Car looks superb. I have enjoyed Bedford and must do it again
Cheers Andy.
Yeah Bedford is a great track to test out a car with its wide roads and generous runoffs.
This was my first ‘proper’ full track day in the Exige, so Bedford you was the ideal stomping ground to get a better understanding of how the car feels compared to my old Elise.
What were your thoughts on the comparison between your old elise and this exige?
You can definitely feel the extra weight, but with time I’m feeling this less and less as I get used to the Exige. Turn in on the Elise was sharper, it would dart into corners with minimal input, so god knows what an even lighter S1 would be like.
The Exige seems like it needs slightly more effort to dig into the corners, but it feels great being more planted and as a result I think the corner entry speed is probably fairly similar.
The biggest difference is the Exiges supercharger. This has a dramatic effect on both mid corner and exit speed. You can get on the power far sooner to exit corners faster and build speed into the straight far sooner than in my 156bhp K series Elise. I was hoping that this would be the case as the Elise could be quite frustrating at times when it bogged down due to the lack of low down grunt.
The brakes are also far superior in terms of sheer stopping power and give me much greater confidence than the Elise did. I don’t think the brake pedal feels as good as the Elise yet, but I’m working on that 
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I’m not a quick driver, but I’m really enjoying the Exige and looking forward to finding out how much potential it has as I get to know it.
Sounds like you are having fun which is what its all about.
Keep the updates coming!
Sounds like a lot of fun.
It’s been a while .
Thought it might be worth posting a bit of an update on my brakes in case it’s useful for a fellow Exiger.
Since rebuilding my front calipers (AP 4 pots) I have been experiencing longer than usual pedal travel. I knew that this wasn’t due to air being in the system, so put it down to the new seals gripping and retracting the pistons more aggressively than before.
This pulls them further away from the discs creating a longer distance of travel for the piston to push the pads into contact. Braking power was fine when the pads did eventually bite, but it felt rubbish.
After a lot of reading on various forums and speaking to the guys at Track Group to find out what can be done about it, the solution was much simpler than I imagined and I’m kicking myself for not having thought of it sooner.
I removed the brake pads on both calipers and replaced them with older, thinner pads. Then pumped the brake pedal to extend the pistons and bring the old pads into contact with the disc. Next I removed the calipers from the disc, swapped out the old pads with the thicker new ones and fully built up the caliper with the guide pins and anti-rattle plates in place.
With the fluid reservoir cap off I then fitted the built up calipers back onto the discs. It took a bit of force to get these onto the discs as the brake pads were super tight.
With the calipers bolted up and the reservoir cap on I pumped the brake and it felt brilliant. I wedged the brake pedal down and left it overnight as an extra (and probably unnecessary) measure to push any potential air bubbles that might be in the lines into the reservoir.
Absolutely love it. The car feels great again!
What previously felt like a good inch of pedal travel before the brakes started to bite is now almost instant and it feels like my old lovely K series Elise setup 
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I’m probably showing my mechanical naivety here and staying the obvious. In the past I’ve simply swapped pads over without having to think about setting up or fine tuning the piston position.
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Well it’s been a while since I posted on here 
I’ve really enjoyed using the car this year, a few great track days, and lots of Lotus meets. The car event highlights must be Festival of Speed and the amazing Rollhard.
There’s been a surprising lack of fiddling after my initial flurry just after I bought the car. I did finally make a decision on what colour to finish the Cup 260 wheels in and I’m so glad I went for it.
My splitter has seen better days so I contacted Phil (aka Junks) and he delivered a very faithful replica splitter he had made up a few years ago.
I trial fitted this onto the car with very minor fettling and drilled the holes for the bolts. I’m planning on getting it painted alongside the original over the winter to give me a spare for when the inevitable happens again.
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