Slipping the clutch was the only way of stopping the wind up. But once you have had one break you won’t go back to “rubber bands”. Mine came through the boot floor luckily I was just pulling away rather than going at any speed!
Just think of how lotus we’re thinking, even at F1 standards keep it light and cheap especially cheap maybe harsh but true me thinks.
Also thinking about swapping final drive when rebuilding the rear end on my +2. Any opinions about the spidercars axles?
Why would you want to do this ?
I have the standard Lotus/Ford diff in my +2 for nearly 40 years, regularly raced and hillclimbed, now with 170 hp. Once the original ouput shafts are replaced with forged ones like Tony Thompsons, they have never failed.
Besides they also have a very wide range of drive ratios.
I don’t know if the Spider Zetec diff will bolt into an original Elan chassis, any comment, has anyone got pics/drawings ?
I actually went the other way when I fitted the complete Zetec brake system to the +2. Spyder made up a set of CV drive shafts to bolt to the original diff.
I think he is talking about the one donut solution that Spyder sells Mr Fox, but could be wrong. I have that setup on one of my cars and find it great, not much different from the feel of 2 donuts.
Leslie
I actually had this set-up before I went 100% CVs. The surge was much reduced, but the remaining donuts were still starting to crack.
Yes I think koobs90 is talking about the Spyder CV joint conversion which retains an inner Rotoflex doughnut but uses a GKN Lobro CV at the driveshaft outer end.
Whilst not having personal experience of this setup it is certainly a seemingly sensible option and worthy of serious consideration because it retains the cushion effect of the rubber doughnut at the differential end of the driveshaft so should mitigate any risk of damage to the delicate Lotus hanging diff arrangement.i.e.the diff case ears and the diff output shafts.
If you talk to Spyder themselves they say it is definitely the best solution. They would say that though wouldn’t they!
Alan
you are correct, I was talking about the one donut set up from spyder cars. Anybody have good a or bad things to say? after resto complete will be used on weekends and going to shows and occassional daily use when weather good, no racing or hill climbing. Thoughts?
Is spyder with 1 CV or 1 UJ.
With UJs you need 2 to keep the rotation “in phase”. With 1 CV there is no problem.
Alan
Spyder conversion is one CV at the outer end and one Doughnut at the inner end.
Just checked with Spyder. 1 CV/1 Donut driveshafts still available.
spydercars.co.uk/lotus-elan-2-final-drive/
i think i’ll stay with the CVDS from Aussie 
Alan
& worth every p
I couldn’t find the double CVJ drive shafts on the Spyder website, so I email Andy. He replied that they don’t do this type anymore.
Maybe the rubber donuts they use now have been upgraded. At £109 there are now almost two and a half times the price of the CVJ.
The Cv and donut solution of Spyder aways seemed like a half pregnant response to me 
The originalCortina drive train had no rubber couplings and just had the clutch disk springs to absorb shocks and I dont see that a very similar drive train in a lighter car needs rubber for shock protection
Stick to donuts if you’re after originality or go to Cvs if you want simplicity of maintenance and reliability.
cheers
Rohan
Guys I’m not convinced by the arguments you are presenting. Please show me some numbers and calculations that the original diff mountings to the chassis for the Elan are up to the task of coping with the additional stresses imposed by CV’s. Is anyone up to the challenge? It was done for the offset piston pin effect on TDC argument now can it be done for this one?
Exactly this , in my experience and why I changed to full CV
Yes I could do it but its not necessary as i have extended real life experimental data
40+ years of extreme drop the clutch race starts in my Elan with Cvs has failed to do any damage to the diff housing top mounts or torque rod ears or the chassis mounts. This is despite sticky competition tyres and 170+ hp engines with very high torque at the 4500 rpm starting revs. Enthusiastic road driving in my Plus 2 with Cvs over the same time has failed to damage the diff or chassis also.
I can compare that to 3 donut system failures when doing less agressive starts, two in the Elan with one broken donut bolt and one failed donut and one in the Plus 2 with a failed donut many years ago before changing to Cvs in both cars. The two failed Donut events did signficant chassis damage. The Plus 2 had the Lotus pin and socket arrangement on the drive shafts which is supposed to protect against chassis damage if the donut fails but it was useless and just sheared of the pin. Both donut failures occured despie close inspection and regular Donut changes when any cracking was detected ( I got to the point I could change both donuts on one side in about 10 minutes) Also back then the donuts were much better quality than they are now.
cheers
Rohan
Show me the numbers! - I’m not talking about the doughnuts and whether they fail or not. I’m talking about the diff housing. By calculation what is the reduction in life due to fatigue of the aluminum diff housing by using CV’s instead instead of doughnuts? Are any of you engineers up for the challenge!
Ok.
Here’s some numbers based my CVJ history:
Service (so far ) : 30 years
No.of diff failures: 0
Life reduction due to fatigue: 0
I said zero diff housing or chassis failures in 40 plus years of hard use in both road and race Elans, that is good experimental data. It would need a detailed Finite Element Analysis to determine stress level changes with donuts versus Cvs but experience says this is not needed.
I listed Donut failures to highlight that the risk of donut failure and damage is orders of magnitude greater than the risk of damage to the diff or chassis by fitting Cvs.
I have seen chasis damage where the torque rods are anchored and also where the top arms of the diff mount in Plus 2 but this has actually been in donut equiped cars and generally relates to loose bolts or failed rubber mounts.
cheers
Rohan