After the discussion regarding the S2 spoiler and my theory on the boot seal being the problem I had a quick play tonight and confirmed I am right.
Very quick and easy to proove and fix… Well I am most of the way there.
When the boot is closed if you apply pressure at the rear of the boot or spoiler mounts you will see the boot raise at the hinge end. It’s actually pivoting on the two adjustable strikers.
This is because the boot seal is just a hollow seal and there is an air gap between the boot lid and the clam when it is closed.
The answer imho is to firm up the seal, to do this I used silicone tube. Its actually boiler air pressure switch tubing and being a heating engineer I have plenty knocking about.
Any way I took off the boot seal, cut the silicone tube to length in inserted it into the hollow boot seal.
Once the boot seal was re fitted I closed the boot and hey presto the flex is all but gone! The boot shuts as it always did with no problem at all but now once closed its nice and firm.
There is still a very tiny amount of flex so I may try injecting the silicone tube with builders silicone or similar and let it set to see if I can totally remove it but I guess there is a chance that might stop the boot closing as easily.
So in a nutshell for less than a fiver you can pretty much sort out your flappy spoiler
The question has to be why dont lotus do it?
And my car has been on track twice now, is booked on for the 30th of this month and two booked already next year
With my new found downforce I should get at least another 0.01 second a lap out of her too
I picked up some builders silicone today and will have another play over the weekend, you can all laugh now but you’ll all be doing it soon
If I knew how to upload video I could video the difference.
To answer Tims comments, the std S1 wing is only fixed to the clam thus any downforce from it is exerted through the clam. On the S2 because the bootlid is so loose any force from the spoiler cannot be evenly passed onto the clam as the bootlid is moving about.
As I said before, applying pressure at the rear causes the hinge end to lift.
By doing this the bootlid becomes a much more rigid fixture and the pressure from the spoiler can be passed onto the clam much more evenly without the hinges lifting.
Dont take my word for it, follow the e-bay link its only a fiver.
Ade, I’ll have a look tomorrow but you need just less than the bootseal so at a guess a meter should be ok, double check before ordering. The seal join has a built in tube that is glued in at one end and pushed in the other but its very soft and only short.
The 4mm ID tube goes in no problem. I’ll probably have a go at the silicone job over the weekend if I get time.
Boothy
p.s. if nothing else it should stop the spoiler flapping about on track and stop those pesky S1 owners laughing.
lol @ above. I’ve order’d the stuff. The flexing problem is quite bad on mine, the tailgate peice doesnt fit very well and needs some adjusting. So il do this lil mod and have ago at ligning it all up and hopefully it will feel a tad better.
How? I know you can buy ones that bolt through to the chassis but they are not standard. AFAIK the standard one is just bolted to the clam on the back.
In honesty as the S2 spoiler will spread the load across the rear boot seal it would not need any further support unless you were applying huge force, on the S1 the spoiler will apply the force at the two small mounting points and could crack the clam, thats the only reason I can see for needing supports. I am guessing the supports are not up to much or else you would not need to cut the clam and bolt through for the motorsport job.
I recon you’d need an audi in the back to travel fast enough to do that [/quote]
lol!
I have injected the silicone tonight, made a total mess of one tube so cut another to length and then cut it in half again to get the stuff in. In honesty it would probably be better in fours. Anyhow I’ll let it set and update on if I can still shut the boot tomorrow
If not I am buying more tube as that just used up everything I had.
Std S1 wing is not just mounted on clam - there are fixings underneath too, which in effect are mounted to the longerons. Anyone seen the std wing causing cracks on the clam? Nope, didn’t think so! Motorsport wing exerts far greater downforce than std wing, which is very noticeable on track, & it further benefits from uprated brackets onto the longerons (involves cutting the clam).
Stopping the S2 wing from wobbling about can only be a good thing.
