Elise Tips and Tricks

• Boot illumination
  Turning on the (side)lights provides useful illumination of the boot as a lot of light leaks past the carpet.

• Wash wipe
  I find that the wash wipe mechanism tends to continue wiping too long after releasing the wiper stalk. By releasing the stalk at the start of the wiper sweep, it minimises the number of sweeps that occur afterwards.

• Maximising boot space
  You can fit an amazing amount of stuff in the boot if you put your mind to it. My top tips:
  1. Packmate bags. These are self-deflating storage bags, excellent for packing clothes. Fold your clothes up, slide into the bag, seal and then sit on the bag to push all the air out of the one-way valve. It squashes the clothes down very flat without creasing them. Then you can find a suitable gap in the boot to squeeze the bag in.
  2. Remove the bootlining. My car has the GRP boot with carpet and the bootlining itself is about 2 cm thick. It doesn't sound a lot but removing this creates a lot more space in the boot. It does make the boot a lot hotter but that doesn't cause a problem unless you've got perishable items in there.
  3. Make use of all the nooks and crannies. All that space that lies at the edges of the boot can accommodate all sorts of useful things like shoes and sleeping bags etc.
  4. Use small toiletry containers. Now you know what to do with all those tiny hotel shampoo bottles! Taken to the extreme, you can get travel size toothpaste and compact deodourant...

  By utilising all these tips, I once managed to pack for a European trackday weekend with the following items:

  • 2 sleeping bags (one in the boot, the other in the passenger footwell)
  • 2 inflatable mattresses
  • Two camping chairs
  • Clothes for 2 people for 2 nights
  • Toiletry bag
  • Crash helmet
  • Racing boots and gloves
  • Tent (behind seats)
  • Synthetic towel
  • Warning triangle
  • Toolkit (between passenger seat and chassis/bulkhead)
  • Rubber mallet
  • Torch

Liam Crilly © 07-Nov-2003