[tennistom]

I have a new 60th Anniversary Elise and love it accept for the blindspots. I put on a couple of MultiVex mirrors today I purchased a while ago and hopefully they will help.

Does anyone know if removing the rear wing will apprecaiably improve the view through the rear mirror? Although the wing is only a few inches high, it looks like removing it may help me see better. It appears to be held on with just a few bolts.

Is it pretty straight forward to remove it?

Are there any special caps to fill in the holes?

Will removal of the wing adversely effect handling as a daily driver?

What speed does the spoiler come into play?

Is it possible to raise the seat hight on the Elise to improve visibilty fore and aft?

I did a search but nothing came up, maybe I didn't word it right. Thanks for any answers or leading me to a thread on this topic.

 

[Aedo]

Raising the seat is certainly possible - but can't remember ever seeing a kit to do it (the opposite - yes, there is a kit). Richard Cooper raised his seat and I'm sure he'd let you know how to do it - drop him a PM

Don't know about removing the rear wing though (other than that it will leave bolt holes to be filled and painted).

 

[4380r]

I have a new 60th Anniversary Elise and love it accept for the blindspots. I put on a couple of MultiVex mirrors today I purchased a while ago and hopefully they will help.

Does anyone know if removing the rear wing will apprecaiably improve the view through the rear mirror? Although the wing is only a few inches high, it looks like removing it may help me see better. It appears to be held on with just a few bolts.

Is it pretty straight forward to remove it?

Are there any special caps to fill in the holes?

Will removal of the wing adversely effect handling as a daily driver?

What speed does the spoiler come into play?

Is it possible to raise the seat hight on the Elise to improve visibilty fore and aft?

I did a search but nothing came up, maybe I didn't word it right. Thanks for any answers or leading me to a thread on this topic.

* Sure, removing the wing will improve rearward vision. Sit in a regular Elise, look in the rearview mirror...and that's what you'll see.
* Straightforward to remove, but as you know there will be the 4 bolt holes in the body. No kit with caps specifically to fill those holes. Would look a bit cheezy anyway, but with a black car less so.
*Removing the wing will not have any impact on its handling as a daily driver, or as a race car. There is speculation here that the wing has virtually no impact whatsoever, and what it does have would be minimal.

 

[tennistom]

Thanks for the replies guys. I guess I'll be dusting off my little socket set in the next few days and give it a whirl. I'll let y'all know if it helps rear visiblilty appreciably.
:shift:

 

[mhouston23]

There's definitely a big difference in rear visibility, but it would be sad to remove it for that reason

 

[tennistom]

There's definitely a big difference in rear visibility, but it would be sad to remove it for that reason

Thanks for the reply. I'm in the frisco bay area and drive three bridges in my daily commute from Marin to work in sf, across town, over the Oakland Bay Bridge, I-80 by Berzerkley, the 580 by Richmond and over the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge back home.

I drive through some of the most congested areas on the planet, amongst some of the worst, rudest, criminaly stupid and stoned drivers (if you can call them drivers). I'm convinced some of the nuts behind wheels around here are in comas or possibly driving while dead.

Trust me, I need all the visiblility I can get to drive defensively and survive. I would rather lose the wing then crash. I'm going to try removing it, I can always put it back on.

My Elise is a 60'th Anniversay Edition in Lotus Green with the yellow stripes. It will still attract plenty of attention without the wing.

Maybe I'll find a place for the wing in my pad like above the bed or on top of the 50" flat panel TV.

The MultiVex mirrors are helping.

 

[RoadDad]

You could also install a rear view camera and leave your wing intact.

 

[Illumiloti]

I take the wing off my Exige for the street (cleaner look IMHO) and put it on for the track. I found some small rubber grommets (plugs) at Ace hardware that fit in the hole and when moistened slip almost all the way in.
They can be pulled out with needle nose vise grips or pushed thru from undernieth if you want to put the wing back on. Whole process takes me about 5 minutes.

 

[tennistom]

I removed the wing and the vision through the rear-view mirror is MUCH improved! The Elise still has the blind-spots whrere the "flying buttresses" are, but the MultiVex mirrors help with that.