Yeah I was a bit gutted about race 2, the car has been running so well lately.
Wayne and John stripped the car tonight and found out that it wasn’t the gearbox, but the only remaining elise parts part on my car snapped (adjustable lower engine steady), which made the engine start rocking backwards and forwards, to the extent that the sump smashed into the drivers side lower front wishbone mount and put a hole in it, spewing all of the oil out. Thankfully it was a few inches above the bottom of the sump, so there was still some oil left in it and the last thing I looked at before I turned it off was the Oil Pressure and that was still good (which is what made me think it was the gearbox)
That sounds like a very lucky escape on the engine internals. I’d rather buy a new sump pan than a crank, rods and pistons! I think the oil slick sounds like a cunning plan to slow down Mr Fenn.
I had similar problems on my S1, the bracket started to fail the day before my first rally, luckily I sourced a replacement before the start as I’m sure it too would have snapped. What’s the plan now, machined solid mounts? I had a solid aluminium dogbone with nylon bushes on my works Ford Puma for the lower gearbox mount.
I am the mad idiot who sits next to Wes on rallies. All I can say is that he has had withdraw symptons since he sold the Elise! He is progressing with the new build but like a woman, he cannot make his mind up on the colour and takes ages to get anything done.
All I can say is that he does have a deadline of the Promenade Stages on the Wirral on the 5th September and the Otterburn on the 25th October. Come along and watch, it is usually a good day out.
PS - I’m just as excited about the new car but without a hole in my pocket!
Ok, I’ve decided on a colour at last, ordering the paint today. Let’s just say it’s a ‘distinctive’ colour. Hopefully it will be sprayed in the next two weeks and I’ll put some photos up of the build progress.
Wes, I had some major stone-chipping problems on the lower rear wheel arches, to the point it was tearing away the fibreglass after the paint was gone. A local company matched the paint colour with the rubber spray-on material used for pickup bed liners. 110% sorted forever and looks fine.
That’s a good idea, do you know what the material is called? It’s always an interesting suprise on tarmac events when you come across a gravel section, in a Lotus. They actually handle great on the loose but it brings tears to your eyes later when you see the pebble dash - it recalibrates your view of a stone chip!
Talking of paint I’ve updated my ‘avatar’ to give a sneak preview of the new paint job. Get your sick buckets ready!
Get your sick buckets at the ready, it’s back from the paint shop!
Just collected the car tonight and it looks fantastic in it’s new Kawasaki Green paint job.
Now I’ve got to remember how all the pieces go back together.
I also had a full Safety Devices cage fitted which turned out to be a nightmare job. Now it’s in it’s never coming out again!
Postman Pat also made a good delivery today and the extinguishers and Cartek cut out system have arrived from DemonTweeks.
The last item I need now is the seats. I’m really struggling to decide which ones to buy as I want something FIA approved but comfy enough for a couple of hours use on the road. I know the Lotus 260 seats fit the bill but they don’t fit my budget. I was pleasantly suprised by how comfortable the Tillet B4 shell seats are but I think the lack of padding will be an issue after a couple of hours. The next one on the short list is the new Cobra ‘Racer 7’. DT’s have it in the catalogue but no samples to try, has anyone tried one? Are they wider than the Corbeau sprints that Lotus used on the S1 race cars?
I’d love to have the car ready for September 5th for the Prom Rally but I don’t think that’s realistic with all the jobs I need to finish off. The next milestone has to be the LoT track day at Oulton on October 30th. More updates soon…
The carbon seats by MOG or Reverie are incredibly comfy - I can easily drive without problem for up to 500 miles per day. Mine (MOG) has Reverie pads fitted - not for comfort in the normal sense , but to allow “some” air circulation.
I’m liking the paint job, & I bet it looks even better than in the pics
finally making some progress on the rebuild. Rear clam is now fitted over the cage. It took all afternoon just to get one door back on and fully rebuilt. Hethel must employ an assembly crew of 5 year olds on the door assembly with tiny hands. It’s impossible to get your hands in to feed the loom, lock mechanism and glass back in. The wing mirror is the biggest laugh, the third screw goes behind the glass channel so it looks like you need to strip the window out again in the future to replace the mirror unit. Given my ability to remove wingmirrors on straw bale chicanes (you’ve gone two wide unless you tickle the mirrors!) I decided to only use 2 screws to hold it in.
Next big job is the front crash structure replacement tonight. Wish me luck!
I agree with you on the mirrors. I have found that simply using the one screw on the top that is easy to get at and some good double sided sticky foam on the bottom part of the mount does the job, with no moving of wobbling evan at 150mph.
