Donnington is the only place I’ve had any fade yet on my brakes and that is after about 6 very hot laps which I would expect to some degree given the nature of the place. Doing half a lap cool down would cool enough for another few hot laps. Spa, Brands, Thruxton, Castle C, Spa, etc. no problems at all.
I’m choosing to upgrade the discs on my car as after 7K hard miles they are definately past their best now so might as well put something larger on the car and fit some ducting so even brake killer circuits are not a problem if I’m pushing on.
Just for your info, I raced a Caterham Superlight at Donnington a few years ago and there were several of the race cars there having brake problems and trying all sorts of pad combination to sort it which they did, but not out of the box…
If it’s a front and rear kit it would be worth considering. Bell & Covill have been offering something similer, but only the front brakes. This has to seriously upset the braking balance of the car, to say nothing of the ABS. I would want to see the rear brakes addressed as well
Graham at Plans has lots of options, well worth having a chat with him about what use you are going to put the car to and what you expect from the brakes and he’ll point you in the right direction
I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks doing only a few laps is just a waste of time. Was thinking new Exige owners were … different.
There is simply no way I would do just a few laps, heck I don’t even do sessioned trackdays just because you can’t stay out there more than 20 mins!
My idea of trackday is open pit lane (of course) and out there for about an hour at a time, just about a tankfull. Drive out to refill, come back, and have a wee rest, then again.
If my car’s brakes were not up to the job, I’d change them until they are.
BTW, mine weren’t, and I did change them.
Does anyone know how many of the Cup 240 and 240Rs are being tracked regurally?
I’ve only ever seen 1 240R on track and never seen another Cup 240 car on track.
It’s just that Lotus (the MD) stated that they have built 180 cars of this type with only 2 complaints.
Would be interesting to know how many are spending there time being polished as apposed to being used on track.
I have seen one 240R on track and thats about it
240R and Cup 240 buyers tend to be first time Lotus owners eg the only Cup 240 in Scotland was bought by a ex-Porker owner, had it for 4 months didn’t like it and traded it in for an Aston V8
Would also explain why quite a few 240Rs got written off early on…
And as for peeps buying Cups etc for race use I am guessing they are not too fussed about making mods to get the car running faster!
I must admit to never having seen another 240R or Cup 240 on any of the days I’ve done, including 7 with Lotus on track this year where I’d have expected to see most?
Off topic but talking of cars that haven’t seen the track. There was a performance pack car with Ohlins and Accusump for sale through Pistonheads the other night. “2000 miles, Never used on track” �25000 ish. Original owner has to be pretty free with the wallet to spec a car like that and then never do a track day.
Depends on the other organisers but that certainly doesn’t ring true for us.
At LoT we have 8 cars registered as Cup or 240R, lots registered as Exige so who knows how many of those are 240’s.
Of the 8 only one hasn’t done a trackday. Some, like Kurt have done quite a few.
I found 10 on LoT (6Rs, 4 Cups) but there doesn’t appear to be an event count, and most of those registered have a very low post count. Not very scientific I grant you, especially as only about half stayed in this country, but as a straw poll it would appear that of the 100 built only a very low quantity appear to see a track. Under 50% of those remaining in the UK I recon.
I’ve found 4 240’s on BaT but none on EasyTrack which surprised me abit given the length of the membership list. There is also a crossover with owners being registered on more then one TDO site so this shortens the results abit.
I’m not just being nosey; it’s just that Lotus are using the ‘2 complaints in 180 cars’ defence, so it’s useful to know how many are actually being used fully to shorten the odds if you know what I mean. I’d still like to know how they got to 180 cars from two limited runs of 50, must be race cars I assume.
I already know that all the Europe Cup race cars have had problems, and would be interested to hear from anyone who has upgraded the brakes following issues.