I'm currently reading a book on the history of the Elise and although I earlier noted that the rear end didnt look good, I have different thoughts about it now. Not only have I seen the car in person and really, it didnt look too bad. But also, I didnt know original Elise had rear lift issues above 100mph so Rackham had to divise up the underbody/rear diffuser system to combat this lift. Diffuser actually creates quite abit of downforce and solved the lift problem. Also, the original design by Julian Thomson had a unbeliebably carppy coeff. of drag rating of 0.44(same as Ford Escort) and thus limited topspeed to 115mph. They got it down to 0.36, which is still not great. Im not sure if it is any lower than this now.
I have read half the book and I am amazed this thing actually got built. They had to endure alot to get this far. Sounds like they would have used tinfoil to save on cost at the time...
. Alot fo bickering and fighting also. Its funny how they were very concerned about liftoff oversteer and tried things to combat this(they used the least grippy and skinny Pirelli's they could find for fronts) while most people are now complaining about too much understeer and how they want the oversteer qualities back.
Overall, a great read and it also shows how many human qualities and flaws play a role in the development of a car. Not quite the same path a BMW or GM would take, which is a good thing.
I have read half the book and I am amazed this thing actually got built. They had to endure alot to get this far. Sounds like they would have used tinfoil to save on cost at the time...
. Alot fo bickering and fighting also. Its funny how they were very concerned about liftoff oversteer and tried things to combat this(they used the least grippy and skinny Pirelli's they could find for fronts) while most people are now complaining about too much understeer and how they want the oversteer qualities back.Overall, a great read and it also shows how many human qualities and flaws play a role in the development of a car. Not quite the same path a BMW or GM would take, which is a good thing.
