Re: [DML] Re: Rob Grady's Personal Lower Suspension (Tangent: Lotus Esprit suspension)

[Michael Griese <mike.griese@xxxxxxx>]

Your first photo is from around 1988 or 89.  You can tell by the wheels.  Lotus 
replaced the lower control arm during the 1985 model year depending on the 
market - well after the DeLorean was designed.  The primary reasons for the 
change was increasing horsepower, tire technology, and braking capabilities as 
the Esprit evolved.  To give you some idea of the differences, my 1983 Esprit 
had 212HP and far greater braking capability than my 1981 DeLorean with the 
similar front suspension layouts.  The Esprit can be driven much harder than the 
DeLorean and has very predictable handling under hard braking and cornering - 
and by hard I mean in the 60-160 mph range.  This is with a well-maintained, 
original specification front end.  By comparison, the DeLorean front suspension 
is stressed to a much lesser degree.  


Your second photo of the stripped car is of an S1 Esprit that had similar 
horsepower and braking as the DeLorean, at a significantly lighter weight (about 
800lbs). 


 --
Mike




________________________________
From: Justin Mettee <jamettee@xxxxxxxxx>
To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, November 9, 2011 6:41:53 AM
Subject: [DML] Re: Rob Grady's Personal Lower Suspension (Tangent: Lotus Esprit 
suspension)

  
Given all the complaints, design similarities/differences to various other 
automotive applications, etc., I decided to search for what the DMC's cousin of 
the time used for front suspension.  I figured if Lotus based the chassis of the 
DMC heavily on the Esprit of that time, then there should be similar parts & 
geometries, right?

Well I found this: 
http://www.lotusespritturbo.com/Lotus_Esprit_Turbo_Chassis.jpg
The Lotus Esprit Turbo chassis on the assembly line, I believe during the 
slightly later era (early/mid 80's).  (The above is from the websitee 
http://www.lotusespritturbo.com/Lotus_History_Toyota_GM_Years.htm).  Interesting 
how similar the upper front (& rear) suspension look similar, but the lower is 
completely different & triangulated, but this is a later generation & more 
performance-oriented car.

So I look further for the earlier Esprit 2.2 (1980-81) & find this site: 
http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/38109-at-last-shes-stripped/ .  Down 
a little way, you see the front suspension & it is pretty darn similar to the 
DMC.  The one thing I see that is marginally better than our application is the 
layout of the swaybar places the front mounts further outboard & likely 
restrains the fore/aft movement of the LCA better than the DMC does.  Not 
optimal, but probably a better driver setup than a DMC.

I wonder if Lotus owners have the same hard-braking control issues & LCA 
failures that the DMC is prone to?

Justin Mettee
VIN 2075


 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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