RE: Elemental RP1: Driven

[SpudLink]

Sway said:

With what sounds like ground effect aero as opposed to body generated - is this not going to be absolutely lethal on the road?

Hacking along a B road, turn into a corner loading the tyres up. Hit a bump on the inside, lose all downforce and suddenly find tyres a lot less loaded and outside their ability to grip...

Very wary of anything that creates downforce from the tarmac, when the tarmac isn't pan flat.

Am I being a tart?

If you adjust the suspension to road hight, I Imagine the ground effect is reduced. (I could be wrong). as a result the effect of bumps in the road is less pronounced. But you're probably right, in that it is something to be aware of on fast sweeping bends.

[redroadster]

Bad timing the new lotus looks far better place to drop your winnings in.

[tim-b]

SpudLink said:

Sway said:

With what sounds like ground effect aero as opposed to body generated - is this not going to be absolutely lethal on the road?

Hacking along a B road, turn into a corner loading the tyres up. Hit a bump on the inside, lose all downforce and suddenly find tyres a lot less loaded and outside their ability to grip...

Very wary of anything that creates downforce from the tarmac, when the tarmac isn't pan flat.

Am I being a tart?

If you adjust the suspension to road hight, I Imagine the ground effect is reduced. (I could be wrong). as a result the effect of bumps in the road is less pronounced. But you're probably right, in that it is something to be aware of on fast sweeping bends.

I took the photos of the Rp1 in this article, so know a little bit about the car - something really interesting about the aero setup is that it actually has more rear downforce when the car is yawing, since the rear diffuser gets more air flowing under it. So in theory, if the rear steps out the aero grip will increase. Don't know how this would translate to real world usability, but to be honest I wouldn't want to be cornering on public roads at speeds where aero plays a big role in anything!

[Sway]

I can understand that about yaw, but that doesn't help with pitch!

The article states positive downforce at 60-70mph onwards - certainly within the normal speed profile of a road car. It's not unusual to be cornering at close to full tyre loading - a small bump and a loss of a few tens of kilos of downforce would be sphincter twitching.

I suppose I'm coming from the comments regarding the Carrera GT, and why it's such a widowmaker at pace on roads.

[Geoff-sy1u0]

the journalist who wrote that article doesnt even know the cost of the cars which is piss poor.
- Bac Mono is from £125k - custom seat add £5k - custom stearing wheel add £5k
- New Lotus with paddles is £115k - doesnt have a clutch and as such Lotus advised me you cant drive it on the road as you will screw the box

I have been lucky and driven alot of supercars and track cars - I have also driven the Elemental RP1 on the road - its very quick and with so much power to weight you wont need to use many gears. It actually drives and handles well even on our bumpy roads, the only issue is the speed and ones driving licence, so like all fast cars to be enjoyed you need to run them on a track.
But its a cool car and totally carbon fibre and you can have it in carbon fibre gloss/matt finish and when not on the track with no roof its a great for a Sunday drive to the pub.

[gt750boy]

I saw both the Elemental and the Zenos in January at the NEC. I bought the Zenos. There were a few reasons for this. Firstly, I don't think the photos do either car justice. The Elemental looks a little better to me, but I like the way the Zenos has been designed and constructed for maximum fun and minimal cost/effort to repair when it all goes tits up as well as the tunability. The price of entry to Zenos ownership is also a lot easier to justify. The E10 S is bloody amazing on the road and quickcas stink on a the track at Silverstone.

The guys running Zenos also have lots of experience actually running small volume specialist car manufacturers, and being very successful at it. If I was to just look at the two companies and had to pick a car based on experience and long term prospects there would be no question as to which I would pick.

I'll keep my Zenos E10S thank you very much.