Air filter query

Like Steven says, with the addition that the engine sucking in cold air will decrease the chance of pinking as well (I had that problem before).

I guess you’ll find out the ITG on top of the trumpets will lose you power, just becasue it’s too close to the trumpet’s mouth (interference and all that).

Are you speaking from experience or just surmising? I certainly don’t think the ITG looses power and would find it hard to believe given the history of the Pipercross and the clear inferior product it is in comparison.

I haven’t had the airbox off yet so don’t know if I will have 1 or 2 of the filters. In any case I’ll find out hopefully by the weekend.

You don’t need to take the airbox off to check, it shold be obvious as the Pipercross filter are fitted in line with the trunking and the end of the airbox together with a small section of additional carbonfibre/plastic tubing.

Thanks for that Steve, I had a look today, undid the 2 jubilee clips on the flexi duct at the airbox end and took the duct out, found the pipercross ‘witches hat’ filter at the other end, pipe clipped to a short carbon fibre section which in turn was clipped to the free end of the duct Is that the design, the air filter at the end of the intake duct, just sat unsupported? it’s a country mile away from the side vent and lower than it too! I tried lifting it up to see if I could find somewhere to secure it but it’s hampered by what looks like a semi rigid drain hose that I assume is to drain water out of the roof-engine cover seam (though I havent traced it back to confirm that). Looks like I need to do some modification to get a decent stream of cold air up my pipe

Sounds like it looks just like mine does, so I’d say that was probably standard as it should be…

Does looks strange though!

Basically you have it at the wrong end, at the other side of the airbox.
The good thing is that the duct will be clean, so no need to worry, just find a combination that will work and you’re set:

It’s going to be: airbox - filter - little piece of CF (or fibreglass) duct - hose - and adapter to scoop.

This last adapter to scoop could be the original motorsports one (difficult to find and still short) or anything you can find to extend slightky the duct oand put it on top of the scoop.

I used some black packaging foam to make a strip around a 4" plastic pipe from B&Q (very light as well! ) and then one of the clips to put the duct over this pipe+foam so it makes a seal.
With the added length it just slides over the scoop and stays in place.

Thanks again Uldis, I have quite a wide selection of lightweight hoses and pipes at my works ( I’m one of those who never throws anything away). I’m sure I can engineer a suitable extension to the existing set up without too much trouble Just seems the original design is so slap dash, Lotus obviously went to the trouble of designing side intakes to get cold air into the engine then calculated air flow rates and mapping for the mixture etc, and didn’t marry the two together. I’m assuming that getting the duct inline and near to the side vent makes an improvement otherwise you guys wouldn’t have made the changes yourself. A shame Lotus didn’t do it in the first place. Then again, it does mean I get to tinker which makes me feel part of the team now!

Actually, Lotus made an adaptor to that scoop, but only used it on the MS cars.

They chose to leave the trunking hanging down there not for performance reasons, but because of drive by noise limitations, see when drive by noise is measured it’s from the left of the car, which is exactly where the air intake was connected, and the intake noise was too much.

Trunking hanging in the engine bay saps power, but lets the car pass

Uldis is dead right. It’s just a shame Lotus didn’t put all the right parts on the car but just leave the trunking disconnected. It could have been a standard part of the PDI for the dealers to just push the pipe in place before delivery.

Uldis is dead right. It’s just a shame Lotus didn’t put all the right parts on the car but just leave the trunking disconnected. It could have been a standard part of the PDI for the dealers to just push the pipe in place before delivery.

OFFICIAL Lotus part no. A111E0023K �32.51 + vat (2002 prices)