Curious which 26R mods made it into the S3 and S4

[AluminumStork]

Hello guys,

As we all know companies try out new ideas on their race cars and later may apply them to the production line. Since the 26R was such a success I was wondering which mods did Lotus push forward on the later S3 and S4 models.
I figure chassis strengthening and lighting up was pushed forward.
But what else?

[Bombay Racing Green]

Hi,

I don?t think much made it forward (obviously standing by to be corrected). The chassis remained the the same except the diff stiffening bar on the Sprint.

That?s some Landie collection you have there!

[AluminumStork]

Yeah, got bitten by that LR bug early in life... hoping to go from slow turtle to fast as a hare when an Elan joins the family...

[rgh0]

The S3 and S4 were really about refinement and reliability rather than improved performance. The road Elans already had much race car DNA in them from the first S1 and the 26 R development was really about how to make it even lighter, how to widen the track for better handling and how to get more HP out of the engine

While engine development continued in later S3 and S4 it was not really based on the race engine developments used in the 26R. Drive train development was based on reliability to strengthen items that were on the limit of strength in the earlier models which had followed the Chapman design philosophy of build it as light as you can and if it breaks strengthen it.

cheers
Rohan

[vstibbard]

As far as I know none. The only real change to the standard Elan chassis was the caster angle rest remained the same.

Cheers

V