Lots of talk over on Elisetalk about a Stage 3 kit from Lotus which includes an intake, exhaust and ECU refash
Does seem like more than rumour for once, but I wonder if it will be coming here (hard to imagine why Lotus would sell it in the States only), and whether it will really give meaningful power gains. I am pretty sceptical about the latter - all the evidence I have heard suggests that gains from intake and exhaust are minimal. Still, it would be nice to at least have some options available for the NA Exige, and the design of that exhaust looks very interesting.
Cant tell you anything about a new exhaust or intake Im afraid but I have been running the revised ecu for the last few weeks on track…
There has been no mention to me about power gains what so ever, all I was told is that it reduces the cam switch over point to about 5.5k which I have personally found to be very favourable…For instance, Redgate is now a 3rd gear ‘on-cam’ corner rather than a 3rd gear ‘off-cam’ corner The transition between the two cams seems to be a lot smoother also.
No doubt it will be released very soon via the main dealer network as there appears to be a lotus product code on the side, but in the mean time you need to speak to Graham at Plans
It was just a straight swap out of the ecu Jamie, no reflash. Dont know how they are going to market it yet, wether they will offer it as a reflash on your own ecu or wether you just buy another and plug and play between the two (I still have my original ecu here to do just that)
No parameters can be altered on the board as I know of.
It was just a straight swap out of the ecu Jamie, no reflash. Dont know how they are going to market it yet, wether they will offer it as a reflash on your own ecu or wether you just buy another and plug and play between the two (I still have my original ecu here to do just that)
No parameters can be altered on the board as I know of.
This sounds really intersting! I think lowering the cam change over to 5.5k would make a huge difference to the driveability of the car - I have heard lots of talk about this, but this is the first time I have heard about it acually being done on a NA Exige. Hope it will be available as a reflash, as presumably a new ECU would be mega expensive.
Do you find the kick when the second cam comes in is as pronounced now the change over point has been lowered?
You will be able to buy this from Lotus soon. It is the same kit that Plans are fitting I believe but from what I can gather there was a bit of A HOHA about it beeing fitted before Lotus released it to their dealer network.
Negative, I contacted Lotus this morning and got the following reply:
Hi
I am sorry to say we cannot offer such a service, as we have not engineered or specified such a modification to our vehicles
Regards
Strange, wonder what is going on . Plans can fit a new ECU with a Lotus part number on it, but Lotus deny any knowledge of it. SOunds like the usual story of one part of the company not having a clue what another department is up to.
I’m convinced it can be done as the Exige S is re-mapped to 4,000rpm?
I don’t really want to pay �800 to a 3rd party company to invalidate my warranty. I’d be surprised if the 3rd Party company in question had ‘cracked’ the ECU or whether they just piggy back on it?
Well as usual Lotus is asking over the odds for the upgrade for half a solution. Would expect the Emerald Yota Loti ECU to undercut it and have more tuning ability. From what I can gather the ECU solves half the issues by changing the cam change over point. The learning functionality on the standard ECU and this lower cam version will still adjust to minimise the gains from induction kits and zausts. People have found that when you put say a new manifold, induction kit and zaust on a car they get gains for say 15hp great except 200miles later back to stock output. This was the bit that all the guys in the US were getting excited about - the only way they have been able to get around it is by disabling the learning functionality.
From what I understand this ‘stage 3’ is half a solution for a lot of money.
I would recommend that anyone looking at this should hold off over Xmas and see what Father Christmas brings via Emerald
If Graham from Plans is reading this, perhaps you could clarify things and tell us where this new Lotus ECU came from or what exactly it is that Plans can do in the way reflashing or fitting a new ECU???
I can’t even see why it would be a replacment ECU when it can just be reflashed. Mine was reflashed a while ago but I thought my cam switchover was now at 5300
I was told that the VIN number is now also added to program to verify if it had been er, “borrowed” from another vehicle.
Sadly, I now have 83bhp at the rear wheels a 6000 rpm so it hasn’t helped me very much
If you spoke to Lotus “Sport” you may get a different answer…
I’ve been for a ride in a car thus chipped and I thought it was great. The exhaust had been changed to a Janspeed set up (manifold/cat/tailbox). It went like a steam train through the midrange and I couldn’t detect the change. I keep meaning to get mine done but I doing all the same mods to another vehicle in the corbishley family garage…
I spoke to Lotus Sport about this last month after the rumours about Brooke Kensington installing modified ECUs.
They said they had a few different ECU programs running in customer’s track biased cars for evaluation and were hoping to offer something to a wider audience later in the year.
Then mentioned sending the ECU to them for the change, so I assumed it was a reflash, although it may have been a replacement.
There were no plans for a custom mappable ECU, although they may offer an ECU mapped specifically for the Janspeed Manifold and appropriate exhaust.