Chassis
Having been stored in an old, leaky, garage for 19 years since breaking it at the 1985 Street Racer Championships the poor car was a litle worse for wear so a complete strip down was the only sensible way to go. So, in 2004 I started out what what has turned into a marathon saga.
Having been stored in an old, leaky, garage for 19 years since breaking it at the 1985 Street Racer Championships the poor car was a litle worse for wear so a complete strip down was the only sensible way to go. So, in 2004 I started out what what has turned into a marathon saga.
When I stripped the car down the chassis looked pretty good but, to be on the safe side, I decided to replace it with a good second hand one. I found a good example on Hayling Island so trundled down there and picked it up.
I had it sand blasted and then took it over to Graham (on the right in photo) at Graham Hatherway Racing in Mundon to have it modified to take the Ford Cosworth 7.5" diff as well as a fair amount of stiffening work.
Graham also fabricated a new rear suspension that would take the Cosworth hubs, discs, calipers and outer shafts. The only Lotus parts to survive were the bottom wishbones.
When I got it back I treated the bare metal with a rust inhibitor and gave it two coats of Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black, which proved to be very resiliant when it came to removing sections in order to weld on roll cage strengthening plates (documented in the Roll Cage blog).