My modified early Spyder chassis

[Netec99]

He are a few pic's of my early spyder chassis, modified to accept a Zetec engine, MT75 gearbox and Cossie rear diff
This also has Wilwood 4 pot rear calipers with built in handbrake and willwood front 4 pot calipers with vented front discs
Rob

[pauljones]

Rob,

Beautiful,but why go for the cossie diff? whats the advantages/dissadvantages.

Paul

[Netec99]

Hi Paul,
Not sure the lotus diff could handle 200 Bhp and the Cossie diff is LSD, so better traction
If your Zetec is going to be standard approx 130 Bhp, then you could use your standard diff. If that is the case, you might aswell use your standard gearbox and bolt it onto the Zetec engine using spyder engine mounts.
regards
Rob

[Spyder fan]

Rob,
That looks very nice work.

Will you be drilling a hole through the ol filter cannister for the steering column? a very shallow filter is the normal solution. (sorry couldn't resist that!)

Willwoods front and rear will be interesting, are you looking at having adjustable bias?

I hope you keep the pictures coming as you progress, it will be nice to see someone else's project slowly taking shape as the months go by.

Regards

[Netec99]

Hi Alan,
10 out of 10 for spotting the deliberate mistake with the oil filter. I did realise the filter was to big and will probably use either a compact filter or a 90* adaptor.
I also plan to install a brake bias adjuster.
Will post some more pic's as the project progresses.

Regards
Rob

[gav]

Hi Rob

Great job.
Interesting rear damper set up. How much damper travel do you have at the rear?

Thanks
Gavin

[bigvalvehead]

Hi Rob
Can you post some more detail pics of the diff mounting please?
Cheers
dave

[edd_brady]

Wow, that set-up looks great. You mention that you have an old Spyder chassis. Does it have the early caster angle in the front suspension or the later angle? Does anyone on the boards have a comparison of the performance of cars with each angle. I have a '71 Sprint with the later (3 degree) caster and plenty of understeer at low speeds. I've used higher caster angle on US cars to reduce it and wonder if the earlier Elans have less understeer. Also, wonder why Lotus changed the angle.

thanks in advance for any insights,

Edd

[jimj]

I thought the long travel, soft springs, stiff dampers, especially at the rear was crucial to the Lotus ride/handling compromise. It looks in the photos as if when the rear is loaded there will be very little vertical movement. Clearly you`ve gone to enormous trouble so you must have calculated that it will work but as a non-engineer I`m intrigued as to how.
Jim

[gerrym]

Netec, I used the Ford Racing 90 degree adaptor for the filter. I believe Summit sell them.

Regards
Gerry

[Netec99]

Hi Rob

Great job.
Interesting rear damper set up. How much damper travel do you have at the rear?

Thanks
Gavin

Hi Gavin
I think it will give me as much suspension travel as a standard set up. The dampers are set further in so they don't need as much travel as the standard vertical set up. This was the way Spyder built this chassis, I have just replaced the dampers with GAZ replacement adjustable dampers.
Regards
Rob

[Netec99]

Netec, I used the Ford Racing 90 degree adaptor for the filter. I believe Summit sell them.

Regards
Gerry

Thanks Gerry,
It's probably the way i'll go. I'll check out Summit

regards
Rob

[Netec99]

Wow, that set-up looks great. You mention that you have an old Spyder chassis. Does it have the early caster angle in the front suspension or the later angle? Does anyone on the boards have a comparison of the performance of cars with each angle. I have a '71 Sprint with the later (3 degree) caster and plenty of understeer at low speeds. I've used higher caster angle on US cars to reduce it and wonder if the earlier Elans have less understeer. Also, wonder why Lotus changed the angle.

thanks in advance for any insights,

Edd

Edd,
My chassis is a +2 chassis, so I don't know about different caster angles, Sorry
Rob

[stevebroad]

Just found this thread. Any progress on build?

I have a slight concern re the rear dampers. The top mount is in single shear and takes quite a lot of punishment. Have you thought about fitting a supporting bracket in order to make it double shear?

A standard Elan crown wheel and pinion will handle at least 220bhp. However, I did fit a quaife LSD in order to even out the power to both wheels.

[Netec99]

Hi Steve,

This rear suspension set up was done by spyder.
The top mount is not a single bolt, but a stud which runs through from front to the rear of the chassis giving it good support.

The project to moving on now. The rolling chassis is complete and the body shell has come back from the paint shop.
I will post some more pic's in the next week or so

Rob