My 1980 Lotus Eclat S2.2
After much Contemplation Of My Navel, it has become clear to me that its time for another crack at owning a Lotus. I've had a Elite 504 (type 75) in the past and before that an Eclat 523, both not very happy stories, but the Elite really hammered me into submission. Now I've bought another one.
[update] Understatement or what. I have several now. Here is an excel, and here is an Eclat Riviera.
This is not it, but its the same model. I like em in black (11022 is light metallic blue currently) so it could well end up looking pretty well like this. Currently, it looks like this:
btw, I have a load of Eclat/Elite stuff for sale here.
[update] I have started building up the chassis finally. Check out the nice trolley it sits on.
Intro
[I have 10 mins or so waiting for a virus scan so here comes some drivel you are not likely to be interested in. Its here incase anyone has any ideas...]
After a fairly protracted trans-continental cyber-embarterment I became the owner of Eclat S2.2 number SCCBB12A3AHD11022 on 24/6/2001.
There are a number of things about this car that made it of particular interest to me:
1. Its completely in component form (including the engine). Its a job to find 2 things bolted together. Being into kit cars this does not fill me with fear, rather the opposite. I can build this car into exactly what I want, and that is what I will do. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaarrrrrr [twitchy eye]
2. Its had pretty well the full kit of chassis and suspension mods from Spyder. In a nutshell the idea behind this is to replace the unreliable/nasty/triumph aspects of the Lotus suspension with relatively modern and reliable Sierra Cosworth components (there is alot more to it tho). The chassis and all the suspension components have been powdercoated and look like new (better infact - puts the westfield stuff to shame). Must remember to ask Ben who did the powdercoating incase I want to get more done.
3. Its a 2.2. The 2.2 Eclats are pretty rare (only about 200 made I think) and for my needs the most desirable of the Elite/Eclats. I dont like the Excel styling really (and the use of Toyota parts seems miss the point to me). The 2.2s have the Getrag box, and solve some of the really PITA problems with these cars, most notably for me the headlight lifters are electric rather than vacuum operated. The front spoiler on the 2.2 is a masterpiece as well - normally I hate such things.
4. This car has no p/s or a/c, meaning it is the lightest of all the Elite/Eclats. Lighter means faster, particularly important when you consider the 912 engine is not anything like as powerful as (say) the VX in the westie. Besides, the A/C never works on my old cars anyway, and who the hell wants p/s?
Plan
It all started after the last track day I did in the westie. It seems the recent upgrades to the car made the rev limiter feel sick (S/C box, big brakes, springs, or was it just my driving??) so that has kind of put a dampener on the track day thing (we like doing stuff together see). I really dont want to have to down-grade the westie (and lets be clear about this, if push comes to shove I _wont_ down-grade the westie) so I started looking at options for another interesting track day car to mess with the mx5s and mr2s (ie bit of fun) instead of the Se7ens and Elises (ie serious stuff). Thought seriously about an XJS, nearly bought one infact, but too heavy really. Cutting a longish story short, I was always likely to buy another Lotus at some point, this one just appeared from nowhere and is completely perfect.
So the idea is to build the car to be road legal but primarily for track day type driving. The Spyder mods provide adjustable camber by top wishbone rose joints front and rear. I'll might use adjustable dampers if I can get them, or failing that I should be able to make stud-to-eye adapters to take normal coil-over type dampers (assuming bump and droop are not affected). I'm thinking possibly leave out all the interior except the minimum rear seats (practically weightless) and spray the inside of the shell white. Then add some lightweight seats (probably would have to be folding jobs like the nasty recaros I had in my capri, but hopefully you can get them pretty light and with holes for harnesses). Could possibly make a Nascar style carbon or ally dash with just the important stuff.
The engine is stripped, liners honed and new shells and rings supplied. I have had several wildly different opinions about tuning these motors, all from people that apparently should know. I suspect that it will be very expensive to get more than about 200bhp out of the 912, and that is unlikely to make this relatively heavy car go fast enough. It would be nice to keep a lotus engine in there tho. I wonder about maybe putting an Esprit Turbo lump in. Would it be possible to keep the heat under control? The normal thing would be bung in a rover V8 of course, but thats just not in keeping IMO, and anyway I'm used to revving the conks off the vx so I dont want to rumble along at 3500 rpm. Perhaps a 24v V6 cold be found - probe? Possibly I could build the 912 to SE spec compression (10.2 or something) and give it a port/polish and fairly radical cams for around the 200bhp, and increase the diff ratio (should be nice and easy to get CWPs as there is a capri LSD to go in) for more acceleration. That could work....options options.
[update] I was offered a Esprit Turbo SE engine fairly cheap, so thats going in, instead of doing essentially all the same mods to the 912. This is the top spec 264 bhp engine. Cant see why I should not be able to get the same power from a blower. I have a huge intercooler from a Skyline to go with it. Still not sourced a blower tho (Eaton M62 from a Merc SLK yes please).
There is quite alot missing from the car (like the windscreen and trim which is very expensive), so I might buy a cheapo heap to get the remaining bits. Hopefully I can sell lots of stuff off it to pay for some of the other more fun items.
Spec
As things stand:
Stock S2.2 Eclat with the exception of:
Front Suspension
Spyder wide wishbones, top adjustable with rose joints at inner end. The pics below show a lower wishbone (less bushes) and new upper wishbone less rose joints, and then the extra bracket welded to the front of the chassis.
Hub carrier to take complete cossy hub assembly and cossy 4-pot calipers for 275mm vented disks. There is an ABS tone wheel in there, so I might try to use this for a speed sensor.
Rear Suspension
A variation of the Spyder 'RSC' mods. The lower link is retained, and the radius arm replace by one functionally the same afaics but tubular (presumably to make it less likely to rot (seems lighter as well). The top link is now a separate actual top link rather than the driveshaft performing this function (rose joint at outer end for camber adjustment). The upright take the cossy rear hub carrier and calipers/disks (doing away with the stock inboard drums). The top link not being a wishbone (but rather just a single link) means that it only control lateral location (fore/aft location still being done by the radius arm from the bottom of the hub carrier.
Below is the new bit of chassis tube and bracket for the rear top link. The is the new top link (less rose joint), upright and diff-to-CV adapter.
This is all causing me some concern. It seems to me that moving the brakes outboard increases the loading on the suspension under breaking. Is the radius arm going to be up to handling all this 'twist'? Also, the dynamic camber is going to work completely differently. The damper lower mounting bolt goes through the hub carrier, damper and radius arm. The new top link arrangement looks to me like it will produce a more impossible geometry then the stock one (the relies in alot of compliance in the bushes). Better go study the radius arms - perhaps they no longer get the bolt... Need to phone Spyder about this.
This scheme uses shortened cossy driveshafts with CV joints instead of U/Js. This takes the suspension location duties away from the diff meaning (hopefully) and end to the permanently leaking diff and U/Js that last 5 mins. There are adapters to bolt the CV joint onto the Lotus diff. It all seems very heavy to me...sounds like an excuse for magnesium wheels...
Some more pics of the Spyder mods here.
Brakes
Cossy 4-pots ant front with 275mm vented disks.
2WD Cossy single pot floating jobs (with handbrake mech) at rear with 275mm solid disks (I happen to have some 4x4 vented rear disks and calipers floating around (vogon constructor fleet style) which I could use).
I'll probably use the stock m/c, but braided hoses throughout, and a bias adjuster.
Wheels
The hubs and disks will require at least 15" Ford wheels. I'll probably use the wheels off the westie and get some 13" light wheels for that (as well as more sensibly sized brakes). They've got A032Rs on em, not sure if they will be OK for the Lotus...
Engine
Esprit Turbo SE lump, with pressurised DHLA40s from a much earlier esprit, and an Eaton M62 blower.
[update] not sure about the blower now. The Eaton units seem only efficient up to 8psi, but the esprit motor makes its 264bhp at 14psi. might need to look at something a bit better. Waiting now until I has the motor in the Excel test bed to see how much room I have. Also, I'm a bit concerned about the height of the air box stuff on the 40s. Might be worth going FI from the start if I can get/make the bits.
This is how the engine and carbs look right now:
I will be relocating the alt down low where the A/C compressor was, and hopefully there will be enough room for the blower in its place. The outlet from the intercooler goes on to the big thing at the very top of the engine. I doubt this will go under the bonnet, which might mean (!!!) a power bulge.
Drivetrain
Turbo SE steel flywheel and clutch, stock Getrag box (might swap for the toyota), stock prop, Capri 2.8i 3.9 LSD, cossy driveshafts (will need shortening).
Body
I want to try to reduce the complexity of some aspects of the car, the main one being the headlights. The 2.2s had an electric system which is a big improvement over the vacuum stuff on the earlier cars, but really I want to use fixed lights. This will also make the space in the front of the car available for the intercooler. Need to find out if there are minimum height limits for the headlights - if not they'll probably go in the bumper.
All the glass except the windscreen will be perspex to reduce weight. I'll try to do away with the window motors and electric mirrors. I'll do a simple ally/checkerplate dash.
I'm going to paint the inside of the shell white/black/something by hand and not bother with any interior trim etc. it might be really noisy - I'll cross that bridge....
[No viruses found, time to get on...]
I bunged this lot at the bottom as they are rather big. Its the chassis, all nicely powdercoated. Underneath is stuff like engine internals, head, cam carriers, exhaust manifold. Theres my sitting room (not for much longer) full of Lotus. Theres plenty of Jensen and Westfield in there too.
