Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

My `67 S3 has around 5" chassis to floor, around 3" exhaust to floor, and keeps grounding. The manual says it should be 6", but from where? Is there a simple way of raising the ride height without affecting handling?
Jim

Have you tried loosening off the bolts between the chassis & the suspension & then settling the car & retorqueing them? The bushes have a significant spring & ride height effect.

From the bottom of the vacuum box of the chassis. The front suspension is a SLA (short/long_arms) type so to confirm it's at the correct height check that the camber is slightly positive as specified in the manual. You'll find the upper arms have to be nearly horizontal to get the camber to those specs. Also the nominal tire diameter of 23" is a factor. Only that value makes the manual specified ride height correct. If you've got smaller diameter tires then set by the camber value. Assuming that lowering is better is not always true to maximize the cornering capabilities of the stock setup.
Regards.
Keith

maybe your springs have sagged,