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The battle of the metals
Lotus' unique suspension
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Lotus designed from scratch a unique suspension system that demonstrated a 34% mass savings at a modest cost savings, compared to a double-wishbone suspension.
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The ULSAS Consortium also commissioned Lotus to design a rear suspension from scratch. Although no direct benchmark existed for the Lotus design, it was essentially a double-wishbone type. Engineers minimized the number of parts and optimized the use of materials in terms of strength and gauge. The dominant feature is a large integral fore-aft arm hub carrier made up of inner and outer tailor-welded-blank stampings, onto which the hub bearing unit and brake caliper are directly mounted. Lateral wheel location and camber control are provided by upper and lower lateral links. A co-axial spring damper unit mounts from the rear of the arm directly to the body structure.
The hub-mounting sleeve is an integral part of the fore-aft arm and consists of a 3.0-mm (0.12-in) tubular housing with a yield strength of 300 MPa (44 ksi). The stamped outer hub reinforcement is made of 2.5-mm (0.10-in) gauge steel with a yield strength of 400 MPa (58 ksi).
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