![\"1-blade-hard-setting\"](\"https:\/\/elantrikbits.com\/lotus-elan-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/1-blade-hard-setting.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe picture above illustrates the rear ARB. A pair of special blades were manufactured, the blades are a common Formula race car design, they allow variable amounts of stiffness<\/strong> which can be readily dialed in,<\/strong> eg, when the blades are rotated from the flat position (Softest setting)<\/strong> through to the hard setting (Blades turned on edge)<\/strong> the variable adjustment will allow fine tuning for optimum handling results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time of fabrication, road testing was not possible due to the car not being road ready. But once the rebuild was complete, road testing was carried out, the blade setting was initially set on the “soft” setting, further increases in bar stiffness will be made in small increments during testing to see if, or what other changes in handling may be experienced. Blade adjustment can be quickly carried out with an hex Allen key.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The blades are not<\/strong> adjustable from the cockpit, the general feeling was that for a road car, on-board adjust-ability would be more trouble than it was worth, yes, rally cars have that provision, and so do many other competition cars, but this elan is not a race car, and the project is a DIY design and build<\/strong>, the thinking behind the rear ARB idea was to achieve good, or better than standard handling results coupled with a low cost self built product, and having traveled over 6000KM of road testing we have certainly achieved that end. The blades were carved (Via Lathe & milling machine) from a solid billet of 4140\u00a0 steel. The front ARB specs are as follows: 19mm Dia. The rear ARB is: 12mm Dia hollow (2mm wall) 4140 Aircraft quality tube, coupled with rose joints attached to drop links and fabricated brackets attached to the lower rear A arms. Some changes were also required to the rear underneath section of the fibreglass body, but again, no real major mods were required, and the problems that were presented were solved with some applied commonsense, and a bit off quiet thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a pure DIY project, the entire set of ARB components were machined and fabricated in house.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before embarking on this project, many hours of online research was carried out, but the research proved fruitless as far as finding info about blade adjustable ARB’s far the lotus elan was concerned, so we took what we could find from other applications and applied plenty of self trained engineering nous to come up with the end result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With increased driving distance the final adjustments are made to the elan and it is proving to be quite a nice little performer on the road, it turns into corners beautifully, and the rear end is really planted to the road (The car corners much harder than previous) and as of yet, has not shown any untoward handling characteristics, but that may change as the driving becomes a little quicker, and the cornering a bit more adventurous, but so far, the results are very satisfying after the fitment of the rear blade adjustable ARB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your elan runs a CVDS conversion, there is one other input function that the rear ARB provides, and that is the reintroduction of transverse torque loading to the chassis which duplicates the spring loading effect that the original rubber donuts provided, the writer has driven the elan for several decades with the (Full race spec) CVDS and has never encountered any handling problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we are happy to report that the rear blade adjustable ARB has vastly improved the overall handling of the elan, and being adjustable, allows roll bar stiffness changes in small increments…. IE, to dial in the handling that you prefer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The photos show close up detail of some parts of the rear ARB, it is compact and unobtrusive, no one would ever know that a rear ARB is fitted, unless of course they took a good look underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following Is A Caution:<\/strong> The above photo shows the custom machined and fabricated bracket that securely clamps onto the lower A arm tube, and connects with the drop link that has a rose joint top and bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We did not let ourselves become bogged down with endless calc’s & pondering’s that one can get oneself into with a project like this, lets just say, it has been based more on a rule of thumb, but at the same time taking on board a lot of detailed info sourced from what many other enthusiasts have applied to their cars. (No previous elan rear blade ARB info of the type we were looking for could be found anywhere)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Do NOT<\/strong> under any circumstance consider carrying out this ARB modification with the body bolted to the chassis, the proper time to incorporate this rear suspension mod is during a full body off rebuild or restoration. It is imperative that a bare rolling chassis is presented for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n