Elan s3 shock absorbers

[Dieschelan]

Hi

What is the best shock absorbers combination for a S3 with stock suspension? There is not many choose...

Cheers

Diego

[rgh0]

Not much data around the right shock setting for a standard or race suspension. It would be nice to have some published shock dyno results

You really have 2 choices.

1. Buy a suitable "road" or "fast road" or "race" shock from one of the usual suppliers. Hopefully they have it about right

2. Go to a suspension development expert and get a custom tuned and built shock ( big $) but ultimately probably the best that can be done. Hard to find a true expert at this. In Australia maybe only one or two people who can do it.

cheers
Rohan

[greg40green]

Hello Rohan
Do you know if anyone has actually developed a good replacement shock set up for the Elan , I'm not talking about going 2.5 rear springs and adjustable front platforms as I've been there and done that without satisfaction ie continually having to wind up the platforms front and rear as the springs start to deteriorate and become spring bound .
I've even refitted an old set of front dampers and springs to my car which was an absolute transformation to the cars ride as the front springs on my adjustables had lost there movement / damping ability.

[rgh0]

The springs are more of a problem than the shocks. The front springs especially are very heavily stressed and you need a good quality hot rolled spring or a very very good cold rolled spring to get a spring capable of accepting the stresses without collapsing as you observe. The rear springs are easier to design to be capable of accepting the loads with a conventional cold rolled spring.

Even Lotus struggled with this on the Plus 2 with its heavier load on the front springs. For a while I used collapsed original Plus 2 springs on my Elan as they were cheap and gave the right ride height with a stiffer rate without further collapse

There used to be a local guy here who hot rolled springs to specification from top quality steel but he retired and no equivalent now. I buy front springs now from TTR but not totally happy with their life and my checks on their design say they are right on the limit of acceptable stresses

The various shocks sold by the normal suppliers seem suitable for the advertised duty if matched to a typical spring rate for that duty but I have only tried a few and personally have stuck with TTR in recent times.

cheers
Rohan

[vstibbard]

Eibach.... only springs to use in my humble opinion having been through a number of local Aussie suppliers and set for UK....

[Dieschelan]

Hi

Makes some supplier a correct front spring for a fixed seat shock absorber?
Are the only shocks avalaible? TTR, Gaz and Spax?

Cheers