Elan brake upgrade

[pereirac]

Fit a servo - goes against the Lotus "lightness", will probably reduce pedal feel, the nose is cramped enough as it is!

I though the Elan had a servo as standard, the later one's did?

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

I'm pretty sure that all Elans were built without servo's with the exception of the models designated SE & the Sprint
Cheers
John

[worzel]

Hi All

I'm thinking of switching to plus 2 brakes but am getting conflicting messages about the results!

I've tried the std elan brakes without a servo and it's not pleasant- I even went down the route of having very soft linings bonded to the backing plates but even these didn't improve matters very much- the pedal still felt "wooden" and the stopping distances were alarming.

So what do the plus 2 brakes feel like- I would have thought that retaining the original size master cylinder but clamping larger pads would actually increase pedal effort because the effort is being spread over a larger area or is this not the case?

The std brakes on my car work fine and my only reason for swapping is to "clear up" the nose area and remove the associated pipework- it's also the reason why I'm switching to electric lift for the headlights.

Before I commit however I'd be interested in other's experiences of this mod.

Regards

John

[CBUEB1771]

I would have thought that retaining the original size master cylinder but clamping larger pads would actually increase pedal effort because the effort is being spread over a larger area or is this not the case?John

Going to +2 calipers will decrease the pedal effort if this is the only change. The +0 front pistons are 1.89 inches in diameter compared to 2.12 for the +2. Therefore the +2 calipers will put about 26% more clamping force on the front disc for the same line pressure. However this changes the front to rear brake balance which is not good according to others who have posted here. I will defer to their judgement and experience. Adding the small servo used on Sprints will increase the clamping force by up to 100% on both front and rear calipers thereby not upsetting the balance.

[elansprint71]

In the past 30 years I've owned two Elans, S4 and Sprint; both of these came from the factory with larger discs on the rear than on the front and with servos. Result: rear brakes will lock before front- silly idea unless you live on an airfield, but Colin got 'em cheap.
First step chuck out the servo, simply not required; second step (if you really need to) fit larger +2 front discs, etc. I've done this and it works fine.
Next step would be to find some ally front calipers, I'm working on it (those +2 iron calipers are really heavy).

Pete.

[steveww]

I second the comments of Pete.

Before I dumped the servo and fitted +2 front brakes to my S4 it would lock the rears under heavy braking, quite exciting at times

The brakes have a much better feel now and the fronts lock first. A little more pedal effort is required but this is a good thing as it makes it easier to modulate the brakes as well as heel'n'toe

I know what you mean about the weight of those +2 calipers, I keep thinking about fitting Wilwood or similar to save some unsprung weight.

[patrics]

Hi
Having larger rear discs does not mean they will lock first but the rears as designed will lock at about 0.85g if the front ? drops low enough. If they lock before this then you probably need the front calipers rebuilding or some descent pads with a higher ?.

?Colin got em cheap?
Colin paid a lot of money for the +0 and +2 braking systems and there wasn?t any thing better at the time, something he never did again, you can see the step change when you look at the Europa

Regards
Steve