To be fair to the guy I couldn’t have found a better seller - packaging was immense, it took me 2 hours to unpack the bloody things and tyres aside they are fine to run on the car as is. I really thought it was going to go tits up so I didn’t tell anyone till they arrived but all was good in the end
I so want a cup260 now, just 2 issues
- there are none for sale, especially in laser blue
- I do not have enough money to pay for it
You = Me, though I can add a third:
- I don’t trust myself not to ruin it
The cars looking great, lovely shiny new paint work! 
Out of interest, how many miles has the car done?
She’s on 26k at the moment. First two/three years accounted for the majority and it slowed rapidly after that which I guess is typical.
I could have just left it and it would be considered in good condition with a good polish, but I’m fussy and it sort of snowballed…
Yep, one thing just leads to another and before you know it . . . . . . .
Tbh I’d be worried about driving it after how it’s turned out 
It’ll be fine, its not going to be used as a track slag or for dailys so won’t lie she’ll have a pampered life, but she’s not been bought for a ‘collection’ or anything so plenty of fun should be had in her
OK, a bit of retrospective planning to make things make a bit more sense going forward (I hope) – generally electrical related stuff and some background planning…
What I’m trying to achieve:
_Engine Info and GPS: _
Want to add datalogging both for useful basics like Oil Temp/Pressure and intake temps, as well as GPS and other future expansion that I haven’t thought of yet. Anything to make it expandable without having to rewire each time I add a sensor
Video Recording:
Adding decent wired in cameras for seeing how bad I am on trackdays, and combined with logging trying to improve with a technique other that swearing at myself or relying on instructors to point things out
_Audio/RealTime Video: _
Lets get it out the way, I’m not going to buy into the ‘engine is the only music I need’ stuff, fine on track, roadtrips I still want music. I also won’t use earphones or noise cancelling earphones – fine sitting on a plane but they cut out too much for me and I hate the insulated feeling.
Also the other thing is, I’m not a huge fan of music out of earphones, as a lifelong guitarist/bassist and general music nerd, music needs to be felt as well as heard – air needs to be shifting. For that reason I am not going to rip the stereo out, and will be upgrading it. Whilst doing that I will be adding a reverse cam, that can be also be used as a rear view mirror should I want it. I will be adding a removable footwell sub as it transforms the sound, and the way I install them you can’t even see. I have other weightloss plans for the car elsewhere so it’ll be fine, plus for trackdays I can whip it out in 30 secs
Anyway, after all that a bit of late night browsing I suddenly found an AiM MX2E dash come up that had been used for a few months then parted out the car when the guy sold his car. A cheeky offer at ridiculous o’clock saw me beating the crowd and getting an MX2E for half price of retail, I just needed to get the mileage matched to my car. This then forced me down the AiM path…
I’m sure you’re familiar with dashes, they are now an ‘official lotus part’ as in Lotus sell it, although not fitted to cars out the factory (presume due to the dash not being on the Type Approval). This meant it seems about the most OEM way of upgrading the look and feel of the cockpit, although I’m sure that the originality police are already preparing to line up outside my house with pitchforks.
Here’s the dash (library images):
Having a 2010 car I could get a fair amount over CAN but would still need to add oil sensors, but I could get most things with a more modern dash as well as get track day logging etc.
So plus sides are it looks OK, provides data logging on track and lets me run more sensors. Being honest downsides of this dash are: Less customisable than most aftermarket dashes, indicators and change lights are a bit obscured for taller drivers, if I go aftermarket ECU injecting CAN back into ECU via the dash as others do is not really something in its forte!
It’s a dash much more popular with the V6 boys, but for those who’ve not seen it before you get various screens for road and track, different colours, data review etc. And you can extract all the data later to see just how rubbish you are using RaceStudio 3 from Aim. Here’s some sample screens from the manufacturer so it makes more sense.
I also managed to pick up a heavily discounted AiM smartycam HD GP 2.2 on ebay, not used and about £500 off retail just before Christmas - so things were getting sorted. The GP edition of the smartycam is a separate video recorder and bullet cam (I’ll mount the later on the harness bar). It has the advantage over a GoPro of a CMOS sensor that has less pulsing built in when in a car (it was developed to run on a car rather than all sports)
As far as the wiring that would be needed, I would need the following:
· GPS in the binnacle
· CAN Data hub in the dashboard, feeding GPS and cables back to SmartyCam and a sensor expansion hub
· SmartyCam in cabin
· Expansion hub running Oil Temp and Oil Pressure
· Maybe put in a spare DataHub to make adding sensors in the future easier
Roughly it would look like this:
End result is using CAN there will be far less cables to route through in the cabin, so that’s a pro.
As for video I will be routing a video feed through from the rear cam into the headunit, with a splitter to allow feeding into a DVR if needed later. I also need to take reverse light signal, power to the video camera and will be adding a new power feed under the dash to allow both constant and triggers power feeds for camera, lights and anything audio related.
For example I will be adding a smaller camera for my feet to add as a video overlay if needed, I need to hardwire this and will likely add a trigger to allow switching on and off remotely, I want to be able to switch the rear view camera by both the ignition feed and with a defeat, single rear cam on by both reverse signal and manual trigger – so lots of small electronics additions just to build a bit of flexibility into it.
So feeds I need are…
Between dash and footwell:
• Audio Out
• Ignition On Trigger
• Lights On Trigger
• Aim CAN feed
• Video In (rear Cam)
• Reverse Trigger
• Camera Power
Between Footwell and rear bulkhead
• Constant power
• Aim CAN feed
• Video In (rear Cam)
• Reverse Trigger
• Camera Power
Bulkhead to Engine bay and beyond
• Aim Sensor feeds into expander
• Constant power
• Video In (rear Cam)
• Reverse Trigger
• Camera Power
Also due to the trimming project I have going on, the switches (used to adjust the dash settings) will be moved from their standard position to the steering cowling, but more on that later. But useful to know for those trying to relocate the buttons
Anyway that’s a bit of context about why various wires are going in, it should take shape in not too long amount of time
I used to love the overlays of the smartycam and the gps lap timing, the splits can really show you whilst on track where you are going wrong and then all of a sudden get it right, then your splits drop.
It is a great tool and I miss mine hugely as the dash just would not work in the Clio, so I stupidly sold it
It’s easy to get into an arms race and I’ve been been close to throwing this dash away because it’s not ‘powerful enough’. But it gives me what I need on the road and hopefully on track will allow me to learn and not look so catastrophically awful after seeing my flaws, so I’m hopeful it’ll be useful!
If not, it looks cool 
I have been using/sell/installing the Lotus AIM spec dash etc since it was launched.
The feeds you need are pretty much all done via the factory wiring connector to the dash unit, The rest of the system is powered via the supplied leads (Power/can etc all in one small lead)
My Elise has Oil temp, Oil pressure and gear oil temp all connected up and displaying on the dash. Also have air intake temp that the dash gets via the cars can stream
The Camera system again like yours is a smarty cam and the recorder card can be replaced with a larger one for literally hours of footage .You can also select the overlay display as well as the info that it shows
The data recorder in the dash isn’t massive but is big enough to be used as a ‘teaching tool’
I installed the channel expander at the rear of the car so the sensor leads are all in the engine bay, with just one ‘lead’ to route through the car
If you need any info/help/advise please do get in touch, Always happy to share the experience that I have gained with the AIM products
Exactly what’s in there Dave - being a 2010 it gets most via CAN which makes life easier. Cablings actually already in there, I just can’t show due to it being in for paint. But I’ll show the routing for everyone so they can see it, but like you say routing a single 5 pin cable is much easier than running unique cables for each sensor into the cabin. Dash wise its pretty easy, the majority of the cabling is for other video feeds etc
It’s all been test run and all looking good. Having overlays embedded in the video make syncing foot cameras far quicker as you can do it all visually rather.
I found a chip on the harness bar, so I thought I’d respray while the car was away. Its where the seat bashes into it on full extension, so I’ll add an alcantara pad on to the bar to protect it
Rubbed back, etch primed and sprayed satin black - not a very exciting update I know
There is a small mountain of parts sitting there waiting for the cars return
High Power silver for me , always had the Y spokes in high power silver the same as the 255 Cup car from new on my Exiges , im not keen on black wheels .
Agree, I’ve got to keep my set as it’ll not really be to spec, but having a silver set will give a real contract. Really should book these in, I just need to get a new set of tyres first as it makes sense to swap at the time
I had a set refurbed at Team Dynamics in high power silver , the finish was perfect and exactly as OEM .
Do you have any photos? Still trying to track down the colour I want my 240R wheels to be done in…
Team Dynamics as in the Rimstock factory? Didn’t know they refinished to the public
Fonzey These are the images I have for Hi Power:
Dull Light (v6 wheel)
Factory Image for the Elise
These ones are my current second place colour wheels
Prestige have said they can match Lotus finish exactly on the silver
Really enjoyed reading this, congratulations on a beautiful finish!