Question on Elise behaviour on French roads

[bonehead]

Hi all

I have just come back from a trip to vieille France in my Elise S2, and was very surprised by high loose the back of the car was on their non-autoroute roads. In some roundabouts I had some really lary moments which on UK roads would have been a mere nothing. I checked my tyre pressures daily, the tyres (Potenza RE40s) are mid-life, still healthy, so I am wondering if there is more diesel on the road or if the roads are simply smoother (less coarse tarmac, not less bumpy).

Any ideas?

[bogie]

no idea ....my old SC Honda ELise used to misbehave as soon as drove off the train in France....not in the way you are talking about though

[subaqua]

GLOL @ Bogie. That was exactly what I was thinking.

Yep... nothing wrong with the French roads IMO... apart from the fact that the tw*ts drive on the wrong side!!

[Pabl0]

Isnt the camber on the roads different - being on the other side?

[dumbfunk]

I've worked and driven in France for years and have always found their roundabouts to be far less grippy than over here. They're off camber and seem to be made of a more slippery smoother material.

Almost certainly it's not the car!


df

[jondude]

Was thinking camber as well....tyres here wear to the LH driving style, so get a bit unbalanced when it is all suddenly the opposite force.

Or something like that.

[bonehead]

I find the french need some lessons in navigating around roundabouts. I now know why there are so many accidents in roundabouts in France - they drive totally random lines and cut people up every time they go into a roundabout.

Amazing experience!

The roads I was driving on were definitely slippy. Liz is back to her old self on the UK roads. Have you read about this ridiculous thing that the government wants us to pay to defend ourselves against their over-zealous scameras!!!

They should improve their system and only accuse people of crimes when they are certain a crime was committed. Under their new system, they can accuse everyone of speeding and only those with enough time and cash to pay their lawyers will be able to defend themselves. Guilty until proven innocent now!

[chieflief]

bonehead said:

Guilty until proven innocent now!

Don't fool yourself. It was always 'guilty until proven innocent'.

[S Works]

Dodgy as you like French roundabouts... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD_JNYdGCrI

[Mark B]

Tarmac and road surfacing is taken very seriously in this country. I did a course years back run by Dunlop on Tyre technology. They also covered different aspects of road surface technology as part of it. The size of the grit and stones is graded for different surfaces. The road surfaces, particulalry on motorways, are taken very seriously. I am sure we have all noticed that some motorways have very high levels of spray and others don't, this is usually due to the size of the 'valleys' between the grit. Some are designed to drain well from the surface (larger voids/valleys) but cause more spray and other that don't drain as well cause large areas of laying water causing aquaplaning and lack of grip but generally less spray.

I think Dunlop designed the ideal (at the time) road surface but it was very expensive. I believe Silverstone is laid with it and has a high grip surface. (Turns icy slippery when wet though)

So to answer your questioon, yes the surfaces are very different and are probably of a lower grade and hence quite polished and slippery.

Greece, certainly Athens is the worst I have experienced for shiny slippery surfaces.

And Bogie, yup, my car always seems to mishave in France too usually on the way to/from Le Mans

[rdodger]

I have noticed very similar issues in France.

I did find fantasticly high levels of grip on the Alp roads where the tarmac seems to be much rougher. The newer parts are no where near as good though.