Captain,
I wholeheartedly agree with your viewpoint, particulary re using a throttle as a switch not a valve. Having done rallying and racing over the years, one gets to learn that pedal action is not binary, i.e. 1 or 0, and that a pedal balancing act is as important and synonymous with steering inputs to learn to control the feel of a car.
Having the 3 cars that I own now requires a completely different driving style approach for each one. Throttle, brake and steering input are all the more important in the Elise, dont lift off completely in a corner or youll swap ends, use the throttle to manage the reduction of speed whilst not upsetting the balance and weight transfer.
On the A13 near where I live is a 290 degree dual lane slip road onto the A13 (very similar to the M25 to M40 - Oxford direction exit off the anticlockwise section). On Friday, I took all 3 cars (at different times ;-)) on the same piece to find out what was the quickest and at the same point on the actual merge point, what the actual speeds were.
The result was that there was not much between them at all!!!! 1 or 2 seconds at the most. What was interesting was being able to max out the CUP into the 1st part of the bend, when it was tightening a lot, lift off, the back came out beautifully and allowed me to keep the throttle planted all the way to the merge, with easily controlled throttle inputs. Very impressed at the amout of speed kept through the whole 290 degrees.
Im confident that the feeling of body roll is more down to the seats and crap position that the actual car. Its hard to detect/differentiate when you have to stiffen/change body position/hang onto the wheel all the time. When I get the new seats in, I think then ill get the true understanding whether there is any discernable roll that affects handling. As you said, you are right that a car needs to roll a bit, particulary todays cars. If it did not, then either your teeth would fall out or you would be through a hedge.
172CUP
At least with a set of springs its easy to go back to the originals if it doesnt work out, and I assume that Eibach would take back their springs if they were manifestly unsuitable.
