Had a laser alignment check on my elan and ..............

PostPost by: mark030358 » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:57 pm

got the following figures:-

0.5deg +ve camber on both front wheels with me in car.
1.0deg -ve camber drivers side (uk) rear with me in car.
1.5deg -ve camber passenger side (uk) rear with me in car.
misalignment front to rear track 1mm with me in car. (thrust line)
front tracking set to 2.58mm toe in with me in car.

Car still seems a little twitchy at speed. Do these figures seem ok?

cheers
Mark
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PostPost by: twincamman » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:27 pm

I set my 26 r as in the recommendations on this site ------front 1 degree rear 2 degrees ----toe 1/8 in front total rear 3/8 in total ---and find it has a disconcerting and slight instability at speed -----when the weather breaks I'm looking at changing the stabilizer bushings to the diff and as the suspension is all rod ends having a close look at them too --as well as playing with tire pressures on the hankooks 185 on front 205 rear :shock: -ed
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PostPost by: steveww » Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:51 am

First of all it is a 30+ year old design and no matter what settings you choose it is never going to feel as planted as a modern sports car. IMHO that is what most of us drive an Elan.

Here is how Rohan has his racer set up:
Front Toe in 6mm --I find I need this for high speed braking
stability especially on bumpy tracks.
Rear Toe in 2mm --The chassis and rear suspension arms are standard
and have not been adjusted they are the way it came.

These are measured as total toe in and are calculated as half the
track difference between the front and rear of the wheel at the rim
diameter.

Front camber neg 1 degree.
Rear camber neg 1.5 degree.

These are the result of slightly lower suspension height settings
than standard. The suspension arms and pivot locations are standard
just plastic bushes to replace the standard rubber one.

With driver on board
Front ride height at 110 mm
Rear ride height at 120 mm

These are measured with Yokohama A032R 175 x 60 - 13 on 5.5 inch
wheels with 260mm rolling radius at the bottom of the body sill just
behind the front wheel and just in front of the rear wheel. The
suspension is approx 10mm rear and 20 mm front lower than standard
and the wheels 20mm smaller rolling radius than orginal thus the 30
to 40mm lower ride height.

Springs are
Front 150 lb/in
Rear 115 lb/in
Roll bar 22mm ( 7/8 inch)
I also space the rear bump rubber approx 30 mm closer to the top of
the shocker using a 15mm nylon spacer above and below the bump
rubber. This stiffens the rear as you roll into a corner and also
stops the top of the shock chewing up the bump rubber. I run CV
joints which removes a little bit of roll stiffness from the rear
suspension compared to the donuts.

Bump travel at the front is standard less the 20mm lower suspension
travel. Bump travel at rear until it first contacts the bump rubbers
is approx 40mm less than standard with the 30mm spaced down bump
rubbers and 10mm lower suspension setting. Droop travel at front is
set by shocker length ( I use TTR racing front shocks). Droop travel
at rear is limited by a flexible steel cable to approx the orginal
setting. The Cv's will allow lower droop than the donuts but they can
start to bind at the full droop they allowso you need to limit droop
a little.


I run around 28 psi in the yokos with about 1 psi more in rear than
front. Many years ago when I ran dunlop formula ford slicks I would
use 23 to 25 psi for them. Others seem to like lower tyre pressures
than I do.


I have found that the Elan is very sensitive to tyre choice and pressures. I can recommend Michelin XAS FF 155x13 but they are not cheap, then again they are the only things that keep you on the island :?
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PostPost by: twincamman » Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:18 pm

Steve --I would question that the car will never feel stable because of its age ---my super 7 is considerably more steady than most other cars I have driven ----the set up on this ?lan I have is close to a formula car with all the rod ends and sway bars --I think it may be a case of attending a play day at a local track and suspension tweaking for a day or two ---I was looking to see if there were any other owners with the same high speed twitch --- :shock: ---Ed L
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PostPost by: pamitchell » Tue Mar 07, 2006 2:45 pm

I rebuilt my S4 front suspension with new springs and Spax shocks.
What ride height should I set up on the front? Running 175/70s.
TIA
Phil Mitchell
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PostPost by: steveww » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:16 pm

twincamman,

It depends what other cars you have driven :) My bench mark is always my old Porsche 964 RS which always feels totally glued to the road/track even at 160mph but then it does have positive aerodynamics i.e. the faster you go the "heavier" the car gets. Compared to the Porsche my S4 always feels twitchy and moves around underneath you so much more and so much more fun it is that way 8) BTW: my S4 has quite a few track type tweeks and soft n sticky tyres.
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