Snetterton 300
Discussion
Hi guys,
Yesterday i went to Snetterton 300 for the first time on two instances - never been to Snetterton before and it was my first track day in the Evora... I'll start off with the concern first before i plunge into the after action report.
The Bad
1. Oil 'Vomit' and smoke generation to rival Challenger 2 Tanks
Bomb hole is a fairly innocuous looking corner but presented me with a slight issue yesterday - i couldn't go through it with power on unless i wanted to smoke out the field behind me. It's a fairly short corner, but with quite a drop and sudden rise that's the beginning of a high g section of the track. As such what happens is the oil doesn't stay in the sump, but sloshes upwards (vomit is the best way i can think of describing it) into the bores and becomes a combustible item, thus creating smoke all in the space of 4m on the track. The first time was bad enough to scare me into the pits to take the engine cover off and warrant a deeper inspection and keep a close eye on oil levels all the way to this morning.
I'm not even sure what i'm looking for to rectify this (Catch cans?) - so any help would be great - i lost around 10 seconds a lap to this coasting requirement alone.
2. Rotational Squeak from Wheels
I've checked my studs, the wheels are fine too (Lotus Lightweight Forged) with no damage, but i have a squeak that has rotational characteristics to it. The faster i go the more annoying it gets until it blurs into the road and engine noise. At low speeds its like i've fed a mouse into a spoke and every time his head hits the caliper the poor b
d squeaks. I have checked for mice, but none are in sight. Does the Evora have brake guards? Things were hot enough (ambient temp, track temp and car temp) to make the rear number plate droop slightly, so i'm guessing some significant expansion will have gone on in this area... Any steers from those who've experienced similar?
The Good
1. It doesn't feel heavy at all
I thought it felt oddly light considering it's kerb weight on the road but not the track it was sublime, i could quite easily change direction at whim without really thinking too much about it, which is exceedingly helpful for corners such as Brundle into Nelson and Coram into Murrays (quick left, right and long right (high g) into quick left respectively). Also it carries SO MUCH speed through corners. I have come from a fettled Focus RS Mk2 (400bhp) with quite a lot of chassis work and the Evora is significantly more capable. There doesn't seem to be much fuss regarding the loads, it barely seems to roll and just fires through. In fact the only thing that i know definitely rolled, was me, sliding on the leather seat... Ok so i did find myself halfway through the day wishing to have an extra 20bhp (i'm at 300) to at least keep up with the Evo 9s that had c.400-500 bhp, but i carried speed through the corners and was on the throttle harder a good 2-4 seconds earlier than the more powerful cars, only to be out dragged on the straights - so i can hardly complain that it's slow.
2. It's surprisingly good on its consumables
I'll keep using my 1450kg Focus RS as a benchmark because i've done plenty of track work with it. Brakes on that (stock) would fade after about 15mins work and require a minimum of an hour to cool to decent levels. Even with uprated units (KSport 356mm 8 Pots) i could only get around 40 mins (total time, not in a one shot) without feeling some pretty horrible fade which affected confidence. I'm guessing the MY11 Evoras are fitting with AP or similar, as aside from a "i've well missed my braking point - am i going to make the corner" moment i never felt the brakes were approaching their limit or struggling to keep up with the heat cycles. The Pirelli are amazing too, i dropped them down to 26 F/28R which equated to 30 F/32 R on track and it just stuck.. apart from my brief drift at Nelson caused by over zealous running of the kerbs. Tread wear is 220, in total a full day on the fastest track in the UK cost me 0.67mm of tread across the car. Even fuel was good, up from 8mpg in the RS to 18mpg in the Evora... Makes a considerable difference to the day knowing that you've underspent on fuel so can chuck that onto booking the next day.
3. It's surprisingly refined... and surprisingly unrefined without back seats
I couldn't really hear the revs in the upper regions from 3rd-4th and at times even 2nd-3rd was a stretch. So i removed the rear seats.... Well, it's actually louder than most of the Exiges i've been in without those flimsy seats. Made me rethink my idea about carpeting the rear area and leaving the pointless seats out. It got to the point that when i got out after 8 mins, my ears were ringing, but i didn't mess up any gear changes. For those wondering why i didn't see the three rings of change up or doom? It was REALLY sunny yesterday and 90% of the time they were obscured by a pretty reflection of the clouds.
SO overall a good day - just would like a steer on how to rectify the aforementioned concerns!
Yesterday i went to Snetterton 300 for the first time on two instances - never been to Snetterton before and it was my first track day in the Evora... I'll start off with the concern first before i plunge into the after action report.
The Bad
1. Oil 'Vomit' and smoke generation to rival Challenger 2 Tanks
Bomb hole is a fairly innocuous looking corner but presented me with a slight issue yesterday - i couldn't go through it with power on unless i wanted to smoke out the field behind me. It's a fairly short corner, but with quite a drop and sudden rise that's the beginning of a high g section of the track. As such what happens is the oil doesn't stay in the sump, but sloshes upwards (vomit is the best way i can think of describing it) into the bores and becomes a combustible item, thus creating smoke all in the space of 4m on the track. The first time was bad enough to scare me into the pits to take the engine cover off and warrant a deeper inspection and keep a close eye on oil levels all the way to this morning.
I'm not even sure what i'm looking for to rectify this (Catch cans?) - so any help would be great - i lost around 10 seconds a lap to this coasting requirement alone.
2. Rotational Squeak from Wheels
I've checked my studs, the wheels are fine too (Lotus Lightweight Forged) with no damage, but i have a squeak that has rotational characteristics to it. The faster i go the more annoying it gets until it blurs into the road and engine noise. At low speeds its like i've fed a mouse into a spoke and every time his head hits the caliper the poor b
d squeaks. I have checked for mice, but none are in sight. Does the Evora have brake guards? Things were hot enough (ambient temp, track temp and car temp) to make the rear number plate droop slightly, so i'm guessing some significant expansion will have gone on in this area... Any steers from those who've experienced similar?The Good
1. It doesn't feel heavy at all
I thought it felt oddly light considering it's kerb weight on the road but not the track it was sublime, i could quite easily change direction at whim without really thinking too much about it, which is exceedingly helpful for corners such as Brundle into Nelson and Coram into Murrays (quick left, right and long right (high g) into quick left respectively). Also it carries SO MUCH speed through corners. I have come from a fettled Focus RS Mk2 (400bhp) with quite a lot of chassis work and the Evora is significantly more capable. There doesn't seem to be much fuss regarding the loads, it barely seems to roll and just fires through. In fact the only thing that i know definitely rolled, was me, sliding on the leather seat... Ok so i did find myself halfway through the day wishing to have an extra 20bhp (i'm at 300) to at least keep up with the Evo 9s that had c.400-500 bhp, but i carried speed through the corners and was on the throttle harder a good 2-4 seconds earlier than the more powerful cars, only to be out dragged on the straights - so i can hardly complain that it's slow.
2. It's surprisingly good on its consumables
I'll keep using my 1450kg Focus RS as a benchmark because i've done plenty of track work with it. Brakes on that (stock) would fade after about 15mins work and require a minimum of an hour to cool to decent levels. Even with uprated units (KSport 356mm 8 Pots) i could only get around 40 mins (total time, not in a one shot) without feeling some pretty horrible fade which affected confidence. I'm guessing the MY11 Evoras are fitting with AP or similar, as aside from a "i've well missed my braking point - am i going to make the corner" moment i never felt the brakes were approaching their limit or struggling to keep up with the heat cycles. The Pirelli are amazing too, i dropped them down to 26 F/28R which equated to 30 F/32 R on track and it just stuck.. apart from my brief drift at Nelson caused by over zealous running of the kerbs. Tread wear is 220, in total a full day on the fastest track in the UK cost me 0.67mm of tread across the car. Even fuel was good, up from 8mpg in the RS to 18mpg in the Evora... Makes a considerable difference to the day knowing that you've underspent on fuel so can chuck that onto booking the next day.
3. It's surprisingly refined... and surprisingly unrefined without back seats
I couldn't really hear the revs in the upper regions from 3rd-4th and at times even 2nd-3rd was a stretch. So i removed the rear seats.... Well, it's actually louder than most of the Exiges i've been in without those flimsy seats. Made me rethink my idea about carpeting the rear area and leaving the pointless seats out. It got to the point that when i got out after 8 mins, my ears were ringing, but i didn't mess up any gear changes. For those wondering why i didn't see the three rings of change up or doom? It was REALLY sunny yesterday and 90% of the time they were obscured by a pretty reflection of the clouds.
SO overall a good day - just would like a steer on how to rectify the aforementioned concerns!
Ihave been round snett several times in my 2011 and more recently 2013 Evora S`s and have never had any issues as you have described. I am pretty certain that Lotus will have spent many hours testing the cars on track and whilst oild will slosh around in an unbaffled sump, it should not do anything like you are describing??? As for the bomb hole, I would normally ease off momentarily to adjust the line before flooring it out of the bomb hole, but there certainly should be no reason to slow down to avoid the issue you describe.
I do not know what to say other than it is not normal!
I do not know what to say other than it is not normal!
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