Lotus Elan Billet Aluminum Control Arms

Benjamin Morris, Alex Lemme

Faculty: John Knight and James McBurney

Lotus Cars are designed with an emphasis on light overall weight and performance. The original design for the Lotus Elan, made in the 1960s, calls for stamped steel front control arms.

With modern alloys, these control arms can be remade from aluminum, saving weight. These parts were designed based on the overall profile of the factory design, reworked with FEA to provide acceptable strength and deflection, and machined on the Haas UMC-750SS in CGAM.

They are also designed with a custom 2nd operation fixture for faster production.