On driving the Lotus Elise for the first time, we like everyone else, were hugely impressed by the ride, handling and roadholding. For a generation of enthusiasts brought up on the Lotus/Caterham Seven and all its many imitators, the Elise quite simply moved the goalposts. The car combined exceptional roadholding and handling with an almost miraculously soft and controlled ride.

Once we became more familiar with the car though, once we were no longer in awe of its capabilities and began to explore the outer reaches of the performance envelope, the cracks started to appear, especially on circuit at track days. Like we said, the Elise had moved the goalposts, but once you took aim at the new target and pumped yourself up enough to find the admittedly high limit, it could be very tricky indeed, and the sight of an Elise in the 'kitty litter' became quite familiar at track days, as they would very easily catch out the inexperienced or less skilled.

The transverse mid-engined layout, while it offers many attractions - especially in packaging - for a compact mid-engined sports car, does have its limitations, especially when little attempt is made to lower the engine or otherwise optimise the layout. In our view, the Elise's suspension, while it gave an almost miraculously smooth ride on normal roads, was almost too soft, allowing the vehicle to use all of its rather limited available wheel travel too easily.

This could result in the vehicle 'crashing out' onto the bump stops over a severe bump; not a serious problem in itself, but very unpleasant for the occupants, and one that made you wonder about the long-term durability of the innovative glued… sorry bonded, extruded aluminium chassis. The vehicle rolling on to the bump stops in hard cornering however presented a much more alarming and serious problem. If you then hit a bump as well, the sudden increase in vertical load on the tyre was sometimes enough to break the tyre's hold on the road, and the driver needed to be fast and accurate in steering correction to catch the resulting slide. Indeed, if this happened in a high-speed corner the natural and understandable reaction of most drivers was to attempt to reduce speed by lifting off the throttle, which merely compounded the problem. The weight of the engine high in the chassis would give the ensuing lift-off oversteer a momentum that was practically unstoppable, as numerous drivers found to their cost.

In our view, the standard spring rates were much too soft even in normal road driving, never mind on track. Although much of the above is necessarily supposition and only our opinion (far be it from us to suggest that Lotus may have got it wrong!), the fact that the spring rates on the new Elise have been 'substantially increased' would seem to confirm our assessment.

Another problem was the ride height. Some of the earlier cars especially rode very tall, giving them a comical, almost 'beach buggy' appearance, although the standard specification was subsequently changed. When you look at a selection of Elises on the road though, you wonder whether there is any such thing as a 'standard' ride height, as they vary by as much as 50mm. Most cars look considerably better for a sensible reduction in ride height, but the Elise, in our view, is not just improved, but completely transformed when it is lowered. Even when the ride height is reduced by no more than 25-30mm, the Elise is transformed from beach buggy to low-slung sports car.

Our objectives then, when we began to develop our suspension kit for the Elise, were clear. We wanted to offer adjustable ride height via adjustable spring platforms; adjustable damping; and substantially firmer springs.

When we first fitted our uprated springs, we were amazed. The ride, in our view, was better than before. The ride remained supple and fluid, but no longer did the car 'crash out' over potholes, motorway joint lines and the like. And at our next track day, we were better able to assess the handling. That too, was much improved. We were far less conscious of the weight of the engine immediately behind us, as though the mass of the vehicle was being supported and controlled far better than before. There was also much less body roll.

Having established a good spring rate compromise between handling and ride comfort, we needed to source some suitable dampers. For these we turned to a name not well known to the average enthusiast… yet. Nitron is a new British damper manufacturer that has identified a niche in the market for performance dampers: namely, a quality damper at a sensible price. Nitron realised that the market for performance dampers has polarised, with price-sensitive 'cheapie' units at one end of the market, and ultra-expensive competition units, or road versions of them, offering multiple adjustment and other refinements (arguably unnecessary for road use) at the other. Nitron aims to take the middle ground with a damper that offers superior quality and function to the 'cheapie' end of the market, but without the 'over the top' sophistication of the ultra-expensive competition orientated units to be found at the top end of the market. We leave it to our customers to decide whether they have succeeded or not… but we are very impressed.

On appearance and finish alone, Nitron dampers score top marks. The Nitron dampers in the Raceline Performance Engineered suspension kit were developed especially for the Elise, and are designed to be mounted upside-down to keep unsprung weight to a minimum, in keeping with Lotus's philosophy. The spring platforms are threaded for ride height adjustment, and the damping is readily adjustable via a rotary knob on the boidy, offering a good range of adjustment. The dampers may be set soft for road use, when they provide a smooth and comfortable ride, and can be adjusted for track days to sharpen up the vehicle's responses, albeit at the cost of a somewhat firmer ride (although still far from unacceptable for road use). Indeed, some may prefer a firmer setting even for road use. The choice is yours….

Most 'handling' kits simply sacrifice ride quality for roadholding. The Raceline Performance Engineered suspension tuning kit for the Lotus Elise not only improves the handling, it has the further benefit of actually improving the ride too; it produces all benefit with no drawback, something almost unprecedented in the world of performance tuning. It also allows you to choose the optimum ride height, which makes such a difference to the appearance of the Elise, you could buy it for looks alone! When used in conjunction with the Raceline Performance Engineered adjustable anti-roll bar kit, the suspension tuning kit provides the keen Elise driver with a brilliantly versatile and adaptable suspension set-up, which should be adjustable to any driving style, circuit, or test route.