Towing Eye

[J.E.S]

Gentlemen, I'd appreciate your thoughts on the fitting of a towing eye to a +2. With thanks John.

[billwill]

Erm, do you mean for towing the +2 or do you mean for your +2 to tow something else?

[Elanintheforest]

The Spyder chassis can have one welded onto the front crossmember, but I'm not sure that would work on a standard Lotus chassis. I can't think of anywhere else to put one though.
Mark

[trw99]

Racers have to have a towing eye, do they not? Where does Tony Thompson fit one on his 26R chassis? Might give a potential solution to the problem.

Tim

[ardee_selby]

Racers have to have a towing eye, do they not? Where does Tony Thompson fit one on his 26R chassis? Might give a potential solution to the problem.

Tim

http://www.lotuselan.net/publish/ttr_frame_mods.shtml

http://www.lotuselan.net/publish/tony_t ... mods.shtml

Cheers - Richard

[archigator]

I asked the same question a few years ago, and here's the solution that Old English White offered. Pretty clean solution I think...

Gary
'71 Sprint FHC
Miami, Florida

[miked]

John,
Not wishing to be too critical but I would not personally want to pull on the rack mounts. Too much time spent setting bump steer and the steering landing brackets don't look that strong. Perhaps OK for a light very controlled pull off a track but if someone went at it from an angle???

If your car is in a stripped position, can you not have a plate and hoop welded on the bottom of the tank if you are on a Lotus chassis. I believe the fuel in the air tank is a problem and needs a bit of special consideration for any heat treatments in that area. Someone here must have retrofitted. Or is there a way of making a bracket that sits under the tank and hooks aound the top of the tank (with some form of clamp back to the front of the bracket). Not got my car infront of me but isn't there a fair bit of room in this area on a plus 2.

Mike

[J.E.S]

Thank you all for your thoughts here. To Bills question for clarification - I'm interested in how to best fit a towing eye to the +2 to allow quick and easy removal of the car from the track should it be required. I see there are several suggestions in the racing section, clearly the solution needs to avoid disturbing steering and suspension. My car has a lotus chassis - so welding an eye to the vacuum chamber cross section is an option (assuming explosions can be avoided) - however it seems to me that the nose cone body work will be venerable to damage with this arrangement. Any other suggestions. John.

[bilcoh]

My inspiration was Jerry, from this photo:

Tow Hook - JKolb.jpg (34.13 KiB) Viewed 2092 times

HTH,

Dave

[abstamaria]

J.E.S.,

What I did before I shifted to a TTR chassis (which has a welded eye under the front crossmember) was to use a strong, short 3" wide strap (lsame material as a towing strap) with D rings at both ends. I looped this around the front crossmeber, using one of the D rings, and led the loose end to the front, under the nose. I secured the the loose end to underneath the nose with a thin bungee strap, just to keep it from dragging on the ground.

From the front, the D ring will be immediately obvious. Since it is looped around the crossmember, the whole arrangement is very secure. It should pass scrutineering.

Andy

[abstamaria]

Here is a picture of a strap similar to what I used. In the US, they are usually called "axle straps." You can figure out how to loop it through one of the D rings to secure it to the crossmember. It is of course very light, so Chapman would approve.

strap.jpg (36.66 KiB) Viewed 1989 times