That’s a really good effort.
It really is surprising how close/good/repeatable you can get with string box, with a bit of patience. To do it properly does take a lot of setting up each time however. A few years ago, I spotted a lot of GT cars had deliberate hard points that you could mount their set up gear to, which would allow even easier, time saving set up. Much £££ and holey bodywork though!
Our string is a bit too cleverer for it’s own good at times! But it can take into account distorted wheels - to a point. Then it sulks! Doesn’t tell you why it’s sulking, just sits in the corner spitting out random info, like a grumpy teenager.
Then we all swear at it for a bit and figure out what’s wrong and fix it.
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Cheers John. Let’s see if I’m coming back for new tyres again next week before we celebrate too much!
I can imagine the more accurate/granular the measurements that the scope for frustration goes up massively. Especially when you’ve got a punter who is expecting to see exactly even numbers on a sheet of paper afterwards with “them numbers from seloc” on it.
I’m going to pick up a new camber gauge at some point. I have a cheap digital angle gauge used for DIY stuff and it’s a bit naff. Put it down in the exact same spot on my worktop twice in a row and it reads different 
Then I may look at taking some castor measurements to further the education.
Will probably also try to plot a bumpsteer curve at some stage too, but I’ll really be struggling with boredom the day that happens.
Looking everywhere for an Anglesey update.
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Finally, Anglesey weekend had arrived!
As I’ve done a couple of times now, I tried to shoehorn in a family weekend away to coincide with this because we love North Wales and it kills two birds with one slate.
So trailer and Volvo loaded up with tools, geo strings, dolls, books, beach stuff, beer, cereal, etc etc.
We headed over on Saturday morning for the trackday on the Monday.
The weather was turbulent throughout the weekend, spots of bright glorious sun punctuated by stormlike wind and rain. Really was anyone’s guess how it would be on track, but based on the last three years of May Anglesey trackdays we suspected it would be torrential… as usual.
I’ll skip the holiday snaps*, but lovely weekend all in - nice waterfall walk and explored the glorious beach of Harlech amongst a few other things. Soon enough it was time to head to the circuit.
*this was cool though
On the ~1hr drive from the airBnB to the circuit I had fog, sun, storms and maybe even a bit of hail. So still none the wiser as to how the day would go.
Got unloaded in the rain, and just ahead of the sighting laps the track looked like this.
There was no photographer at the circuit and I was pretty weak at taking photos so relying on video to capture this day best I can.
This was session #1, still damp so tiptoeing around but already could tell that the A052 tyres were better than anything I’d ever driven before in the wet.
The front would understeer as expected into the hairpin etc, but get hard on the power and where I’d previously enjoy a nice little slide out, the rear just gripped up and fired me off. Though I was a bit underwhelmed with the feel of A052 in the dry compared to a traditional ‘semi slick’, it’s clear that they have a lot of potential and warm up really quickly.
Unfortunately my new love for the A052 would go no further, as on a later lap I had a bit of a weird moment going into the final corner onto the pit straight, checked the TPMS and could see that I had a deflating OSR.
Doh.
This meant on with the AR1s which at this point in their life are very, very worn. They’ve done the best part of 20 trackdays across two cars now so this was almost certainly going to be their send-off.
The track now looked like this.
The AR1’s felt immediately familiar but notably slower to warm up compared to the 52s. I’d actually say they had LESS grip in the dry when warming up than the A052 had in the wet! But once they got going, they gave me the direct feel I’d been missing from the Yokos, clearly past their best but the sliding was fun, predictable and controllable.
I’d stuck a gopro in my footwell to try and give me something to learn from with my releasing of brake pressure during rev matching. Getting the footwell gopro to stay recording for a session was harder than anticipated, so ended up only with one mid-morning session where I could sync a clip up. Shame, but still gives me some useful footage to study later.
I spent the morning building the speed up and enjoying how playful the car could be at certain corners. The lap started all well behaved, tiptoe it into T1 so as to not ruin the lap before it had started, then the banked hairpin of T2 giving seemingly unlimited grip it was hard to know the limits.
When you’ve only ever done wet laps at Anglesey Church corner is a bit of a mental block because it has zero grip in the wet, so relearning this was the main topic of the day. Early in the day it was dab of brakes and glide it in, later in the day it was just a generous lift in fourth before rolling it in. Feels like there’s always something left on the table, until suddenly there’s not.
After this the lap gets fun, keeping it pinned into the “not straight” kink and up the hill before impossibly heavy braking for rocket, rear of the car goes very light on the right hander and then again towards peel fighting for grip on entry and mid corner.
Braking down hill was something that required more bravery throughout the day, but then the hairpin at the end of the GP straight is where most of the fun could be had.
Absolutely adore this circuit and the 2-Eleven felt properly on top of it.
All too soon it was lunch time.
After eating (outside! At Anglesey!!) it was back to work and kept gradually building up and changing a few bits here and there, but for all my improvements in technique/line/etc - the car was starting to struggle with the rear tyres getting less and less tolerant of the abuse.
It was really, really good fun though.
This is a bit of a longer clip but gives a good jist of the day. Low traffic, blue skies and a few skids.
No mechanical issues (tyre aside) to report and the 2-Eleven felt relentless all day. ABS intervention seemed at an all time low (I’d moved bias forward a bit since Blyton) but in retrospect after checking data it was still intervening on the rear a bit - so still some balance to move forwards I think.
The Schlep home was a tiring one, but the buzz from one of the best trackdays in memory carried me through most if it.
Hard to think what could put a downer on this anytime soon!
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DOH!
Whats the plan? Get a replacement A052 on and send it again?
Great report btw. I am still jubious that your images are not photoshopped. Never been to Anglesey and its been dry.
I got sent this from another participant. Pretty cool Insta360 view, always cool to see your car from another perspective.
Got a few odd jobs sorted in the week between sleeping off Anglesey and preparing for Cadwell the following Saturday.
The A052 was sent back to SeriouslyHQ for analysis and subsequent repair. It’s a slamdunk repairable puncture so happy to give the tyre a second chance like that.
With that sorted, I suddenly got motivated to tidy my trailer up a bit. It has a small job list growing, and has always looked a bit scruffy.
Old stickers off
Knackered door frames off with broken hinges
Gave it a clean
And repainted the rear ramp
Reloaded 2-Eleven, didn’t get time to wash that!
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That Callibra was very cool. What was more amazing was it that it is still Flame Red, rather than Flame Pink!
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That’s a COOL 360 vid! 
Fabulous.
I so want to bring elmo over for a exiges reunion!
Interesting re the A052 feel. Im finding the difference between the 888 GG and ZZR similarly stark. Need to try A052s later this summer.
Thanks for continuing to post. Love reading it all.
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Appreciate and like your updates.
I have a question, how is the 2-Eleven currently comparing to the Exige?
I loved my Exige, and thought it was a forever car but the 2-Eleven is just a little bit extra in all areas, except for roof.
For most Lotus owners a 2-Eleven would be an awful choice. They’re miserable on the road (after the initial novelty wears off) and less practical than a Caterham. If you’re doing the appropriate ratio of trackday to road driving though, they’re immense.
It obviously shares much of the character of the Exige/Elise platform, but has a lack of inertia that is more than just the headline weight loss. The weight distribution is also significantly different because the vast majority of the ~200kg saving is all taken from the front of the car, by way of removing the glass, HVAC, dash and other electronics all ahead of the driver. The car is largely the same from the cockpit back.
On paper it fills an awkward middle ground between a usable lightweight like an Elise/Exige, and a super lightweight like a Caterham or an Atom. In practise though, despite being in nomans land it can really punch above its power:weight class compared to a Caterham or Atom due to the inherent stability offered by the 111 platform (not to mention things like ABS too).
It also never, ever fails to draw a crowd if that’s your thing. Even going to Lotus orientated trackdays there will be people who come over because they’ve never seen one before, or don’t know what it is etc. On the rare occasions it goes out in public, minds are rather blown by it!
There are other weird/unexpected benefits too. In an Elise/Exige I’m forever chasing rattles and creaks and groans from the car. They drive me mad. The 2-Eleven probably rattles like feck, but you’ve got no idea it’s happening.
Sucks at speedbumps tho.
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Onto Cadwell
My last visit to Cadwell was an emotional rollercoaster. It was the beginning of the end for my Exige, which suffered a gearbox failure on the first session of the day. It was particularly upsetting on the Exige because I’d invested heavily in proactive upgrades from it, and it was all for nowt.
There was a 2-Eleven present though, and for the first time my head was turned and even though I did one (or two?) more trackdays on the Exige after repairing it. I’d emotionally moved on, and this ultimately lead to my purchase of the 2-Eleven.
Once again a weak day for photos. At least from me, I ended up the subject of quite a few.
Coming from the highs of Anglesey, where the car and the track felt like my b**ches and completely under my control, the first couple of sessions at Cadwell felt suddenly very humbling again! The place just shrinks around you, the track feels impossibly narrow and yet still has some very fast sections.
Lotus 2-Eleven and Lotus Exige 430 Cup at Cadwell Park (youtube.com)
It’s a circuit I’ve barely lapped over the years despite being so local and I never recall having tuition there so a large part of the track felt like a constant experiment. Having cars to follow was both useful and confusing as there were so many interpretations of the track. Some would coast into T1, others would dab the brakes, others would dive on them! 2-Eleven was feeling good though, and the feeling of having so much potential at every part of the track was exciting.
Oh, I was back on the A052s too and the car felt so much different. Obviously sheds more grip than the knackered AR1 - but back to the goopy sidewalls.
This lap was from fairly early in the day, I tried hanging onto fifth and just coasting into T1 but I was scrubbing too much speed off with my scaredy-cat lift point. Later in the day I was staying on the gas longer and doing a brake dab and downshift instead which I felt netted a chunk more time. In all honestly the 2-Eleven can probably carry a further 10-15mph through there but it will take a few more laps before I build up to that.
Lotus 2-Eleven at Cadwell Park (youtube.com)
The other area I changed a lot through the day was gooseneck. Initially downshifting to third but later keeping fourth as you can carry a way more speed than it looks into that.
I didn’t do too many laps in the morning because the motion sickness had hit me bad. Kicks in every half dozen trackdays or so, but carry tablets with me now so just needed to take it steady till they kicked in.
Enjoyed lunch, then feeling much better it was back out to start properly learning. Unfortunately this is as far as it got.
So there we go, another Cadwell, another gearbox!
The tow back was a bit dramatic too, about half way round T2 the shrapnel got caught up in the diff and so started locking the rear up - causing the tow rope to start janking which then ripped the tow hook clean off. Initially very concerned from my unsighted position in the car, I worried that it had ripped the tow post out of the crash structure and clam, but fortunately not - the hook had done it’s job and sacrificed itself for the cause.
What happened next was a bit annoying. I wasn’t particularly upset or angry about the gearbox - it’s one of those things, but the recovery driver seemed to be trying his hardest to be an absolute arse. Swearing and shouting at the fact my tow hook had broken and after extending his tilt bed, ragged me up it with no concern for the car or its ground clearance (we had planks, we just needed to take a minute or so to work up slowly). At this point his winch was attached to my rollcage, and the angle of the car rising up the ramp meant that the steel cable was getting closer and closer to garotting my front clam. I was shouting for him to stop, he was just grunting and swearing - eventually a flag marshall ran over to step in, because I’d jammed my hand (stupidly) between the clam and the cable to stop it. Luckily he did stop it with mm to spare but I had to forcibly hold the cable up all the way back to stop it rubbing through the clam.
After eventually arriving back in the pits I seemingly had 10000 smartphones pointing at me for the tow of shame.
The final grunt from the driver came from a bystander/helper commenting on “is the splitter going to clear?” when he was rolling me back, to which he replied “I couldn’t give a fuck”.
Absolute bellend, clearly hates cars, people and his job. Since heard that he’s got form for it too.
Many thanks to literally everyone else, flag marshal was a life(hand) saver and everyone in the pits crowded round to help get the car loaded onto the trailer etc.
Initial diagnosis/expectation is stripped third gear. For anyone living under a rock with these cars, they’re well known for it - and I was absolutely expecting it at some point hence been pretty chilled about the whole thing. I’d not invested anything into this box other than fitting my old cooler, but now the old sleep losing question was to return… what next?!
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To evidence the fact I was expecting this failure, I’ve had a spare sat in my garage cupboard for a while now.
It’s a zero mile, box fresh jobby from Toyota and now for some reason… I really didn’t want to use it!
There’s a warm fuzzy feeling you get from having a spare, knowing that if I had a failure just before a big event, that I could just pull an all nighter and get it swapped.
So what to do next?
I’ve had the 2-Eleven almost exactly 2 years and probably done near 20 trackdays in that time. 6 of which I’ve done with a bit more than stock power, but not much - as I detuned from the full 300bhp that killed my Exige. I estimate that I run approx 275-280bhp on track with my current pulley/map.
My killrate is 100% Cadwell. Is the Mountain the killer? The unloading and loading of the rear at full chat? Maybe.
My Exige box failed despite having a few grands worth of upgrades. It had SSC/Hollinger uprated 3rd/4th and a Kaaz FD/output shaft with a Toyota LSD. The Kaaz output shaft sheared on that, meaning that I still had the Hollinger 3/4 in a box seemingly unharmed.
I’ve been really missing an LSD recently. When I first got the 2-Eleven I felt like it was much happer than the Exige on an open diff, and much less likely to spin up the inside rear. As I’ve built up speed gradually, it’s become more and more of an issue but not to the point I would have ever considered dropping a healthy box to fit one. Now that I have to drop the box, a diff feels like a nice consolation prize.
I awoke the following day feeling oddly motivated, so dropped the oil to start with.
Would make for a nice PTS colour on a 911 or something.
Some bits
I didn’t really intend to make so much progress, but I just started taking bits off. I’m quite well rehearsed on this now. I did 3 gearboxes on my Exige (including the original upgrade, a re-do due to a dodgy clutch and the final change) plus a recent swap on a old Elise that a friend now owns. So the process is fairly well established now.
Every now and then you need to do something new though.
I got some of the coolant in a bucket from removing the gearbox laminova.
The pile of bits slowly built up throughout the morning, then it was time to call it for a bit and do some parenting etc.
The gearbox cooler pump probably collateral damage, as stupidly didn’t have a filter on it.
I have since opened it up for a look, can’t find a rebuild kit for it but it all looks fairly “ok”. Will think on this, might just replace to be safe.
After making it through the day, I got another hour or two on the car after hours so finished the job and got the box out.
A nice little trick is this stick that has now seen 3 gearbox swaps.
It sits nicely between the rear subframe and the front chassis cross member and supports the sump of the engine (as you remove 3/4 engine mounts to remove the gearbox). Allows you to move the car up and down without having a trolley jack nursing the sump into position.
Whipped the clutch off for a quick look. It’s a rather smelly thing and often smells like it’s burning/slipping a lot, especially when loading the trailer or driving onto ramps etc. It looks fine though.
Will probably swap it.
Also took flywheel off to weigh it. The Cup 260 cars and 2-Eleven are supposed to have lightweight options but I’m not convinced that mine does. I can’t say I really noticed a difference when going LWFW on the Exige, but now that I have a flywheel off in my hands, I’m tempted to try again…
On Monday morning I made a call through to Datum Motorsport, as recommended by @seriouslylotus. Datum are down in Stevenage and have built and repaired a fair few C64’s over the years.
Plan was to take both of my boxes down and have them strip the broken one and see what it would take to restore. On the basis that I’d have an LSD installed anyway, and replace the stripped 3rd and other weak 4th with the old Hollinger ones I had “in stock”. They’d been subject to a final drive failure but that generated very little shrapnel on the Exige failure, so providing they weren’t cracked I was happy to reuse them subject to Datum’s advice. Nearly sold them recently, glad that fell through.
I was due into London for work on tuesday, so via Stevenage it was.
Datum is a very cool place, and could have spent all morning there gabbing - but alas, work to do.
And that’s pretty much where we’re at.
We discussed C64 failures at lengths, also discussed sequentials. As the 2-Eleven becomes more and more of a dedicated track car the sequential concept does appeal, but certainly not something I have the headspace for this season. If I can time a failure for November time, that would be appreciated to give me time to do something more drastic!
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The grinder.
I knew you would come around to the light fettling that every Lotus deseveres!
In my experience, add a little time to any sequential order. You know you will do it. They’re ridiculously good when set up properly. It will make you laugh out loud when it works right.
And you can add gear change paddles behind the steering wheel and an air shifter.
Sort trailer winch first though.
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That an arse that tow truck driver was. just unnecessary.
I was gutted to see on Insta when your box went again. Hopefully Datum give you some positive news on the rebuilds.
Well that’s completely turn me off buying a sequential.
S1. Or sequential?
< does hand weigh gesture >
Sorry for hijack
If he has previous perhaps it’s time to report him?
Everyone has an off day but this guy sounds like he has many.
Haha. You know it hasn’t. Sequential is brilliant, but does add a regular check it’s not trying to eat itself. And spending your ££
Sequential S1!
No more hijacks from me .
Sequential really is tempting, but three things have always held me back.
- Expensive
- I like driving manuals on track
- They still require regular servicing, so aren’t really a fit and forget.
The first point I’ll never get my head around, I’m way beyond rationalising the $$ spent on this car.
The final point I can rationalise by saying at least the servicing will (hopefully) be on my terms. Both gearbox failures I’ve suffered have been in the middle of summer, not ideal. At least with annual removals for a sequential service can be done over winter.
The middle point I might soon have another option for anyway, so the sequential argument is slowly making as much sense as it can.
That aside, I don’t have headspace for it right now so pushing on with C64s and trying to make the best of a bad situation. Tom @ Datum called me back on Friday with a damage report from the Cadwell box.
As expected, third gear is totally stripped. Likely cracked a single tooth, and then the slack in the meshing just destroyed the rest immediately afterwards. The Diff contained a decent quantity of third, which explained why the axle started locking a bit whilst being towed.
That aside, there isn’t much collateral damage. As I was intending to stick an LSD in anyway, the loss of the diff is no big concern. The Final drive, my old 3/4 Hollinger gears and various other things were all crack tested with no concerns.
This then presented me with a fork in the road.
Either:
-
Spend a couple hundred quid on sundries to refresh the old box, put my Hollinger 3rd/4th in from my Exige which should prevent this same failure again in future . New bearings/seals etc.
Quaife LSD will be another expense, but one I plan to do in either scenario so let’s consider it cost neutral. -
Spend the same couple hundred quid in labour to split the zero mile box, and fit an LSD and my 3rd/4th.
-
Save the couple hundred quid, and just fit the zero mile box as-is.
So Option 1 seems most logical here. I leave the zero mile box unmolested and get a decent ‘upgrade’ from the hassle by way of the LSD and the uprated 3/4.
The next component to fail will almost certainly be the Toyota final drive, but to uprate that is another few grand and as I know from experience - it offers no guarantees either. Even with that swapped, if it survives - you’re then entering the realms of selector fork failures. The boxes are just fundamentally weak so I’m just trying to land on a solution that minimises cost and buys me as much time as possible.
Back in the garage I had a care package from @seriouslylotus in the form of a new Competition Clutch and matching lightweight flywheel. I fitted both of these to my Exige, honestly couldn’t notice much difference when fitting the flywheel and always said I wouldn’t bother next time… but when you’re suddenly faced with a cheap way to save 2kg I got tempted again…
For the clutch I just went with a “normal” non-paddle option. I did end up with a paddle clutch in the Exige which I really enjoyed - but I figure here that having something that will still allow a bit of slip occasionally might be a good thing for the gearbox…
Various other sundries either got ordered from Toyota or came out of my stash of gearbox replacement bits.
New manifold to cat gasket. Old one had blown out and had started blowing judging by the soot everywhere.
I popped the gears out of the mocal gearbox oil pump and found a lot of shrapnel and considerable scoring to the bores.
Oh well, add that to the pile of bits to swap - but replacement will absolutely come with a pre-filter.
Baby laminova got a really good flush out. Happy to reuse this.
That brings me about up to speed. Waiting on some loctite and other bits and pieces to arrive before flywheel and clutch go back on. Gearbox(es) hopefully back with me next week.
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E153?