Nitron/Eibach suspension

[abmunro]

I do not think Rip changed his (road setup) from the setting they were at when fitted and those seem to work well.

Correct. I have not made any adjustments & are pleased with them.

How much better do you feel it is?

[Dico]

Eibach spring upgrade + £95 (Replaces 4 main Nitron springs with Eibach items).

Bob, I've no idea which springs to choose. Could you tell me the differences please? If indeed there is one?

Cheers

[rip]

How much better do you feel it is?

It is a bit difficult for me to draw a direct comparison because the conversion was done in January, when I seldom drove the car so was used to my daily & the roads were slippery so I could not push it very hard.

but...

Big bumps are more noticeable: Small bumps are dealt with much better.
I have more confidence in the car now than I did before.
Other LECers (including the Mancunian trucker above who has tried it out twice ) have commented that the car corners a lot flatter.
It makes my daily feel like a wobbly jelly. It felt fine before.

[rip]

Is it better to go for Eibach or Nitron springs

I spoke to Pete from Nitron about this today.
The Eibach springs are a little lighter & made to a finer tolerance. He believes that the difference would not be noticeable on the road.

Even the Nitron springs are a lot smaller (& I assume therefore lighter) than the stock setup. Pete also suggested that I re-check & maybe adjust the ride height now it has settled. I have not done this yet.

[Dico]

Cheers Rips. I think I'm going to opt fot the Nitron springs then in that case (I think...)

I've been quite sure I was going to choose the road set up, but now its crunch time.
Anyone any thoughts on the following?- Lets say I do 2 track days per year (stop laughing Murph!) and travel to lets say france once per year, with a total annual mileage of around 4000 miles. Which set up would you go for?

[abmunro]

Track set up - Got to beat those Elises

You can always put a cushion on the seat

[Karl Martin]

Be careful about using track set ups on the road....tracks do not have potholes and cambers!

I drove a modified MGF some while ago with full race suspension and it was god awful!

Apart from almost rattling all the fillings out of my teeth and braking my spine on the larger cavities, it was actually counter productive on all but the smoothest surface, (have you taken note of the roads recently!) which led to the car ‘skittering’ across the road, simply because it could not soak up the bumps and therefore keep the tyres in constant contact with the road, thereby loosing a lot of traction.

Therefore I would choose something between the two, as I understand that various spring rates can be used.

After contacting Bob, (I’m sure he won’t mind me posting this) this is what he said when I asked the same questions (on spring stiffness and lowering the car)

“ As far as stiffer springs is concerned then depending what is available you could go for a mid way point between the road setup and an out and out track setup.
As to how much comfort is sacrificed it is difficult to tell as it's a bit of a case of suck it and see but I would have thought not that much as the suspension is set quite soft to begin with or at least it appears that way on mine when I compare it to the second car a standard hatchback.

Looking at purely the front (rear needs to be matched to the front) then the standard setup is about 285 lbs/inch, Rip's prototype is 350 lbs/inch and the current opinion is track day about 500 to 550 lbs/inch so may be in your case a 400 to 450 lbs/inch spring may be the way to go.

The dampers do allow a up rated spring to be fitted with out too much loss of comfort as they are monotube as apposed to the twintube originals so much larger diameter pistons.

As for lowering the car there are some issues that need to be addressed and the main one is clearance to the wheel arch liners, Rip's car was lowered about 19mm on the front and about 30mm on the rear I think 20mm is about the max you can go with standard wheels and tyres with out there being any fouling of the wheel arch liners.

It can be lowered more than this but it will mean reducing the amount of travel in bump and rebound but the high rated springs should allow for this such that the load on the spring at full bump is still the same or probably higher that it would be on the standard dampers and springs. The advantage of this system is that it can be customised to suit individual needs and but as I said there are limitations.

You can adjust the ride height within certain limits so getting the front and rear similar as far as the wheel arch is concerned should not be too much of a problem.
In an ideal world the ride heights need to be adjusted to get the corner weights right which is the main purpose of adjustable spring platforms.

You need to remember that an unladen car will be different in the rear ride height than one with a couple of people in it hence the rear when parked always looks a little high add in two bodies and so stuff in the boot and it should level up quite nicely.”

[Dico]

Thanks Karl. Road set up it is then!

Tho I have a right to change my mind... Will ring Nitron on Friday.

[chris.t]

left a message for pete to phone me back but never received it. Will have to wait until i get back from France now

[Don.Hasi]

I will get the spare-stock-supension definetly next week, as it is on its way from austria to me... So I think I am next week able to order or not. FYI

[abmunro]

I managed to order mine today.

Went for race set up with Eibach springs

[Don.Hasi]

Our stock suspension has arrived today ... sadly without the springs...

Following the dimensions I could take:

Front
overall expaned from bottom until top of the messing shim 42,0cm
length tube 27,5cm
length travel until bump 6,2cm
length travel until top of the "hydraulicstick-bell" 10,2cm

Rear
overall expaned from bottom until top of the messing shim 42,5cm
length tube 20,0cm
length travel until bump 7,5cm
length travel until top of the "hydraulicstick-bell" 13,5cm




Which further dimensions do you need for any suggestions, Bob?

[Karl Martin]

Contacted Pete to order my kit with the following conversation.

As per my previous post, I have ordered 400 lb springs....slightly stiffer than Rips car, as I wish to lower the car slightly further than his, with the rear matched as a percentage to the front.

“You can have any spring rating you want, but if you order the race springs which are significantly stiffer than the original equipment, you can only ever have a hard setup with the subsequent consequences, but if you use a softer spring, you can stiffen the dampers to give a firmer ride and then return the settings to something softer for more comfort and traction over the poor road surfaces, I.e race mode to road mode.

In other words, your stating point is the stiffness of your spring, so you can only go harder from there.

The question is, how often do you actually go racing....race cars make poor road cars, it is often academical....people believe that if they have race car setups they are going to be faster....not true for road use.”

He also said Rip’s set up at 350 lbs has still a fair bit more scope to go stiffer, if he wanted to, so his road set up is probably all you would need, for the majority.

Many thanks to Bob for seeing this through and to Rip for his participation.

[Karl Martin]

1. bobbrown
2. chris.t
3. A B Munro (80% towards trackset up)
4. Dico
5. Nige (80% towards track set up) ???
6. Elanlover (Federal)
7. Superbad (Federal)
8. rip - Prototype fitted.
9. Avonvilla ( sooner rather than later )
10. gomper71 (Federal)
11. alexg
12. David
13. G UK (The later the better for me at the moment)
14. Richard K
15. Nohair
16. Karl Martin ( Paid in full )

[abmunro]

Rather than all the speculation, I will let people know how my car goes when the Race set up is fitted.

If it's too skitish on the road I'm sure Pete will be able to change the springs. He seemed very accomadating on the phone.

I may even be able to take it to them to see what they think.

Anyway marked myself down as deposit paid




1. bobbrown
2. chris.t
3. A B Munro (80% towards trackset up)( Deposit Paid)
4. Dico
5. Nige (80% towards track set up) ???
6. Elanlover (Federal)
7. Superbad (Federal)
8. rip - Prototype fitted.
9. Avonvilla ( sooner rather than later )
10. gomper71 (Federal)
11. alexg
12. David
13. G UK (The later the better for me at the moment)
14. Richard K
15. Nohair
16. Karl Martin ( Paid in full )

[rip]

As per my previous post, I have ordered 400 lb springs....slightly stiffer than Rips car, as I wish to lower the car slightly further than his, with the rear matched as a percentage to the front.

Mine is lower than standard. Nitron matched the ride height with my originals...which Bob & I now believe had sagged. A lot of other Elaners remark about how low mine sits.

My main issue is with speed bumps. I have to go carefull over all but the smallest & cannot avoid grounding over some. I would definitely not want mine any lower & am actually thinking about raising the ride height.

[bobbrown]

Our stock suspension has arrived today ... sadly without the springs...

Following the dimensions I could take:

Front
overall expaned from bottom until top of the messing shim 42,0cm
length tube 27,5cm
length travel until bump 6,2cm
length travel until top of the "hydraulicstick-bell" 10,2cm

Rear
overall expaned from bottom until top of the messing shim 42,5cm
length tube 20,0cm
length travel until bump 7,5cm
length travel until top of the "hydraulicstick-bell" 13,5cm

Which further dimensions do you need for any suggestions, Bob?

Not really sure of these measurements as I do not understand "messing shim" or "hydraulicstick-bell" so may be getting lost in translation.
Looking at the figures I would say they are the same if not very similar then it is just down to the weights as to how they compare to the Lotus original and from the information I have it sits between the NA and the turbo with a kerb weight of 1068kg.
I can not see any issue fitting a Nitron setup to a Kia Elan as the ride can be adjusted and the spring rates on the standard car should be very similar to the Lotus version.

[Nige]

I'm in contact with Pete at Nitron via e mail and am going ahead, will pay the deposit shortly and hopefully collect once back in UK.

[chris.t]

1. bobbrown
2. chris.t - Deposit payed for Rips setup
3. A B Munro (80% towards trackset up)( Deposit Paid)
4. Dico
5. Nige (80% towards track set up) ???
6. Elanlover (Federal)
7. Superbad (Federal)
8. rip - Prototype fitted.
9. Avonvilla ( sooner rather than later )
10. gomper71 (Federal)
11. alexg
12. David
13. G UK (The later the better for me at the moment)
14. Richard K
15. Nohair
16. Karl Martin ( Paid in full )

[Nige]

1. bobbrown
2. chris.t - Deposit payed for Rips setup
3. A B Munro (80% towards trackset up)( Deposit Paid)
4. Dico
5. Nige (80% towards track set up) Deposit Paid.
6. Elanlover (Federal)
7. Superbad (Federal)
8. rip - Prototype fitted.
9. Avonvilla ( sooner rather than later )
10. gomper71 (Federal)
11. alexg
12. David
13. G UK (The later the better for me at the moment)
14. Richard K
15. Nohair
16. Karl Martin ( Paid in full )