Suspension: Touring and Sports options

[TomE]

I was thinking (justifying) a name change here.

Sport - rename to Track.
Touring - rename to Road.

Since mine will never see a Track I went for the pussy cat set-up…

#ForTheKittens

I agree about renaming and I mentioned it in my suspension write up to try and help people understand the differences:

Suspension: Touring and Sports options

Lotus promised us a further note on suspension choices. But as that still hasn't arrived, here's my attempt. This draws on discussions with the Lotus team, published info and some of my previous posts. The tl;dr version You've got two suspension options and one of them also has two tyre...

www.emiraforum.com

 

[digilotus]

What should we call Sport + Goodyears?

#fortheconfused

 

[Evotion]

Sport = Cheetah
Touring= Lion

They both end up killing it but in a different way.

 

[Porter]

What should we call Sport + Goodyears?

#fortheconfused

Splouring?
Tourt?

In the Cheetah/Lion analogy, maybe it's Very Professional Taxidermy Lion.

 

[KJD]

What should we call Sport + Goodyears?

#fortheconfused

Goldilocks

 

[TomE]

In the Cheetah/Lion analogy, maybe it's Very Professional Taxidermy Lion.
View attachment 6714

Well you're certainly stuffed if you try to use it on track, at least according to EVO...

 

[Porter]

Well you're certainly stuffed if you try to use it on track, at least according to EVO...

 

[Jonhklee]

View attachment 6717

Poor Jethro….. he just need to wait for the Emira track special. Wished someone told him the Emira is a road car first and foremost.

 

[Leonard]

Poor Jethro….. he just need to wait for the Emira track special. Wished someone told him the Emira is a road car first and foremost.

And me

 

[Dabjbr]

Well shit…

This entire time, I thought Lotus was using the Goodyear F1 SC3 like the ones on my Camaro. They are a great all around road and track tire that’s relatively inexpensive.
They work extremely well as a dual purpose tire but you have to take it easy on wet roads. They can be dangerous there.

Anyway, now knowing that Lotus is using the cheaper SS tire which I believe is an all-season tire, I’m going to change my setup.

I’ll start by ordering sport suspension plus Goodyears SS. Once worn down, I’ll upgrade to the stickier summer Goodyear sc3. It’ll be cheaper than the Michelin sport cups but also a little less sticky which hopefully will equate to more fun.

If there’s any understeer, adjusting front toe should remedy that. The trick will be to adjust toe out enough to remove understeer but not too much where it becomes twitchy or darty and dangerous.

 

[Dabjbr]

For reference regarding my above post…

 

[kitkat]

Well shit…

This entire time, I thought Lotus was using the Goodyear F1 SC3 like the ones on my Camaro. They are a great all around road and track tire that’s relatively inexpensive.
They work extremely well as a dual purpose tire but you have to take it easy on wet roads. They can be dangerous there.

Anyway, now knowing that Lotus is using the cheaper SS tire which I believe is an all-season tire, I’m going to change my setup.

I’ll start by ordering sport suspension plus Goodyears SS. Once worn down, I’ll upgrade to the stickier summer Goodyear sc3. It’ll be cheaper than the Michelin sport cups but also a little less sticky which hopefully will equate to more fun.

If there’s any understeer, adjusting front toe should remedy that. The trick will be to adjust toe out enough to remove understeer but not too much where it becomes twitchy or darty and dangerous.

It is indeed the Goodyear F1 Supersport tire, it is a summer tire and not an all-season tire. This would be a competitor to the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S which is a great balanced summer tire.

The supercar3s would be a cup2 competitor.

 

[DrD]

For all the negativity about the Goodyear SS tyre, it's by far one of the best uhp road tyres you can have for the emira.

Unless you only drive in warm and dry conditions, the cup2s can be lethal. Anything cold and/ or wet and the cup2 tyres feel like driving on plastic. I'm sure some of you are actually track gods who either only drive on dry tracks or live in California or the south of Spain. But if you intend on driving the car in anything other than perfect conditions, you'll hate the cup2s on the road. If you're talented enough you can get them hot enough on track in cold weather, but good luck to the mass majority on the road.

The SS (and more importantly the same uhp road category) is definitely the most appropriate choice for the mass majority who will drive their car in variable weather and mainly on the road.

To be frank, I'd only get the cup2s if you're only doing track driving or only intend on driving on bone dry roads, mainly in the warm.

The SC3 is the same category as the cup2. It would be pretty moronic for lotus to not offer a tyre that caters for more than perfect conditions...

 

[Dabjbr]

It is indeed the Goodyear F1 Supersport tire, it is a summer tire and not an all-season tire. This would be a competitor to the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S which is a great balanced summer tire.

The supercar3s would be a cup2 competitor.

Being that we live in California and I don’t intend to drive in the rain, unless accidentally, I think the Goodyear SC3 would be the perfect tire.

It comes in Emira sizes too!

 

[DrD]

Being that we live in California and I don’t intend to drive in the rain, unless accidentally, I think the Goodyear SC3 would be the perfect tire.

It comes in Emira sizes too!

The cup2 is your choice then, it's equivalent to the SC3.

It makes no sense for lotus to offer the SC3 instead of the SS from the factory though. As useful as it would be for you, it would be far less useful the the other 90% of the world and emira drivers.

 

[kitkat]

For all the negativity about the Goodyear SS tyre, it's by far one of the best uhp road tyres you can have for the emira.

Unless you only drive in warm and dry conditions, the cup2s can be lethal. Anything cold and/ or wet and the cup2 tyres feel like driving on plastic. I'm sure some of you are actually track gods who either only drive on dry tracks or live in California or the south of Spain. But if you intend on driving the car in anything other than perfect conditions, you'll hate the cup2s on the road. If you're talented enough you can get them hot enough on track in cold weather, but good luck to the mass majority on the road.

The SS (and more importantly the same uhp road category) is definitely the most appropriate choice for the mass majority who will drive their car in variable weather and mainly on the road.

To be frank, I'd only get the cup2s if you're only doing track driving or only intend on driving on bone dry roads, mainly in the warm.

Agreed on the cup 2s -- even as a track rat I don't like them. I live an hour from Sonoma raceway and an hour from Laguna seca and go to both regularly -- not a god but even then I'm still not opting for 20" cup2s at the track, have to consider running costs.

Most of the track tires last me 3 days at the track.

20" Cup2s amortized at ~$700/day
18" Nankang AR-1 amortized at ~ $420/day
18" Toyo RRs amortized at ~ $380/day

 

[Dabjbr]

The cup2 is your choice then, it's equivalent to the SC3.

It makes no sense for lotus to offer the SC3 instead of the SS from the factory though. As useful as it would be for you, it would be far less useful the the other 90% of the world and emira drivers.

I can’t argue that. Very valid point

 

[New to Lotus]

I thought the Goodyear were specifically made for lotus so a individual compound specifically for the car stamped LTS for lotus??

 

[Dabjbr]

Agreed on the cup 2s -- even as a track rat I don't like them. I live an hour from Sonoma raceway and an hour from Laguna seca and go to both regularly -- not a god but even then I'm still not opting for 20" cup2s at the track, have to consider running costs.

Most of the track tires last me 3 days at the track.

20" Cup2s amortized at ~$700/day
18" Nankang AR-1 amortized at ~ $420/day
18" Toyo RRs amortized at ~ $380/day

What car is that on?
I’m guessing the lighter Emira should eat tires a little slower.

 

[kitkat]

I thought the Goodyear were specifically made for lotus so a individual compound specifically for the car stamped LTS for lotus??

They are custom but we don't know what changes were made. The Goodyear press release about their development mentions, "The Eagle F1 SuperSport has been specifically developed for the Emira in 245/35ZR20 front and 295/30ZR20 rear with tuning to optimize the ride, handling and steering feel of the vehicle.". Based on that one would assume Lotus focused on developing a balance of comfort and response -- which are usually conflicting goals.