Just back from Plans

The Oily Bits S2 Specific Topics
21

I try and stay out of the kitty litter

and no matter how good you are, oil on the track has a habit of catching you out

22

Pesky and Miniman being the only “coordinated dance to the kitty litter” that I’ve seen

That was actually Mike Lane & myself, not Miniman. Steve Green was with me as passenger & we were the first into Redgate, with Mike directly behind, after a Caterham had dropped oil without the marshalls knowing!

23

Ooops, you’re right! Sorry!

My memory only recalled a black Exige…

24

we were the first into Redgate

quite literally and further than I have ever been before or since but until the car went I don’t think any of us had seen or realised the oil was there

25

Just to clarify a few points for factual purposes:

McLAREN

McLaren SLR are our next door neighbours. They don’t own the track (it’s owned by Dunsfold Park Ltd, a venture between the Rutland Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland) - I mentioned this as I thought it would be of interest to Jamie! McLaren has the head lease, so we have to be nice to them when they want to kick us off the track!

LSD

The LSD is from Quaife. This is very different from the Lotus upgrade which is the TRD plate diff. The Quaife is an Automatic Torque Biasing diff and the guy’s at Lotus will confirm this is a better solution for the Exige. But they are obliged to sell the TRD diff which is a bit harsh to say the least. This is the origin of the “party line” at Lotus that the car doesn’t need and LSD. Let me assure you it does, especially with any more power. It just needs the right kind of LSD. We get Quaife to build them to our specification with different pinions and sun gears to suit the RWD application. This specification is not available direct from Quaife, only from Plans Motorsport.

DAMPERS

The 46mm dampers are a more robust solution that the factory 36mm. They reason for the bigger piston is the fact that the damper efficacy is a function of the amount of fluid passing through the valves. This increases with the square of the piston diameter. So a 46mm damper passes 70% more oil for a given displacement than a 36mm damper. It runs cooler, is stronger, and 70% better. Contrary to some “knockers” on other forums, we make less margin selling 46mm dampers than we do the factory 36mm dampers. But our #1 philosophy is to make more money in the long run by selling what’s best for the customer, not what makes us most margin in one transaction.

The location of the reservoirs on the front is the same as Lotus fit. The photo doesn’t really show that they are infact out of the way and the hose is a long way from the chassis. We also coat them in a polyurethane sheath to give extra protection. In an Exige there isn’t space under the front access covers. We can fit them in a more race/track friendly location with the adjusters accessible through the side grills in the wings. But this means that if your car is parked up a passer-by is sure to adjust you bump damping!

Finally, when we fit (or ship these mail order) they come with a full set of user instructions and handling guide developed through hours of testing on the Top Gear track.

Hope this helps!

27

Cheers Graham for the info
Just like to say that Plans has been by far the most professional and helpful outfit I have had the pleasure to do business with.
A big thank you
Many thanks Jamie

28

Thanks for the post, Graham

29

The location of the reservoirs on the front is the same as Lotus fit…In an Exige there isn’t space under the front access covers. We can fit them in a more race/track friendly location with the adjusters accessible through the side grills in the wings.

Graham - thanks for the informative post. With regard to the reservoir positioning, Jamie’s is an S2, is there any space under the service hatch of an S1 for them? If not, is it possible to just plumb them with longer hose runs and in effect remote mount them anywhere. I am imagining having them somewhere in the cabin so that they could be adjusted on the move.

30

On an S1 they do fit under the bonnet, no problem. If I knew how to attach a photo I would do!

Whilst it is technically possible to mount them in the cabin, I think it’s not really practical. You would have four knobs to adjust, the damper reservoirs would be a very long way from the pistons (compromising damping) and you still wouldn’t be able to adjust rebound, which is the seting you more frequently want to fine tune.

I think it is a much better discipline (as all race teams follow), to stop, think about how the car is handling, make a prediction about the impact of making an adjustment, make it, record it, and go out again to see the result of you hypothesis.

31

I know the front clam isn’t on. But you can see from the pic below where my Ohlins canistors are mounted. Here they are easily accesable under the front hatch.

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/Front-clamoff.jpg[/image]

32

If I knew how to attach a photo I would do!

Graham, you can upload pictures to something like www.photobucket.com (which is free) and then link them in to your posts by clicking on ‘Image’ in the Instant UBB Code menu (next to the Graemlins when you make a post) and entering the URL of the image (that photobucket provides under the picture when it’s uploaded).

Ian

33

Sean

While you have your Clam off the front, could you tell me what size the Radiator fan is please…

Is it as big as 11 inches ?

I need a new one and am going to go aftermarket hunting but want to buy before I start taking the Clam off.

cheers

34

No problem matey, I will measure it tomorrow for you. As a guess I would say it is about 11" - 12" across.

Sean…

35

Cheers Sean

Could you put it in a new post… then we’ll be able to find it next time someone asks…

your a star

36

exiges.com web page
Ian,
Am just trying out your instructions for attaching a picture. Hopefully it will work!!

Regards,

David

37

It doesn’t look like it

Click on the Quote button of a post with a picture in and you should see the code that is produced when you get it right.

Ian

38
39

Huh? Did you mean?..

[image]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f217/splitpin2/Tatuus%20RC96/Tatuus%20RC96/TatuusRC96front.jpg[/image]

40

Today was at KH for the first time since the tracks been re-surfaced and since my trip to Plans
The track is looking great now and a lot quicker too.
The Ohlins were brilliant, dry settings were dead on. Just a hint of understeer which gave a nice safety net considering the cold temp and amount of mud on track.
Will have to play around and see if I can loose the understeer.
Took some vid will post a link when its sorted.