Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: Certified Lotus on Monday,July 15, 2019, 04:24:57 AM
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I have AVO coil over shocks & springs on the front of my 72 Europa TC. Who else has this set up and can you tell me what size springs you used to lower the front end of the car to be lower than federal bummer height.
I currently have 10 x 150 springs on the AVO shocks and can tell if I adjust them for the right stance they will be compressed too much. I have a set of 8 inch power coil 140 springs, but want to find out what others have done before I switch them out.
The rear have 12 x 115 and they seem fine.
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This is what I currently have installed. A bit old (check the date!) but still seem to work well. I'm about an 1" lower than stock and need to be aware of anything but small bumps in the road. Not AVO, but length and rate should be equivalent.
Gerry
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I have attached you a sheet that I found here on the forum some time ago. There is some good information that in there.
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Nero, your file is broken. Could you post it again?
Certified, have you gotten your car on the ground with a reasonable expectation of the final weight yet? I would do that before I sweated the springs first. Having said that, I found in my notes where I had 10" 150# springs and was able to get the ride height (measured behind the front wheel) to 5 1/4". My notes also say that the spring perch was up a bit over 1" so it should have been able to lower it about another 1/2" (assuming the shock is at a 45° angle). Now, my memory was that the nose of my car was higher than I liked at the time (I like the way the S2s sit lower) but my notes don't address that. Currently, I have 8" free length springs but my rate is 250#. My ride height in the front is 4 1/2" and I like the stance better. So far I haven't had any problems with bumps but I haven't had them for that long. I'm experimenting so that may change (hell, everything may change!).
As an aside: My meager understanding of suspensions deflates when considering the Europa front suspension because of the way the front springs are pre-loaded so until the load on the spring exceeds the pre-load, there will be no suspension deflection. I guess the effect is to reduce the effect of weight transfer to the front?? The rears are not pre-loaded. In my short racing experience, I don't recall any race cars with this type of pre-load situation. Maybe someone can help me understand the implications of the pre-load.
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I'm running the same front spring as BDA, 8" x 250lb on Spax shocks. No way I could use a 10" and get my ride weight the same.
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As above, I've got 250lb springs on the front with Avo dampers, I have 7" free length springs but 8" free length would allow for a little more adjustment and higher ride height (mines just fine but it's not stock and runs lower anyway).
TBH I'd have thought you should be ok with 10 x 150lbs, once you have driven it and it's settled a bit - depends how you want it to sit I suppose? Standard Federal type stance or more European stance?!
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Thanks for everyone’s input. I want to adjust the suspension to make the car much lower than “federal height” and know there will be some “settling” of the suspension once I get the Europa back on the road. But the current height is way beyond what I am striving for.
My S1 Elan is also setup with a lower stance and I experimented with three different coilover springs before coming to the right combination of spring length and spring force. I am well aware of how low the car is and careful what I drive over. The handling is nothing short of amazing.......