How to be sure it will it on your driveway?

[tstendall]

Hi everyone,

I'm getting very close to geting my first elise - a 111R.

I have a concern which is a variation on the theme of "will it fit in my garage" - whether it'll fit down my driveway ramp without the front scraping the tarmac.

I've measured the ride height and the overhang from the front wheel and made a paper cut out to test against the slope and it appears fine - it slopes very gradually to begin with. I'm almost certain it would be okay but I would be pretty annoyed if it turned out that it didn't quite make it.

I was going to test drive a local model to test it out but there are none in the area.

Has anyone got any ideas about how to test if it'll work;
OR does anyone who owns an S2 and lives near Nottingham mind coming over and testing it out? - I'd be really grateful + it would be nice to know people local to me with elises for some potential convey driving?

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Cheers

tom

[Mr_C]

try on www.mloc.net mate

[chevronb37]

I'm in an identical position. I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that it works. No going back now. I work for a building contractor so the driveway and garage will be changed before the car!

[Vlad.]

You may find that it's the numberplate that scrapes the ground rather than the lip of the car itself. You have a couple of options - mount it higher (which may impede some airflow to the radiator) or get a smaller plate (which is tecnically illegal but many people have done it).

[TOENHEEL]

I had the same problem with my exige when i was looking to buy it. Someone either on here or in a local club who owns a Lotus will more than likely try it on the drive for you :-)

[LivinLaVidaLotus]

Where in Nottingham? (Email if you don't want it public). I'm not a million miles away. You'd be surprised what they do scrape on, I scraped mine (in Nottingham strangely enough) coming out of a clients car-park when it went in fine and looked like it'd be no problem at all (I didn't even consider it, that's how easy it looked).

[Bing o]

I'd love to come round and risk damaging my car on your drive, but I'm a little far away...

[Loudman]

Don't know what difference it'll make but obviously the car will ride a bit lower if your sat in it (driving), have you taken that into account with your template?

[nomisesor]

Reverse in?

[mrssumner]

Loudman said:

Don't know what difference it'll make but obviously the car will ride a bit lower if your sat in it (driving), have you taken that into account with your template?

It will definitely make a difference - mine scrapes on the access to my mum's house, but only when I have a full tank/passenger!

[Loudman]

The other thing you can do is turn in at an angle. I've just put a splitter on mine and it scrapes if I go straight out, but if I 'turn out' of at the point of the bottom of the ramp then its fine, even with a (small) passenger.

[tlracing]

Loudman said:

The other thing you can do is turn in at an angle. I've just put a splitter on mine and it scrapes if I go straight out, but if I 'turn out' of at the point of the bottom of the ramp then its fine, even with a (small) passenger.

I used to do the same where I worked a couple of years ago.

Also, once had to change MOT tester because it wouldn't go on the lift without the undertray hitting the ramps.

[noobie]

Also, once had to change MOT tester because it wouldn't go on the lift without the undertray hitting the ramps.
[/quote]


This happened to me yesterday. I broke the number plate driving INTO the MOT tester's car park, only to subsequently find it wouldn't clear his lift anyway. Imagine my delight.

[F.C.]

if there is a problem work out where the overhang will hit, measure from here to the centre of the front wheel hub back and fit two rubber sleeping policeman blocks to the drive at track width, this could get the overhang over the point of contact.
Obviously It won't work in all circumstances but it worked for me.
F.C.

[tstendall]

Thanks everyone for the posts - that's been really useful.

As a little incentive for anyone willing to pop over, the elise I'm looking at buying appears to have a splitter. Obviously due to the aforementioned problem I won't be using it so anyone willing to help is welcome to it if I subsequently buy the one I'm looking at getting.

There is a bit of a time issue as I said I'd get back to the seller before second week in Feb and I did want to go and pick it up on the 14th Feb.

I appreciate that no-one's going to be going out in this weather though!!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

Tom.

[piooly]

Is it steeper than a multistory car park? If it is then you may have trouble. Mine just about is ok but it rides lower than a 111R...... and like others say, take at a slight angle andit helps. If you have a tarmac drive, get some more put on to smooth the angle out.....

[tstendall]

Many thanks to everyone for their posts and especially to LivinLaVidaLotus who popped round over the weekend and tried his elise out on my driveway.

With wooden blocks on hand if it wasn't looking quite right it edged over the threshold and we were both relieved to discover that it made it with about 2cm to spare!!

That means I can place the order!! Thanks again everyone.

Tom.

[chevronb37]

Tom, I had to get mine into the garage yesterday for the first time - was quite fraught. It made it fine up the slope, but it was scary seeing the wheelarches just a couple of centimetres from the garage door frame. Not looking forward to doing that every day. And getting out involved rolling the roof back too. The sacrifices we make...