D - Rear Suspension
The Problem
The rear suspension layout on the Elite is an old Lotus design that is very similar to that used on a Lotus 20 single seater. Although the geometry is different, the layout is similar to the classic Jag rear end. The difference being that it is very reliable in the Jag and poor in the Lotus. Poor in the sense that it has a short life, i.e. the drive shaft UJ's will need rebuilding every 25,000 miles and the diff will eventually leak oil over the inboard drum brakes, thereby necessitating new diff seals and new brake shoes.
This is the Achilles heel of the Elite, but it can be overcome. One option is to replace the diff unit with the Jag unit which provides inboard disc brakes and the option of LSD units. However, it is very difficult to engineer this into the chassis so forget it unless you are a masochist or an engineering genius.
The Solution
The other option is to remove the biggest weakness in the design, i.e. the use of the drive shaft as the upper transverse link. If an upper link is installed the loading on the driveshaft is reduced to torque forces and the sideways loads can be eliminated. Also the awkward conflicting 3-arc movement can be improved which also helps to reduce loads on the UJ's.
Spyder provided a kit of parts to do exactly this, but again can only be fitted to a chassis which has extra mounting points for the inboard pivot of the upper link. The kit provided a replacement driveshaft with Ford CV joint on a spline and adaptor at the diff end, a new steel fabricated upright and an adjustable upper link. My car is fitted with this system, however, there is a problem......see the Suspension Design issue page!
Other Alternatives
The upper link is the right thing to do, especially as Lotus did this on the Excel and S3 Esprit. In both cases they got it right! It is possible to fit an Excel chassis to the Elite and thereby use the Excel suspension layout and running gear. The essential difference is that the Excel chassis is a different height at the rear because the whole rear end is redesigned. You have to modify the Elite shell at the rear to accommodate the chassis, spring and damper parts, but it can, and has, been done.
I have also seen two other home made designs which add an upper link. In one of them the owner did not modify the driveshaft, thereby necessitating a very accurate installation of the link system!