap, and you need to think about whether you want to go down this path.

The big plus with this conversion is the marked improvement in handling that is certainly there if you want it – But you may be quite happy with the way your car is right now, and that is fine.

The photo above was taken back in 2009 during the S2 rebuild and restoration. A new rear A frame was required, so a simple jig was made up in order to build a new lower A frame. Note that at this time the toe adjusters were included in the fabrication – that addition proved to be a winner as far as improved handling went – The Camber adjusters were installed two or three years later, which again, saw the handling of the elan ratchet up another notch or two … the driving grin gets better all of the time.

Now Watch The Video For More Information:

Now that you have read about adjustable A arms and what’s involved, and learnt a little more through the video, you now armed with the information to move forward with this if you want to – no one is forcing you down this road – we put this article together to share our personal experience and that is all.