Updated Ride Height & Alignment Suggestions

Our Street Ride Height recommendation has been update to reflect our new thinking for improved clearance on some of our ever deteriorating road conditions.  We raised our recommendation by 5mm.

A proper alignment is critical to the performance of your lightweight sports cars.  These cars are very sensitive and respond well to changes in the suspension setup.  These recommendations are based on experience we've gathered since 2004 with the Lotus 111 platform.  Your results may vary so we suggest you start here and tweak as your driving style demands.  

Make sure that your car's suspension components are in mechanically sound condition.  Check your ball joints, toe links, track ends, etc to ensure that nothing is worn out.  See our 60pt Prep Sheet for a great reference.  Consider our Suspension Refresh Kit if you discover worn-out parts have a higher mileage car.

Recommended settings for an Elise/Exige street/track car with R-compound tires.         

                          Front                 Rear
Ride height    130 +/- 3mm    135 +/- 3mm
Camber          -2.2° to -2.5°    -2.4° to -2.7°

Toe (total)       0                       3mm total toe-in

Our ArtCar is running even lower thank to our raceUPRIGHTs

Recommended settings for a track Elise/Exige car with slick tires.

                           Front                      Rear
Ride height    120 +/- 3mm              125 +/- 3mm
Camber            -3°                             -3°
Toe (total)       0 - 1mm toe out        3mm total toe-in

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow These Steps:

1.      Set the ride height.  

2.      Set camber.

3.      Set toe.

• To set the camber, remove all your stock shims as well as the ABS shim. You may need to install FASTarms or machine your stock steering arms to obtain optimal camber.  Remember to use thread locker on the steering arm bolts.
• While a lower ride height is possible, we find the suspension works best at these recommended heights and the chance of scraping the bottom of your car is less.
• Write Down All of Your Changes!  Write down your alignment settings and then note how the car performs. Write down any changes you make and record the results. This is the best way to get the car dialed in exactly how you like it.  Use our Alignment/Set-up Sheet to help keep tabs on the changes.

Tech Tip: Suspension Setup

We strongly believe that setting up your car is one of the most important improvements you can make to the performance of your vehicle. Light weight sports cars are very sensitive and respond well to changes in suspension setup. Ride heights, camber, and toe settings are all things that you can change for little to no cost (if you do the work yourself) that can lower lap times and make your car more enjoyable to drive. This post is not intended to be a comprehensive setup guide nor a claim that the setup we recommend is the best for every situation. What our setup will do, is make sure that you start out with a car that handles in a way that is considered good by the vast majority of drivers.  

The first step to getting your suspension setup is to make sure that everything you currently have on the car is in good working order. Inspect all your suspension pivot points, making sure nothing is worn or loose. Replace anything that is questionable. We recommend torqueing all bolts to spec then marking them with a paint marker. This will allow you to check the torques in the future with a quick visual inspection.  See our Sector111 60pt Prep.

Now you can setup your car following these steps:

1.      Set the ride height.  

2.      Set camber.

3.      Set toe.

Recommended settings for a Elsie/Exige street/track car with R-compound tires.

	Front	Rear
Ride height	125 +/- 3mm	130 +/- 3mm
Camber	-2.2°	-2.4° to -2.7°
Toe (total)	0	3mm total toe in

Recommended settings for a track Elise/Exige car with slick tires.

	Front	Rear
Ride height	120 +/- 3mm	125 +/- 3mm
Camber	-3°	-3°
Toe (total)	0 - 1mm toe out	3mm total toe in

•  To set the camber, remove all your stock shims as well as the ABS shim. You may need to install V2 Arms or machine your stock steering arms to obtain optimal camber
• While a lower ride height is possible, we find the suspension works best at these recommended heights and the chance of scraping the bottom of your car is less.  If you want to go lower, we suggest our raceUPRIGHTs.

Tips:

Write it down!

It is always a good idea to write down your alignment settings and then note how the car performs. Write down any changes you make and record the results. This is the best way to get the car dialed in exactly how you like it. 

How many turns?

If you are going to be adjusting your suspension or doing much tuning, it is a good idea to figure out how much toe changes with each ¼ turn of your tie rods, how much camber changes by adding or removing a shim, and how much ride height changes with each half turn of the spring perch. If you write this information down you can now make minor adjustments to your car without needing to measure anything. Of course once you are done tweaking, it would be a good idea to measure where everything is at.

Play with it.

We encourage you to play with suspension settings on your own and deviate from the recommended setup

There are many levels to setting up a car and the difficulties, as well as results, depend on how precise you want to get and the tools you have available.
For a more in depth explanation of the topic of alignment and setup, see the videos from our alignment seminar HERE