I really think I need to get myself the 190 kit, sports exhaust, harnesses, hoses and other track goodies. What you think would be best route - sell my standard Exige and buy one with all the kit or add the bits? Anyone else had this dilemma?
Steve
Why NEED?
I still don’t have the 190, harness, sports seats and… hose (?) and my car is not slow by any means at the track.
If you want to upgrade bit by bit later do it as a love relationship, but NEED?
Uldis
I hear what your saying Uldis - should maybe have said Want. I dont know of a mechanic/garage in my area that would really know where to start with upgrading. Closest Lotus dealership is F1 in Newcastle - anyone know what they are like? Nick Whales sounds like the guys but long way from me.
Ok, so to start with you must be doing the normal maintenance with somebody local, right? Tat’s all you need.
As far as I see it, having this kind of car is like a hobby, I invest time fiddling with it.
Now, you mention track goodies. Follow this: when you go to the track, see what the car feels like and then modify accordingly.
First you’ll need training. The instructions there will do.
Second will come brakes. Any good local mechanic can upgrae the hoses, you buy Pagid pads through the net and he’ll install them.
Then you’ll want better tyres. Same, get them by phone and any good local place will mount them.
Engine? some mods you can do, like installing an exhaust, removing the intake restrictor, adjusting your throttle cable, cold air feed, etc.
Being a little underpowered makes you commit on the turns to run with (and overtake) the other more powerful cars.
Done that? next step is more power. If you don’t want to do it yourself (like some of us do), you’ll have to book a day with your preferred dealer and travel.
Harness? seats? don’t really need them, but if you want to, you can install them yourself. I have the stock seats and seatbelts and am looking for an excuse to “need” the sports seats or harness, but so far can’t find one. Wouldn’t make me faster, as the stock one hold me perfectly in place, no sliding or moving.
The best place to start with knowing what to upgrade is to read this bb.
make some searches, read, but most importantly, go to the track and you’ll find out if you need something.
I have seen some stock Elise drivers that can embarass many an Exige with their old stock Elise.
Have fun!
Uldis
Thanks for pointers Uldis. I have had car for 9 month and not had time for getting to trackdays with it yet, although I have been to a few with road car in past.Its only been used on sunny weekends so guess need to find time to get out to track. Good to hear about your views on the standard seats OK on track as these are fine for the sunny days. Maybe see you at Knockhill sometime?
Steve
Steve
As Uldis said get the brakes sorted out first - it really transforms the car on the track - Braided hoses, Rs14 pads and SRF - Any “good” garage should be able to do that if you supply the parts - should take them about 3 hours if they know whats what ( there are quirks in bleeding the system and getting a pedal though - well documented on the elise bbs )
Next proper settings on the suspension will make you more comfortable.
I had the 190 conversion and its OK but I dont think you really get a great deal extra from it, better to pay DVA to add some verniers and a Emerald ECU I think in which case its booking it into DVA at Milton Keynes
Be careful on the exhuast … too loud and some circuits will not be happy and I see that getting more of an issue in the future.
HTH
Thanks Andy. Will see about getting brakes sorted. Is Lotus sports exhaust with oval pipe good compromise between sounding good and noise for track use?
Steve
Steve
Depends … With the CAT still on its ok with a CRP its loud and my experience is it gets louder as it falls apart !! - You can use a silenced CRP from Eliseparts and thats a good comromise your going to be at about 100dba with that setp - with a non silenced CRP I think 104-106 is about the mark and thats just about the limit for a number of venues …
I just changed to a system system from powerspeed which is at 93 db but I think its “strangled” the top end a bit, but I need a lower figure for sprints and some tracks near me.
Andrew
Steve,
I would be very happy to see you at Knockhill, it’s always good to see the Lotus brotherhood grow.
There are lots of outings there, apart from the KH Hot Marques events, but you’ll need to subscribe to the Scottish_Elises bb to know about them:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Scottish_Elises
And Andy, as for the lack of top end on the Powerspeed, I’m really surprised, as I went there and helped develop the first one.
I went there because Dave Andrews recommended them, they have done excellent work on many cars. This system has specially big radius bends.
One thing to note is that you could lose top end if the system flows more and is needing more fuel. Do you have an Emerald? if not, (and I don’t know if this is possible) can the fuel be increased by increasing the fuel pump pressure? (but this would increase it all through the rev range).
Or maybe you just need a proper mapping, i.e. an Emerald? (my next step)
Uldis
Uldis
Mmmm actually I just found out I have a starting problem …
and its fuel related … I may have been a bit hasty with that post !! - There is a law for this - you change something and something else is not right !!
Fuel filter dirty? it could lead to fuel starvation at high revs and at startup…
Uldis
Yeah I dont know when it was last changed so thats a good one, also RussT had the pick up problem so maybe …
I’ll change the filter first !
Cheers
Andrew
Uldis
Full tank of fuel and I’m bouncing off the rev limiter - I think Russ’s problem was similar so I’m thinking the pipe is worth looking at
See you Thursday