The Lotus Grand Tourers

Seen this one on TV a few times, Bangers and Cash Restoring Classics outside a garage / restoration shop, not always in exactly the same place / orientation - but this time the reg. number is not pixelated out (so one for the register if not already ?)

I spotted thazt car too and think it looks really good in that green colour and with the whitewall tyres. It also shows how much better Elite wheels fill out the arches with their greater negative offset when compared with the Excel. I wonder why Lotus decided to reduce wheel offset for the Excel

KevW wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 22, 2023 13:00

I spotted thazt car too and think it looks really good in that green colour and with the whitewall tyres. It also shows how much better Elite wheels fill out the arches with their greater negative offset when compared with the Excel. I wonder why Lotus decided to reduce wheel offset for the Excel

Hi Kev, the wheel off-set on the front is set to obtain the required scrub radius for the given steering geometry in order to have optimum turn-in and to reduce tram lining.


The Elite has a different steering axis set-up using front trunnions where the Excel uses ball joints. Also, the Elite front Geo is set-up for a light, unassisted, turn-in to work OK with manual steering, whereas the Excel was designed for PAS from the start. The closer the scrub radius intersection with the tyre tread centre line, the lighter the steering, and the less tram lining.
I used manual steering for 10 years on the Excel before having my PAS re-conditioned, and can testify that a manual Elite works better than a manual Excel!

Also, wheel dish is semi-independent from off-set. You can have flush rims with the same off set as those with a mild dish. It's just the mounting centre that's thicker on the flush wheel to give the same scrub radius as the dished counter-part. Obviously, there's a reliability and performance limit to how thick (or thin) you want the mounting centre to be!

That's a great colour for that era of car.

Bash

You must have developed those arm muscles driving an Excel without power assistance Peter! Or did you have a manual rack fitted?

KevW wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 23, 2023 12:46

You must have developed those arm muscles driving an Excel without power assistance Peter! Or did you have a manual rack fitted?

Yes Sierrra manual rack with a bespoke u/j extension by PNM.

Weight wasn't too bad due to the stupidly high 3.6 turns lock to lock ... and there lies the REAL issue ... slow steering compared to the variable PAS OE.
A Ford MotorSport quick rack conversion is possible, but then it would have definitely felt heavy!
.