went on my second Scare Yourself Sensible event today (took the parents) - factory tour v. interesting as always. Trevor was the man in charge… some interesting nuggets today:
Exige fibre glass is hand finished rather than moulded because they didnt expect it to be a commercial success and so didnt create moulds! To do so now wouldnt be cost effective, apparently.
White is the hardest colour for the spray shop to do… the lighter the colour, the thinner the paint. White paint is like milk, black like treacle. Theoeretically a white car is ever so lighter than the same car in black…
There is a huge backlog of cars at the moment owing to a missing component that basically holds the radio cradle in place
Great set of cars there ready for US export with gold leaf finish (and gold fuel cap) - sponsored by one of the American cigarette companies
massive shortage of A048 tyres as Lotus were bumped off production priority by Yokohama
new production line being built (inside the current building) for completion by October to build new 2+2 car
lots of cars hanging around with modified roof scoops that run all the way to the windscreen edge
VIN number is electronically stored in several relays around the main circuit… even if you reflash the ECU, the number lingers!
Yamaha make the cylinder heads - never knew that!
they bonded the wrong colour sills to two black cars… one starlight, one phantom!
Yet again a thoroughly enjoyable walk around - highly reccomended!
the new seatbelt inertia reels have pre-tensioners in them… one customer used the live wire to power his handsfree… car immobilised! If any of the yellow connectors are compromised then the car will not start! Airbags, pre-tensionerss, ABS… all have to be checked out before the engine will turn over!
they are ramping up production of front clams ahead of seasonal uptick in number of accidents!!
the reason the S has a rear view mirror? Because when they fitted the first supercharger, it was done to a base Exige. This installation was then certified by the supercharger manufacturer (homologated?) and hence forth all installs had to be IDENTICAL to this mule car for the purpose of warranty i.e. the warranty between Lotus and the s/charger manufacturer. Yes - absurd. But unfortunately true.
Did the parents enjoy? I suspect they must have with all those interesting nougats Trev was feeding them (hope you explained what he was talking about! or have they got Loti?) Sounds great, I’ve thought about it but then thought I might see some manufacturing process which would make me think twice about going fast.
apart from the fact that anything bigger than a Focus will merrily drive straight over you. And side collisions must be very difficult to emerge unscathed from (even more so than usual).
There have been a lot of big accidents involving Elises/Exiges and it seems that their safety record is actually pretty good. A lot of people are walking away from them unhurt. Of course there are unfortunate exceptions but you can say the same of any car.
I have personally walked away from a 90mph excursion into the scenery with nothing more than a couple of scratches on my forehead as a result of passing through a hedge which ripped the hard top off my Elise Sport 190.