Editing Chassis development (section)

====Chassis development…or why is everybody telling me to get my car ‘Geo’d’?====
So you bought yourself a nice, shiny Elise or Exige,
and have driven the first couple of thousand miles?
That’s the point where lots of owners are hit by the
‘go faster blues’ and either start investing in go
faster parts, or walk away not knowing where to
start.

In this article, I’d like to give some insights to the
updates you can do to get more fun out of your car
without the need to install a 200+bhp engine for
starters.

One of the regular remarks on the forum is ‘get
yourself upgraded’. Of course, driving and racing
courses will make you go faster! Everyone who’s
even a little active within the Seloc community
knows the name Andrew Walsh (aka Walshy). He
can sure help you to understand your car and make
you go faster. Besides - it’s great fun to do!

Time to go for the first engine mod? Run out of
possibilities to go any faster? Not quite! There are
more possibilities to make you go faster without
the need to improve the power output of your car’s
engine. The trickery which makes this possible is
Geometry. I can hear people say ‘Lotus is the best
chassis developer in the world, so why would I fiddle
around with their settings?’ The answer is as
easy as it is logical - Lotus has created a car which
needs to be everyone’s friend. It needs to be entertaining
for the beginner but at the same time Lotus
wouldn’t want to make its handling tricky. If you’re
a bit further down the line, have built up track
experience and have some training courses under
your belt, you might opt for a bit more entertainment,
so you could start playing with the geometry
of your car. Before doing that, I’d advise you to buy
your first upgrade: a stiffer and adjustable front
anti-roll bar. This simple and relatively cheap
upgrade will enable you to play around with the
balance between under- and over-steer. (understeer,
in which the car starts sliding over its front
wheels while entering a corner; over-steer, in
which the rear of the car attempts to overtake the
front, ultimately resulting in a spin).

Mind you, the balancing act of the anti roll bar
(ARB) will not improve grip. A lot of people hate
under-steer and prefer over-steer as long as it’s
controllable. Control is exactly what you can get by
setting up the ARB. Another effect of this device is
the reduction of body roll - that does improve grip!
How does grip work? When you think of the four
patches of rubber which are the contact of the car
with the road surface, you can appreciate the basic
grip of the tyre. The more sticky the tyre, the more
grip you will have. Well not exactly - another thing
you wouldn’t want is to lose the weight on one of
these patches. If you do, that specific tyre will not
be able to provide you with the grip you’re used to.
Getting back to the ARB, body roll actually is moving
the weight on to the tyres. If you steer into a
corner, the mass of your car will want to move on
in a straight line. This will cause the body to roll
over the car’s roll centre. The less the body is able
to roll, the more weight you will keep in the same
place, so there you go - it will produce more grip in
a corner and will help you to go faster!
The next step to improve your feeling with the car
could be to start fiddling with the Geometry of the
car. To do so, you’ll have to understand the basics
of Geometry. If you really want to understand what
you’re doing and even want to do it yourself, I
would strongly suggest you pick up the parts manual
first and buy yourself a pile of shims. You will
need them!

First, the basics. There are a couple of things you’ll need to understand first - All settings are measured per axle!