question for S2 Exige owners...

[The Hoff]

Hi all,

I've been running my Exige S now for nearly a year.. and since I didn't do any trackdays last year, I opted to run the car on R888 tyres, to save a bit of money and avoid the hassle of having to wait.. as everybody seemed to run out of the standard tyres pretty quickly.
The problem I've found is that the car now crashed and bangs over any imperfection in the road surface since I changed over to the R888..
My question is this.. Has anybody else gone away from the standard tyre, and if so, to what tyre ,and in doing so ,how has the ride quality been affected?
I tend to do longer runs and occasional continental trips, so the outright grip provided by the standard tyres is not really an issue.

(maybe I should have bought an elise S2 in the first place... hence ,now considering an Elise SC, as I'm not a real trackday enthousiast
+ I might even find the cup holder handy )

Cowan

[Brian J]

To be honest when I got my Exige on the Lotus 048s, I thought it crashed horribly over every bump to the extent that I wondered if it was damaging the suspension - used to it now.

However, don't notice it appreciably any worse on the R888s - are yours perhaps over-inflated?

[The Hoff]

I'm running them at 1.9 bar at the rear and 1.7 bar at the front (can't remember what that is in psi...). Just out of interest ,what do you run them at?

Cowan

[gdr]

I run 23/25 psi F/R which is about 1.6/1.7 bar on R888. Ride is OK for what it is, certainly no limo though. Couldn't tell the difference in noise/comfort between Yoko and Toyo to be honest. Car probably faster with Yoko due to wallet being lighter.

[Brian J]

I run 23/25 psi F/R which is about 1.6/1.7 bar on R888. Ride is OK for what it is, certainly no limo though. Couldn't tell the difference in noise/comfort between Yoko and Toyo to be honest. Car probably faster with Yoko due to wallet being lighter.

Ditto - 22/24 psi at present.

[The Hoff]

Thanks guys, much appreciated .. I'll give those tyre pressures a try tomorrow.

cheers,

Cowan

[SteveBanks]

I had an S1 with standard konis and thought the car was going to fall apart anytime I hit a small bump. I put S2 Bilsteins on and the transformation was amazing! When I got my S2 Exige, I couldn't believe just how good the ride quality was, even compared to the S2 Bilsteins (although I think a lot of the perceived improvement is down to less rattles and better sound insulation).

Your current pressures are far too hard though, running the recommended Lotus pressures will cause the tyres to wear in the centres and does decrease the ride quality so that's probably the problem. I also run 22/24, have done with 39's, 48's and 888's. The 39's are what you want for a road car though, they last slightly longer and they're the grippiest tyre I've ever used in the wet, they also have a slightly better ride quality compared to 48's and 888's but are just too bloody expensive!

[meatball]

I run 23/25 psi F/R which is about 1.6/1.7 bar on R888. Ride is OK for what it is, certainly no limo though. Couldn't tell the difference in noise/comfort between Yoko and Toyo to be honest. Car probably faster with Yoko due to wallet being lighter.

Ditto - 22/24 psi at present.

Is that on a full set of R888's?
I tried that and found the wheel moved about on the tyre......was quite worrying......I now run therears at 26 or 27 PSI......

[Brian J]

[
Is that on a full set of R888's?
I tried that and found the wheel moved about on the tyre......was quite worrying......I now run the rears at 26 or 27 PSI......

Yes - sounds strange - how did you discover the problem?

[The Hoff]

...I set the pressures at 22/24 (F/R) psi.. and took her for a spin this afternoon.. MUCH MUCH better..
No banging or crashing over bumps anymore, and it's sharpened the handling up quite a bit.

Thanks again for the help guys

Cowan

[meatball]

[
Is that on a full set of R888's?
I tried that and found the wheel moved about on the tyre......was quite worrying......I now run the rears at 26 or 27 PSI......

Yes - sounds strange - how did you discover the problem?

Firstly I spent lots of 20p's at the petrol station varying the tyre pressures and then driving it.......I found that they had to be run a lot harder than the 48's.
Then Robn told me the side walls aren't as firm.
Finally Walshy and I played about with the pressures down at North Weald and again found that they like more pressure and in fact there is more grip with the R888's run harder (in the cool weather anyway).

As a result I'm at 26 or 27 at the rear......

I never really got to play about with the 48's (when I had them on the rear) although I like 24psi in my 48's on the front!

I was going to put my begging face on for a wee shot of your reflashed exige to see if I'm going to copy you!
I have heard a rumour that there is a mod that changes can at 4k/4.5k too......will call lotus and find out!

[SteveBanks]

Finally Walshy and I played about with the pressures down at North Weald and again found that they like more pressure and in fact there is more grip with the R888's run harder (in the cool weather anyway).

As a result I'm at 26 or 27 at the rear......

Interesting...I found that too hard on the 48's and just set my 888's to the same 22/24 I'd used previously, I'll need to try the 888's at a higher pressure though and see how they feel. Are you running the fronts at 24?

[meatball]

To confuse things further....my fronts are A048's and they are at 24 or 25psi, depending on temp outside!