Brake discs

Lotus OEM Fitment

S1 Elise

MMC

The earliest Elises were fitted with a very lightweight Metal Matrix discs, these discs had an extremely long life expectancy with a very low weight.

The down side of the discs was their fragility at high temprature and poor ability to shed water when driving in rain, often providing interesting moments for the driver if used in anger on a rainy day.

These discs were discontinued due to cost when problems were incurred with the original supplier.

Standard cast iron

Vented S1 OEM Disc

These discs followed the MMC disc as the standard brake disc for the S1 Elise.

Standard discs (Vented)

Lotus Part Number: A111J0128F

Cross drilled

Cross drilled and Vented S1 Disc

Lotus Motorsport discs as fitted to the 111s, Sport 160 and other models (Cross drilled and Vented).

Lotus Part Number: A111J0141F

S1 Exige, 340R

The Lotus Series 1 Exige, and 340R, was equipped with the same cross drilled disks as seen on the Series 1 111s and Sport 160 editions as shown above. These have a better ability to handle the heat generated with hard track use than the MMC disks

Lotus Part Number:A111J0141F

S2 Elise

288mm Vented Discs

The S2 discs feature longer, curved internal flow passages which increase the disc stability and reduce hot spot formation. The revised hole pattern has been specified to complement the new vane arrangement.

The discs are not handed, so the same disc is used on the right and left hand sides of the car. The cooling air flow through the left and right discs is identical and the flow rate is purely a result of pressure differential between the centre of the disc and its rim; the shape of the vanes and the direction of rotation does not affect the flow rate significantly. Some noise from the brakes themselves is to be expected but there is a fix to stop brake pads banging in the callipers.

Pads sticking to the disc

The unservoed brakes on the S1 were criticised for not having enough initial bite when first applied, so Lotus used higher "grab" pads on the S2 to improve this. A byproduct of these pads is they tend to stick to the disc over a period of time, in damp or humid conditions this can happen within a couple of hours. This is something that affects the S1 as well but not to the same extent. Normally the stiction is limited to a clunk on pulling away, but with wet weather or if the car has recently been washed, the stciking can be quite severe. This however is not a problem its just some thing you just need to be aware of, it is also just a case of TADTS