Whoever you are, make sure you get your geo done....
Discussion
...cos it's awesome.
I can't believe the difference it's made. The car over the last 12 months seemed to have lost it's feel when going through corners, well, that feeling is back. I turn in, the car goes exactly where it should
if there is one single thing youhave done to your car this year, make it a full geo
I can't believe the difference it's made. The car over the last 12 months seemed to have lost it's feel when going through corners, well, that feeling is back. I turn in, the car goes exactly where it should
if there is one single thing youhave done to your car this year, make it a full geo
I should imagine there are a fair number of Eliges out there running around with their wheels pointing every which way and interesting camber (or lack of it).
Just getting the car back to factory settings will make a huge difference: as bogie says, people often comment about this or that geo but the reality is their car was so far out that just getting the whole caboudle sorted will work wonders, even if its to factory settings.
Once you've got some good, recorded base settings then you can start sodding about with different settings and see how they affect the car's behaviour (should be doing this on track btw).
Just getting the car back to factory settings will make a huge difference: as bogie says, people often comment about this or that geo but the reality is their car was so far out that just getting the whole caboudle sorted will work wonders, even if its to factory settings.
Once you've got some good, recorded base settings then you can start sodding about with different settings and see how they affect the car's behaviour (should be doing this on track btw).
A decent geometry setup can noticeably improve the handling on an Elise and for £150-200 is well worth doing! I opted for the '340R Road' settings for my S2 111S as a base, as well as some additional tweeking to induce oversteer ... 
The latter hasn't really worked, but overall handling has become increasingly 'urgent' in comparison to when I collected the car.
The latter hasn't really worked, but overall handling has become increasingly 'urgent' in comparison to when I collected the car.
Had the geo sorted out on my S1 over the summer and even I could tell the difference! 
track-club (near Cambridge \ Huntingdon) have the same Hunter High Def camera equipment as the factory for alignment, they did my Exige. They are also next door to Eliseparts in cae you need anything else while you are there! e-mail Stephen via info@track-club.com and he'll probably sort you out. They were doign free checks for a while as an opening offer, not sure if this is still in place.
Tim
Tim
I'm in with Tim on the 'regular check' advice. If you use your Lotus on road then sooner or later you'll be in a situation where you can't dodge a pothole / broken bit of road, and as every Elise/Exige driver knows, it can feel like you've ripped a wheel off.
I'd like confirmation from people who know, but I'm assuming that these big hits that the car can take (usually on the passenger side, as the holes in the road are usually at the edges) can bump the suspension geometry out of alignment?
The roads here in the South East are bloody terrible - I've got a mental map of most of the big potholes in the roads around Sevenoaks, along with the deeply recessed drain covers (even more so now, as one was involved in my recent accident, suspiciously replaced with a brand new drain cover the day later), and passengers always laugh at me taking weird lines on the road and 'dodging' round holes, but eventually there'll be the time when you have to pull the car right into your side of the road because some 4x4 or truck is coming the other way and using up more than their fair share of road... and doing an emergency stop to avoid banging into the pothole would be stupid because you've got someone right behind you...
I really thought I'd ripped a wheel off once in my VXT because of a deep pothole on the road before the golf club in Sevenoaks. Turns out that the cars are tougher than that, however I'm sure it has some effect on the geometry.
Would it be wise to say that it'd be a good idea to get the geometry checked after any big hits from potholes / deep drain covers / etc. ?? Or is the suspension tougher than that, and I'm being overly cautious?
[edit - misattribution - f
k knows why]
I'd like confirmation from people who know, but I'm assuming that these big hits that the car can take (usually on the passenger side, as the holes in the road are usually at the edges) can bump the suspension geometry out of alignment?
The roads here in the South East are bloody terrible - I've got a mental map of most of the big potholes in the roads around Sevenoaks, along with the deeply recessed drain covers (even more so now, as one was involved in my recent accident, suspiciously replaced with a brand new drain cover the day later), and passengers always laugh at me taking weird lines on the road and 'dodging' round holes, but eventually there'll be the time when you have to pull the car right into your side of the road because some 4x4 or truck is coming the other way and using up more than their fair share of road... and doing an emergency stop to avoid banging into the pothole would be stupid because you've got someone right behind you...
I really thought I'd ripped a wheel off once in my VXT because of a deep pothole on the road before the golf club in Sevenoaks. Turns out that the cars are tougher than that, however I'm sure it has some effect on the geometry.
Would it be wise to say that it'd be a good idea to get the geometry checked after any big hits from potholes / deep drain covers / etc. ?? Or is the suspension tougher than that, and I'm being overly cautious?
[edit - misattribution - f
k knows why]Edited by cyberface on Monday 14th December 19:12
wacattack said:
...cos it's awesome.
I can't believe the difference it's made. The car over the last 12 months seemed to have lost it's feel when going through corners, well, that feeling is back. I turn in, the car goes exactly where it should
if there is one single thing youhave done to your car this year, make it a full geo
Where did you get it done- localy, and did you specify any settings? Mine could probably do with a check.I can't believe the difference it's made. The car over the last 12 months seemed to have lost it's feel when going through corners, well, that feeling is back. I turn in, the car goes exactly where it should
if there is one single thing youhave done to your car this year, make it a full geo
Cheers, Dunx.
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