[Randy Chase]

What a great day. Weather was very good, with sunny but cool conditions, only cold very early and very late.

In Elises, we have Modern Wedgie in her new Saffron Yellow with Painters Tape Blue Special.... Sport Package, all stock; Steve W in his (Titanium Storm?) Elise with out LSS. Robert Puertas and I were in my car with LSS, Hoosiers, and now an alignment.

Robert and I quit running at 1:45pm and we still had over 20 runs. Course was maybe 3/4 of a mile, a lot of in the range of second gear. Not great for being on the cams, but we were on them for short bursts in a number of places, unfortunately at some points... the cams would come on at a braking point.

On the positive, the course had a lot of offsets and slaloms.

 

[Randy Chase]

Some thoughts of the day.

Steve W is pretty good at this. And it reinforced what I originally had concluded after driving a stock non-LSS car at the WCLM in Lake Tahoe. The car, in non-LSS form, on those stock tires, sticks and works! Steve got down to a 61 second time.

Modern Wedgie did very well, this was her first time pushing the Elise and she had to learn the envelope. She got down to a 63 second time. I drove her car just to see how it felt and did a low 60 second run.

My car felt great and seemed to work very well. Robert and I were putting down a lot of very low 58 second times. Still not good enough for SS, as at least one car was in the 56 second times.

We did a lot of review of the car, how it felt, what it was doing well, etc. And I think the car was handling the offsets like it was on rails. It cornered very fast, specially in the parts that forced you to slow down. It braked very well.

So what was the main thing holding us back? Inside rear wheel spin. We were spinning the tire and losing time. I was not able to give the car wide open throttle on corner exit without just converting dollars into rubber smoke.

So the plan is now to target this lack of an LSD and see if we can fix it. Step one is a custom swaybar.

Fun course, great day, great people, great burgers, great cars.

 

[Randy Chase]

Oh.. some other thoughts.

Again we stuck a cone between the front wheel and the splashguard behind it. Take care to remove it!


I hit a cone so hard, it popped out the driver side turn indicator. We popped it back in. Note, the turn indicator can touch the ground so don't keep driving if this happens to you. I think for local events, I am going to start applying a couple strips of tape over the lens.

MW hit a cone that did something very odd. A freak thing. It removed one of her nacelles from the undertray. Should snap right back in, but that was odd. She also has a long o-ring that seems to be a part of the car. We think.

Painters tape is a good idea on the places most likely to get cone marks.

 

[Ancient Wedgie]

She also has a long o-ring that seems to be a part of the car. <u>We think.</u> [ emphasis added by AW ]

Hmmm. She didn't show that to me.

So, IOW, your implied, unstated thought being that maybe the long o-ring was perfectly round until that cone stretched it?
:huh:

 

[Modern Wedgie]

It was an incredible day, and I want to again thank Robert and Randy for urging me to go.

I have only had the car for 3 weeks, and this was the first time I ever could test what this car was capable of. At first, I was very intimidated. In my previous experience (my celica), it took lots of practice and money (on suspension parts) before I was ever able to really push my car. The elise is already pretty nicely set up. If you push it, she will go...and did she go alright.

This was the day that I finally got to test my cars limits, and my own. I learned a tremendous amount, and learned that I have much more to learn. It also taught me something really important...it didnt take much to shift the car to oversteer, and I am grateful that I could test that aspect in a parking lot rather than a street. It only took the slightest amount of driver error...my celica was far more forgiving. I am certainly humbled, but eager to tame the elise.

I highly suggest that everyone take their car, atleast once, to an atocross...its a priceless experience in a phenominal car.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

 

[Modern Wedgie]

Oh, and I have no idea where that o-ring goes. I'll take a look tomorrow when I put back the nacelle.

 

[James A]

Randy, any word on the LSD from Lotus, when they might start shipping them in the cars?

 

[Ancient Wedgie]

Randy, any word on the LSD from Lotus, when they might start shipping them in the cars?

<img src=http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif width="60" height="60">

 

[Randy Chase]

Randy, any word on the LSD from Lotus, when they might start shipping them in the cars?

I don't want to say too much....

But I would not hold my breath on getting a retrofittable LSD for the Elise.

Robert and I are going to go forward, planning on not using an LSD and seeing how we can tame the inside rear wheel spin with first a swaybar mod, and then shocks.

There is a very real possibility we could reduce or remove a lot of it for asphalt. I expect the Elise will be in trouble on grippy concrete like at Topeka though. One positive is that there seems to a plan to repave Topeka's Forbes Field with asphalt.

 

[TripleBlack_NJ]

So what was the main thing holding us back? Inside rear wheel spin. We were spinning the tire and losing time. I was not able to give the car wide open throttle on corner exit without just converting dollars into rubber smoke.

So the plan is now to target this lack of an LSD and see if we can fix it. Step one is a custom swaybar.

Why custom? eliseparts.com has a 22mm hollow adjustable I've been planning to get.

What do you think about kit2 on this page?

http://secure.eliseparts.com/index.html?target=p_42.html&lang=en-gb

 

[Steve W]

I had a real blast out there yesterday. It was great to meet Randy, Robert and Modern Wedgie. And having more than my elise there added to the fun.

Some of my thoughts for the day are that it doesn't matter where you put the blue tape on the car, that's not where you're going to hit the cone (MW where are your pictures?) And that my fastest times of the day occured when the car was marignally out of control.

The Sports Exhaust Randy has is too loud for me at the moment... it's nice to get rid of the weight but I'm not sure I could stand a long run with that volume behind me. It sounds great, just too loud for me.

It was painful to marshalling the track and see Randys car going past trailing tire smoke, knowing how much those tires cost him and Robert.

I was surprised at how small the difference in times were for the Non LSS car and the LSS car. As Randy said in MW's car he got a low 60, and my best time of the day was a 61 flat. Less than a second, and Randy's a much better driver than I am.

The other thing I found out yesterday, is that a hard dab on the brakes at a couple of points on the course got the weight forward and allowed the front to grip through a corner in an amazing way. I'm sure thats not new to the guys who have been doing it for a long time, but it was very new to me.

I love this car.

I was suposed to run on the Sunday too, but I managed to get stomach poisoning... A bad end to the day.

 

[Robert Puertas]

Sorry you don't feel good Steve, but you didn't miss anything at Cal Speedway today. They cancelled the event on Sunday because of the weather. Apparently the snow level has dropped below 2000 ft. it was very cold and so windy out there, that cones were flying out of their boxes. They finally gave up trying at about 9:30 and packed it up.

See you in a couple weeks!

 

[Randy Chase]

I was surprised at how small the difference in times were for the Non LSS car and the LSS car. As Randy said in MW's car he got a low 60, and my best time of the day was a 61 flat. Less than a second, and Randy's a much better driver than I am.

As I mentioned Saturday, I think the non-LSS car is not getting (generally) a fair shake on the forum. It is extremely capable. I was impressed by the car.

The other thing I found out yesterday, is that a hard dab on the brakes at a couple of points on the course got the weight forward and allowed the front to grip through a corner in an amazing way. I'm sure thats not new to the guys who have been doing it for a long time, but it was very new to me.

Exactly! And on this course, there were a number of relatively brutal stabs at the brakes.

 

[Steve W]

A couple of other things...

I bought a CG lock from Randy over the weekend. This thing is great! before I was moving around more than I liked during a run. I was toying with the idea of a harness, but didn't really want the hassle. The CG lock gives you a lot more stability for about 5 minutes installation hassle. It's an excellent little invention. As Randy has said in previous posts, once it's installed, theres no problem with leaving it installed for regular driving.

Robert, I meant to join PSCC when I saw you on Saturday but I forgot... What's the easiest way to do that now?

 

[mikester]

Photos ???

 

[Robert Puertas]

Robert, I meant to join PSCC when I saw you on Saturday but I forgot... What's the easiest way to do that now?

Slip me a $20 at the next event...

 

[Modern Wedgie]

Pics

I didnt take any pics of us running...sorry. I was too busy getting rides and instruction. But I did take pics of Randy and my car, since my yellow and blue elise was so popular, and very distinct from Randy's.

So here was my ride. Randy says I am never allowed to borrow his blue tape again.

 

[Modern Wedgie]

Now, here's Randy's car.

 

[Modern Wedgie]

Other side:

 

[Modern Wedgie]

It took about 15 miutes to apply tape, and about 10 minutes to clean up minor cone marks on front of car where I didnt have tape.

Randy, how long did it take to clean up your cone marks?