Pauls Exige 410 Sport
Discussion
Minor update.
Sorted out a couple of annoyances that I had.
The OEM wiper is too long. It's pointless. At least two inches is visible in mid-air when you look at it from inside the car. So I fitted a smaller one.
Before:
After:
Next was my carbon mirrors. I didn't like the stainless cap head screws used for the arm connecting plate. I kept looking at them through the window. So I ordered some black button head ones and fitted instead.
Then it was on to a tyre / brake check before my next trackday at Bedford Autodrome on 21/03/22.
The tyres still look in great shape. The Pagid RS29 pads definitely appear to have a better wear rate than the OEM pads, but it's a bit early to be too definitive by how much. Either way, the car was in good shape.
Finally, you can't turn up to a track day in a dirty car, can you? Decided to dust off the snow foam lance as well.
All ready to visit Bedford for the first time in 12 or 13 years, and that was the only time I'd been. I'm treating it as doing a new track!
Sorted out a couple of annoyances that I had.
The OEM wiper is too long. It's pointless. At least two inches is visible in mid-air when you look at it from inside the car. So I fitted a smaller one.
Before:
After:
Next was my carbon mirrors. I didn't like the stainless cap head screws used for the arm connecting plate. I kept looking at them through the window. So I ordered some black button head ones and fitted instead.
Then it was on to a tyre / brake check before my next trackday at Bedford Autodrome on 21/03/22.
The tyres still look in great shape. The Pagid RS29 pads definitely appear to have a better wear rate than the OEM pads, but it's a bit early to be too definitive by how much. Either way, the car was in good shape.
Finally, you can't turn up to a track day in a dirty car, can you? Decided to dust off the snow foam lance as well.
All ready to visit Bedford for the first time in 12 or 13 years, and that was the only time I'd been. I'm treating it as doing a new track!
So Monday was Bedford.
I stayed in a hotel nearby and woke up to a cold but clear sunny morning. In fact it was so cold that I couldn't push in the button to open the door. I had to go back to reception and ask for a jug of water!
I arrived at the circuit, and unlike others places they noise test as soon as you turn up before you've done anything. With my OEM exhaust I obviously failed! The add-on was fitted and at just over 4500rpm I got a reading of 96dB, well under the 101dB, so that was the first hurdle out of the way.
There was a big mixture of cars there, one of which unfortunately dumped a load of fluid everywhere during the sighting laps, resulting in a delay of nearly an hour before we got started.
My single visit 12 or 13 years ago was a distant memory, so it was like learning the circuit from scratch. It's a long track to learn, but the huge amounts of run off mean you can probably get up to speed more quickly than at somewhere like Cadwell.
The first couple of sessions were fine, but as speed built up I did trip the drive by noise meter with a reading of 88.9dB. The rest of the day was spent short shifting or lifting off past those, but it didn't really spoil the day in any significant way.
The Exige got quite a lot of attention, and ended up giving a few passenger rides, each of which got good reactions.
I also met Kev and saw his lovely Military Grey 410.
I didn't take any photos, but here is a video from my best session which also includes some footage of Kev around the 5 minute mark.
There was is still lots of time to find if I decide to go back, but I was getting there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmHmadlSfOc
I stayed in a hotel nearby and woke up to a cold but clear sunny morning. In fact it was so cold that I couldn't push in the button to open the door. I had to go back to reception and ask for a jug of water!
I arrived at the circuit, and unlike others places they noise test as soon as you turn up before you've done anything. With my OEM exhaust I obviously failed! The add-on was fitted and at just over 4500rpm I got a reading of 96dB, well under the 101dB, so that was the first hurdle out of the way.
There was a big mixture of cars there, one of which unfortunately dumped a load of fluid everywhere during the sighting laps, resulting in a delay of nearly an hour before we got started.
My single visit 12 or 13 years ago was a distant memory, so it was like learning the circuit from scratch. It's a long track to learn, but the huge amounts of run off mean you can probably get up to speed more quickly than at somewhere like Cadwell.
The first couple of sessions were fine, but as speed built up I did trip the drive by noise meter with a reading of 88.9dB. The rest of the day was spent short shifting or lifting off past those, but it didn't really spoil the day in any significant way.
The Exige got quite a lot of attention, and ended up giving a few passenger rides, each of which got good reactions.
I also met Kev and saw his lovely Military Grey 410.
I didn't take any photos, but here is a video from my best session which also includes some footage of Kev around the 5 minute mark.
There was is still lots of time to find if I decide to go back, but I was getting there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmHmadlSfOc
Nice to meet you on Monday Paul, your car looks great in that blue I must say.
Considering I was nursing my k-series throughout the day by limiting max revs to around 5.5k (so only hitting a measly 107Mph on the back straight!!) I managed some times around the 3m01s, which I was happy with all things considered. Back there on Monday but will be taking the 911 this time as my battery issues have been sorted, so hopefully some decent lap times whilst I consider which engine conversion I'll go for on the Elise.
Hopefully catch you at Snetterton soon. Jeff
Mutton said:
Nice to meet you on Monday Paul, your car looks great in that blue I must say.
Considering I was nursing my k-series throughout the day by limiting max revs to around 5.5k (so only hitting a measly 107Mph on the back straight!!) I managed some times around the 3m01s, which I was happy with all things considered. Back there on Monday but will be taking the 911 this time as my battery issues have been sorted, so hopefully some decent lap times whilst I consider which engine conversion I'll go for on the Elise.
Hopefully catch you at Snetterton soon. Jeff
Hi Jeff. Likewise, it was good meeting you too.Considering I was nursing my k-series throughout the day by limiting max revs to around 5.5k (so only hitting a measly 107Mph on the back straight!!) I managed some times around the 3m01s, which I was happy with all things considered. Back there on Monday but will be taking the 911 this time as my battery issues have been sorted, so hopefully some decent lap times whilst I consider which engine conversion I'll go for on the Elise.
Hopefully catch you at Snetterton soon. Jeff
You must have been carrying good corner speed to get that sort of lap time with such low top speed! The Elise will be hard to beat once the conversion is done!
I look forward to seeing you again.
Thanks, yes it must be all in the corners as it definitely wasn't on the straights! Below is the data for one of the laps I did - you'll probably have to click on it a couple of times to get a clear image in ThumbSnap, unfortunately not much resolution on the Y Axis but it might give you an idea of the cornering speeds. I'll get round to uploading to YouTube an in car video at some point..
The car was supposed to be having a service and its first MOT today, but due to issues at Stratton this got cancelled. Luckily, it meant I had the day off work when a delivery arrived that I'd been patiently waiting for... GRP V3 Lights. Every time I'd seen these on other cars I thought that they looked great, but I was really trying to stop spending so much money on expensive mods. Then one night I'd had a few drinks and thought to myself "Bugger it. You love this car, you're not planning on selling it and it will probably be the last car you ever modify and personalise" And that was when I placed the order with Gregs Race Parts.
Installation is obviously about as simple as you can get. 2 nuts to take off and a connector. I did need to use the extra resistors Greg sent to stop the indicators from fast flashing.
Before:
Halfway:
Unlit:
Lit:
I love the look, and it definitely freshens up and modernises the rear of the car.
Installation is obviously about as simple as you can get. 2 nuts to take off and a connector. I did need to use the extra resistors Greg sent to stop the indicators from fast flashing.
Before:
Halfway:
Unlit:
Lit:
I love the look, and it definitely freshens up and modernises the rear of the car.
Paul_M3 said:
The car was supposed to be having a service and its first MOT today, but due to issues at Stratton this got cancelled. Luckily, it meant I had the day off work when a delivery arrived that I'd been patiently waiting for... GRP V3 Lights. Every time I'd seen these on other cars I thought that they looked great, but I was really trying to stop spending so much money on expensive mods. Then one night I'd had a few drinks and thought to myself "Bugger it. You love this car, you're not planning on selling it and it will probably be the last car you ever modify and personalise" And that was when I placed the order with Gregs Race Parts.
Installation is obviously about as simple as you can get. 2 nuts to take off and a connector. I did need to use the extra resistors Greg sent to stop the indicators from fast flashing.
Before:
Halfway:
Unlit:
Lit:
I love the look, and it definitely freshens up and modernises the rear of the car.
They look great. One of the first things I’ll be doing to mine after I collect it this weekend !Installation is obviously about as simple as you can get. 2 nuts to take off and a connector. I did need to use the extra resistors Greg sent to stop the indicators from fast flashing.
Before:
Halfway:
Unlit:
Lit:
I love the look, and it definitely freshens up and modernises the rear of the car.
Took the car in for the 3rd year service and its first MOT today at Stratton Motor Company.
Everything went pretty smoothly. They noticed on the healthcheck a couple of undertray bolts missing. It then failed the MOT on headlight alignment. The service guy said they were pointing down far too much. I'll be interested to see how much different it makes driving at night now. Hopefully it will be a decent improvement.
And yes, it was sporting a special "MOT-Spec" rear end.
Everything went pretty smoothly. They noticed on the healthcheck a couple of undertray bolts missing. It then failed the MOT on headlight alignment. The service guy said they were pointing down far too much. I'll be interested to see how much different it makes driving at night now. Hopefully it will be a decent improvement.
And yes, it was sporting a special "MOT-Spec" rear end.
There was one downside to fitting the carbon mirrors - every piece on the car was now carbon apart from the side scoops. They started to really stand out to me as being the only non carbon piece. At this point of basically 'all in' with making the car 'mine', so decided to change them for carbon ones. The choice was then which ones to get. In the end I went for the Aerie Performance ones. Partly because they were a bit cheaper, and partly because you don't have to do any irreversible modifications to the car. I do prefer to be able to put the car back to standard if I wanted to.
I fitted them today, and I'm really pleased with how the car looks now with all of the cosmetic modifications.
I fitted them today, and I'm really pleased with how the car looks now with all of the cosmetic modifications.
Second job of the weekend now completed. As I do a few track days, I thought it would be nice to have the rear tow strap fitted like the 430 Cup has.
The actual bracket (Part 2a) was a very reasonable price, less that £40. The nut plates however (Parts 4 and 5) were over £50 each, so I wouldn't be paying that. The strap (Part 3) is a TRS item, and can be bought from various places in different colours.
Instead of the Lotus nut plates, I just got some 6mm thick steel bar and drilled it and tapped it with a thread.
All the parts together:
I then had a bit of luck, as removing the arch liner to fit the carbon scoops gave great access to the outer side of the bracket. I may have just awkwardly tried to do it from underneath otherwise.
I didn't want to spend money on a new grill, so I just cut the existing one, and touched up the paint with satin black hammerite.
Then it was just a case of feeding the strap through and bolting it in place.
With the strap folded back on itself into the slot when not in use, it's a bit more subtle.
Now let's just hope I never need to use it...
The actual bracket (Part 2a) was a very reasonable price, less that £40. The nut plates however (Parts 4 and 5) were over £50 each, so I wouldn't be paying that. The strap (Part 3) is a TRS item, and can be bought from various places in different colours.
Instead of the Lotus nut plates, I just got some 6mm thick steel bar and drilled it and tapped it with a thread.
All the parts together:
I then had a bit of luck, as removing the arch liner to fit the carbon scoops gave great access to the outer side of the bracket. I may have just awkwardly tried to do it from underneath otherwise.
I didn't want to spend money on a new grill, so I just cut the existing one, and touched up the paint with satin black hammerite.
Then it was just a case of feeding the strap through and bolting it in place.
With the strap folded back on itself into the slot when not in use, it's a bit more subtle.
Now let's just hope I never need to use it...
RevsPerMinute said:
very tempted by those carbon side pods. Were they a direct fit, or was there some bodging?
There were definitely not just 'plug and play'. It still wasn't too a difficult installation for me personally, but that's mainly because I'd already tried to plan in advance for potential problems, and I have quite a well equipped garage.Someone just expecting to unbolt the old ones and bolt on the new ones could come unstuck.
Before they arrived, I ordered some new bolts with a round button head and 30mm long so they had a bit of extra length if needed. I could cut them shorter if needed.
The first issue is that they don't come pre-drilled. So you have to offer them up to the car, and find a way to mark where the holes need to be drilled. My solution was to screw bolts back into the original mounting points, and then stick blu-tac onto the carbon pods. I'd then push them into place, and the imprint in the blu-tac showed me where the holes needed to be.
This does lead onto the second problem. The top hole is fine, but the lower hole is very close to where the vertical part of the scoop curves round to the lower horizontal part. On the drivers side I 'just' got away with this. I had to make the hole slightly larger, but I was able to bolt it up to the existing mounting points.
This didn't work on the passenger side. The lower hole was too low, and was actually underneath the lower horizontal part of the scoop. My solution to this was to add a new mounting point to the car. I drilled a hole a bit higher up and fitted an M6 rivnut. This isn't really an issue, and it would not prevent you from re-fitting the OEM scoops in the future if you so wished.
In hindsight, I would have done this on the other side as well as it was actually easier than trying to get the lower hole drilled in the awkward place and lined up. I would also get 40mm long bolts instead of 30mm as it only just reached the new lower mounting point.
In summary, as long you're prepared and have the bits below then it's a fairly easy install.
Drill
Drill bits
Blu Tac (or a different method of marking where the holes need to be)
Longer bolts
Rivnut kit with M6 rivnuts. (And the confidence to drill into the car)
Paul_M3 said:
RevsPerMinute said:
very tempted by those carbon side pods. Were they a direct fit, or was there some bodging?
There were definitely not just 'plug and play'. It still wasn't too a difficult installation for me personally, but that's mainly because I'd already tried to plan in advance for potential problems, and I have quite a well equipped garage.Someone just expecting to unbolt the old ones and bolt on the new ones could come unstuck.
Before they arrived, I ordered some new bolts with a round button head and 30mm long so they had a bit of extra length if needed. I could cut them shorter if needed.
The first issue is that they don't come pre-drilled. So you have to offer them up to the car, and find a way to mark where the holes need to be drilled. My solution was to screw bolts back into the original mounting points, and then stick blu-tac onto the carbon pods. I'd then push them into place, and the imprint in the blu-tac showed me where the holes needed to be.
This does lead onto the second problem. The top hole is fine, but the lower hole is very close to where the vertical part of the scoop curves round to the lower horizontal part. On the drivers side I 'just' got away with this. I had to make the hole slightly larger, but I was able to bolt it up to the existing mounting points.
This didn't work on the passenger side. The lower hole was too low, and was actually underneath the lower horizontal part of the scoop. My solution to this was to add a new mounting point to the car. I drilled a hole a bit higher up and fitted an M6 rivnut. This isn't really an issue, and it would not prevent you from re-fitting the OEM scoops in the future if you so wished.
In hindsight, I would have done this on the other side as well as it was actually easier than trying to get the lower hole drilled in the awkward place and lined up. I would also get 40mm long bolts instead of 30mm as it only just reached the new lower mounting point.
In summary, as long you're prepared and have the bits below then it's a fairly easy install.
Drill
Drill bits
Blu Tac (or a different method of marking where the holes need to be)
Longer bolts
Rivnut kit with M6 rivnuts. (And the confidence to drill into the car)
Another minor change finished off today. I saw a fair few posts in various places about people changing the rear view mirror for a smaller one. The OEM one is very big, and blocks an unnecessary amount of vision, especially if you are tall. If you look at it, only the middle part is actually reflecting anything useful.
I saw some people who had bought a £10 mirror from Amazon, with the major benefit being it fitted onto the OEM mount. You just had to swap it across onto the ball.
Unfortunately (as you can probably see) the mirror was very wide angled and I didn't like it. I definitely did like how much less space it took up though.
I therefore thought I'd see if I could sacrifice the mirror and use the rear section with the ball mount.
I got some scrap aluminium (from an old broken trolley jack and butchered it about a bit. The ball mount had to be spaced out a bit and the gaps filled and primed.
Next I needed the mirror. The solution for this was a 4" x 2" inspection mirror which died for the cause.
The whole lot was then masked and painted in satin black before being attached to the OEM mount.
Refitted to the car and I can see everything I need to out of the rear as well as a lot more out of the front.
The only downside is that the mirror can obviously no longer be dimmed, but for how often I drive in the dark this doesn't bother me too much.
I saw some people who had bought a £10 mirror from Amazon, with the major benefit being it fitted onto the OEM mount. You just had to swap it across onto the ball.
Unfortunately (as you can probably see) the mirror was very wide angled and I didn't like it. I definitely did like how much less space it took up though.
I therefore thought I'd see if I could sacrifice the mirror and use the rear section with the ball mount.
I got some scrap aluminium (from an old broken trolley jack and butchered it about a bit. The ball mount had to be spaced out a bit and the gaps filled and primed.
Next I needed the mirror. The solution for this was a 4" x 2" inspection mirror which died for the cause.
The whole lot was then masked and painted in satin black before being attached to the OEM mount.
Refitted to the car and I can see everything I need to out of the rear as well as a lot more out of the front.
The only downside is that the mirror can obviously no longer be dimmed, but for how often I drive in the dark this doesn't bother me too much.
Monday was a track day at Donington Park. I went once last year, so it's still a track I've got lots of learning to do on.
I travelled up on Sunday night, and met up with a fellow owner (keo on here) who I'd never met in person before. Our two cars certainly stood out compared to the sea of silver, grey, and black that normally dominate the car parks.
I woke up to a nice clear day, drove to the circuit and got the car into track mode. (i.e. I took off the number plate and got the tow straps / hook out)
There was some very nice machinery there on Monday, including this Ferrari 458 race car.
However, I think it was run by a company who rent it out for anyone to try, so the drivers weren't necessarily making the most of a race car on slicks. Luckily for me, this allowed me to have a fun couple of laps trying to keep up with it.
https://youtu.be/xmoYi6952t0
I also saw a fairly bizarre incident where a misunderstanding led to one car pushing another off the circuit!
https://youtu.be/7w_y104JYrY
I travelled up on Sunday night, and met up with a fellow owner (keo on here) who I'd never met in person before. Our two cars certainly stood out compared to the sea of silver, grey, and black that normally dominate the car parks.
I woke up to a nice clear day, drove to the circuit and got the car into track mode. (i.e. I took off the number plate and got the tow straps / hook out)
There was some very nice machinery there on Monday, including this Ferrari 458 race car.
However, I think it was run by a company who rent it out for anyone to try, so the drivers weren't necessarily making the most of a race car on slicks. Luckily for me, this allowed me to have a fun couple of laps trying to keep up with it.
https://youtu.be/xmoYi6952t0
I also saw a fairly bizarre incident where a misunderstanding led to one car pushing another off the circuit!
https://youtu.be/7w_y104JYrY
apn said:
Would you mind pointing me in the direction of the Amazon mirror? Thanks
Here you go mate: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07GHJDHG9/ref...Paul_M3 said:
I saw some people who had bought a £10 mirror from Amazon, with the major benefit being it fitted onto the OEM mount. You just had to swap it across onto the ball.
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