[Elise-interested]

I had a similar moment of misjudgement (120) months ago with a modded 370. I noticed that the car became very twitchy and I had to hyper focus on keeping the car going strait. I attributed the loss of confidence in the steering to the increase speed and therefore more noticeable change in direction due to minor steering wheel adjustments. I did not, however, notice any excessive vibrations.

I am interested to see what you do to fix the issue.

 

[Hello Kitty]

The lotus has a short wheelbase, so it is twitchy at high speeds. The vibration is probably from wheel balance. You have to tell the shop to "balance to zero". They get all grumpy about it, but they will do it.

 

[Michael Mann]

135 smooth (DISCLAIMER: CLOSED COURSE), I was shocked when I looked down to see how fast I was going because it didn't feel like it. In my old z06 the car would start to get the floating feeling around 120. Tires? Underbody intact correctly?

 

[chotto]

I had the same experience on the autobahn not too long ago. I am addressing it with an NCI race splitter, Reverie Motorsports Wing, and canards. That should do it.

 

[ucfchris84]

Went to lotus today and have an appointment to balance the wheels on Tuesday. I explained the symptoms and they knew exactly what was wrong. I cant keep these wheels balanced it seems.

 

[sturgeongeneral]

That is definitely not Normal. At 150 mph I can definitely feel ally the imperfections in the road, but you should not feel any shake. Please look at balancing and rim bends before trying again. Now you will feel all road imperfections at high speeds but it will feel like an Indy race car rather than a shake.

 

[lotustech1]

The lotus has a short wheelbase, so it is twitchy at high speeds. The vibration is probably from wheel balance. You have to tell the shop to "balance to zero". They get all grumpy about it, but they will do it.

what do you mean by "balance to zero"

 

[JohnnySniper]

I hope this isn't normal. Even my MINI can hit 140+ without a single problem.

 

[JohnHanson1976]

According to my last data dump my Elise has gone 121.5 mph. The person that drove the car at that speed said it felt good with no unusual vibrations or any oh sh*t my car is falling apart thoughts. In fact he only realized he was doing 120+ because he happened to look at the tac shifting into 6th gear.

 

[NoFear99]

Of course your car is not normal.

Watch me at 5min of this video while I'm doing 220KMH, 138MPH on a tight little road in the middle of no where and tell me if it look like a car that is going to fall apart.

The faster you go, better your car should feel.

 

[Hello Kitty]

what do you mean by "balance to zero"

When they balance a wheel, they get a +- value. When that value is below a certain threshold, they stop. When i say balance to zero, I want them to keep trying until they gat as close to zero as the precision of their machine allows.

 

[gnlong]

I have had mine to around 140 out in the country. The roads aren't all made really well. The car will find any imperfections in the road, making it very hard to handle sometimes. If you want to reach high speeds in the car, make sure you have a well made road to keep control of it.

 

[VINSTA]

Of course your car is not normal.

Watch me at 5min of this video while I'm doing 220KMH, 138MPH on a tight little road in the middle of no where and tell me if it look like a car that is going to fall apart.
Lotus Exige S Acceleration Test time 0-100MPH - YouTube

The faster you go, better your car should feel.

Great video. Thanks for posting.

2006 Sport Elise #46

 

[HEADHUD]

I've been to 145 ( I had a little left, just no more road ) with the top on and can only get to 138 with the top off, both smooth as silk. I still have more fun between 50 and 80 on twisting roads. I've been alot faster in a staight line but have never been faster in a curve. If it performs ok in the curves at lower speed my guess is tire, if it has trouble going around a corner than something is wrong with suspension.

 

[sleepe]

The reason the wheel vibrates a bit even on a perfectly aligned/balanced car is because the steering is not power assisted. Power steering dampens vibrations significantly, that's one reason power steering equipped cars feel somewhat numb.

Also, the steering column is not really hard mounted...it moves a bit.

 

[sleepe]

I've been to 145 ( I had a little left, just no more road ) with the top on and can only get to 138 with the top off, both smooth as silk. I still have more fun between 50 and 80 on twisting roads. I've been alot faster in a staight line but have never been faster in a curve. If it performs ok in the curves at lower speed my guess is tire, if it has trouble going around a corner than something is wrong with suspension.

The speedo in my car is 5-7 mph off. So 80 is around 74.

 

[txdude]

Pick up one of those forcedfed style splitters & you'll notice a huge improvement in handling at speeds above 120mph. I regularly do 135+ (legally) with no issues--the front is planted. The rear feels like it could use a wing in the turns, but that's another story.

 

[91MR2]

Spin balancing or a bent wheel/s.

 

[zebraman]

My 2005 S2 111s is fine at 120mph, but before I had the wheels balanced it was scary at 100mph and over. So I'd agree with the comments about checking the front wheel balance or a maybe there's a faulty front shock absorber?

 

[tko211]

A year ago my Elise would start to shudder on the front when I reached the magic speed of 85mph. From there, the faster I went the more it would vibrate and because of how our cars are designed, I could feel everything!

A quick balancing of the front tires and the car was smooth as silk again. Had it on the track in spring with speeds up to 100 mph and there was absolutely no issues.