Autocross: Elise Goes Brrr
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My partner's FR-S is usually my autocross chariot of choice, but they were both out of town for the weekend, so the Elise got its christening earlier this afternoon:
That pothole at 0:30 sounds worse than it actually was, but all the same, thank goodness for the car's healthy amount of sidewall.
Non-sport OEM suspension, limited camber (-0.5F / -1.5R), and Conti ECS tires weren't going to really light anyone's hair on fire time-wise, but for someone who is usually well into the top 10 PAX standings, I'm more than happy to see a 12th place finish to my name on this outing (out of ~72 drivers). For what it's worth, fastest time of the day from our resident STU Mitsubishi Evo national champ madman was about 3 seconds faster.
As for how it drove at the limit, there weren't any surprises. Going in expecting it to do all the things that a small, light, softly-sprung, mid-engined car does got me 80% of the way there. The rest was just developing the muscle memory of how much lift-off oversteer I could get away with and how quickly it needed a response. That, and resisting the urge to get on the throttle too early, which only leads to endless understeer. The car is still communicative as ever and the extremely linear and responsive throttle made mid-corner modulation a treat. The open diff was noticeable in a few small spots (which you can hear on the video), but wasn't bad enough to have me in a rush to want to change it anytime soon.
I was a little overly cautious at the start but eventually found a decent groove and managed to drop nearly three seconds over the course of the day. Most importantly, it was still fun to drive. There were no spins, no cones, and no mechanical hiccups, so all in all a very good day.
