'Everyone I know with an Elise has spun it at some point'

[sato]

There is a letter in this months Evo that makes the above claim.

I'm a couple of months into owning an S2, and while I am yet to push on in the wet my experience so far is that the front end is more twitchy than the rear and that you have to be trying pretty hard to provoke it on the road in any case.
So am I driving like a pansy, am I going to get a big surprise mid corner, or is this all an urban myth?

[patmahe]

3 years in here still no spin. I've had the odd twitchy moment when pressing on but they were easily controllable, but then I never go to the absolute limit on public roads.

[kambites]

I've had mine for two and a bit years and not managed to spin it yet.

[TonyHetherington]

I had Lotuses (Elise then Exige) for 4 years and never span it. That's not because I'm a driving god, far from it, but just because I think I was sensible at the right times in the right places.

[Fidgits]

i had mine for a year and never span it...

and that included driving in rain, ice and snow...


i certainly got the tail out when provoked, but it was so easy to control* it was hilarious...

* and no, im no driving god, just average

[21TonyK]

On road, no. On track yes. And thats on 48's or 888's all year road.

[dirty boy]

I've seen two elises spin on track days, one in front of me, one in front of my old man.

See 3:35

http://www.youtube.com/user/chormy#p/a/u/0/69MybLD...

[otolith]

Let this here forth be known as the "Tempting Fate Topic"

I've had my 111R a little over a year now, and have not yet spun it nor felt at any point that I might. It has massive grip all round and a serious surfeit of traction over power at the back (and no LSD). The MX-5 and RX-8 could both be easily provoked into low speed power oversteer on a damp road, but the Elise seems to require more brutality than I'm happy to give it. I need to take it to CarLimits, really, to find out safely just how snappy it is when it does let go.

[CardShark]

Going against the grain here but I don't mind admitting that I've spun it. About 6 months or so ago I had a 180 moment on a damp roundabout, thankfully in the early hours of the day when no-one else was about. A combination of old, rock hard rears (though with around 3mm of tread), lifting off the throttle at the wrong moment and a lack of judgement on my part all contributed. A completely new set of tyres and a fresh respect for damp roundabouts quickly ensued, and while I haven't booked it yet I intend on taking part in some 'on road' driver training with an organisation like Cadance.

[Herman Toothrot]

I push it along quite rapidly on the road wet or dry, I find the car planted. to spin on the road I think you need to either be suprised by a random obstical in the road or driving like a tit.

I have spun it twice, on track in the dry when pushing on like a complete loon. 1st spin was simply too high a corner entry speed on the wrong line as I had passed a car approaching said corner and couldn't get back on line or scrub enough speed off (he'd indicated and waved me past but then didn't lift off enough for me). The 2nd was pushing it as hard as a could through a chicane but on exiting found someone before me had hit the cones scattering them all over the track and trying to dodge them spun.

[hondafanatic]

The spin is normally preceeded with the words "Watch this".

[chris7676]

Never on a public road. Many times on a track. From my experience the grip of the car is not that different from other cars on similar tyres, it just feels more "planted".

[21TonyK]

hondafanatic said:

The spin is normally preceeded with the words "Watch this".

Skip to 3 minutes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYDcU1RqYto

[CardShark]

Herman Toothrot said:

I push it along quite rapidly on the road wet or dry, I find the car planted. to spin on the road I think you need to either be suprised by a random obstical in the road or driving like a tit.

Not that I think that was aimed at me but I wouldn't have said that I was driving like a tit at the time, I was actually quite surprised when it happened. Whilst I may have been driving around the roundabout at a speed marginally faster than your average driver (come on guys, I'd think that a fair few of us occasionally take bends and roundabouts faster in our Loti than if we were in a more sedate vehicle, that's kinda what they're built for) I certainly wasn't trying to loose control and I didn't think that the speed that I was travelling at was going to push the limits of the car or myself. Like I said, one of the contributing factors was a lack of judgement on my part, but I wouldn't have said that I was driving like a tit.

Edited by CardShark on Wednesday 2nd June 11:44

[Esprit]

I've spun maybe 10 times on track in Elises... more often than not it's been when I've been driving it like this:




Had plenty of sideways on the road but never gotten close to spinning it.

Edited by Esprit on Wednesday 2nd June 12:40

[andy_s]

4 years, no spin, but there's always tomorrow...

[Justin S]

I have never spun my car whatsoever















But did have a spin at Rockingham recently on the track in the school car LOL..........
Wife had her hands over her eyes watching, lots of gasps from the crowd and tyre smoke. I blamed it on the rain starting to come down.............hehehehehe

[chevronb37]

I'm yet to have a spin, but don't wish to tempt fate. She's shaken her hips a couple of times - once recently in the wet on a steady throttle and going very slowly which was a major surprise. I'm not a driving god - my attitude for road driving is that a skid of any kind is a total failure in my driving system. Activating an ABS system or losing traction laterally or in a straight line means that I am not doing my job properly and need to carefully disect my driving to understand my transgression. Having said that, I did have some fun hooning around Hethel in the rain last year and the feel of an Elise is a bit like a kart in that you really feel from your hips what the car is doing. When they slide it is quite predictable. I enjoy trying to drive as smoothly and as quickly as possible within the car's limits on the road - enjoying what it's telling you and reading the road to the best of your ability to allow decent progress with no histrionics.

[Spunagain]

I've never spun mine in 12 years, remembers user name..

Correction, I've never spun mine on public roads in 12 years.

I've spent a gloriously wet January at Bedford autodrome with the track to myself spining like a demented ballet dancer on moonshine.

My wife spun it off a rondabout on an oily roundabout on the A1. The XR3 following shortly after with the driver and his mates (briefly) pointing and laughing wound up next to us backwards on the verge!

Geo un changed but needed to refurb the alloys!

regards
Spunagain

[Wildfire]

Spun my S1 in the snow/ice winter of 08, later found out the car had some very questionable gemoetry and suspension set up. But still shouldn't have really been driving it in that sort of weather.

Never spun my S2, had the back step out a few times in the wet, especially as I'm almost on the wear markers.