New arrival. Exige 410 Sport

[ecain63]

custardkid said:

Looks good quality
Are you pleased with it?
What is the interior finish?

Any plans for carbon side scoops?

Yep, quality is decent. Nice finish on the herringbone and despite it being less than 50% OEM price it's definitely not <50% of oem quality. It's a good weight saving too and I am informed it's over 6kg lighter than the Composite roof.

Inside finish is matte black, although you can option a carbon skin inside to match. I like the black finish personally and there's no real weight saving by having the carbon showing.

Carbon scoops are on order, as are carbon sills. Hopefully they'll land in August, ready for fitting after our Ring trip.

[ecain63]

deeps said:

Same questions here

Love the look of the new roof, how much if you don't mind me asking Ecain?

£1828 delivered in this spec. Contains all fittings and seals.

[ecain63]

sevensfun said:

haha i like the emotion of cheering with your left hand when you pass the m3 @ goodwood....

I really enjoyed taking a passenger for a change. Takes away the element of simply going out to go fast..... and sometimes too fast. Having a passenger is a nice leveler and it was great to share it. On that subject, I'm going to test a new idea next week at Goodwood. I'll explain in the next post, but it's something that is close to my heart and allows me share the experience while continuing to trackday regularly.

[ecain63]

custardkid said:

What scoops have you gone for? Alias?

Yeah, he's awaiting a batch from the supplier. Hopefully they will arrive soon.

[ecain63]

Interior finish on my roof:

I swapped out the bolts to some red anodised items that I also used on the front rad fans.

[ecain63]

custardkid said:

Is it double skinned?
Flocked or plastic?

Inner skin is GRP, painted matte black. No real weight saving having it double skinned in CF

[ecain63]

When does yours arrive Andy?

[ecain63]

It's been another busy week for the car following 2 weeks off for some much needed rest. You've seen the carbon roof update already, but as with all things Lotus there's always something to tweak when you mod something.

Firstly, the encapsulated nuts for the front trim panel needed bonding in properly as they were a bit loose when i first fitted it. Nothing that a bit of araldite couldn't cure there! I also changed the bolts for some red anodised ones Keeping with the roof..... with it being so stiff it tends to creak / tap a bit when you go over a bump. I first thought it was the new seals, however another owner found it was the metal hooks at the rear that click / tap in the hole where they locate and a bit of fabric tape is the solution. I'll try this over the weekend.

Monday saw us back at Goodwood AGAIN! But, in a change to the usual "go fast" routine I used it as a tester day in advance of a charity do I'm running at Silverstone next month. My nurse specialist loaned me her son and his nervous girlfriend so I could put into practice some fun passenger laps, get to grips with strapping people in, sorting helmets / Hans and seeing how the cameras work when rear facing. With a little help from my mate Darren in his M2 we did approx 120 laps with the 2 willing(?) volunteers and everyone had an amazing time, despite the heat.

Here's a video of Mollie's first quick session with me. She'd been out on the sighting laps in the Lotus already and then a warm up with Darren in the M2. During the sighting laps we'd talked through the circuit, it's corners, the reasons why we don't just follow the inside edges etc. As you can see, the first couple of quicker laps we're recapping the turn in points and apexes before pressing on a little more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OshL1XH-XeQ

Sam, my nurse's son had a great time too and enjoyed a bit of fun jostling with the other regular trackdayers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ7iN2HigJI



By the mid afternoon everyone was exhausted with the heat and pace of it all, but we had an incredible day. It's something that I'm hoping to do more of and if the Silverstone thing goes well then this may become a new focus for me.













On the way home I dropped the car in to Hendy Performance for a thorough checkover and fluids change. We fitted the new pads and discs too as the cracks had gotten quite large. I've moved away from the PFC08 and back to the oem DS2500. I feel that the PF pads get the disc too hot so I'll see how the oem ones fair now I'm going a little quicker..... it's certainly cheaper to replace pads than discs.

And here's my loan car. lol





500whp (yes, at the wheels), and it sounds like a rally car with firecrackers strapped to it. Not my cup of tea admittedly, but a lot of fun in traffic

So, what's on at Silverstone next month?

Well, myself and another Exige (V6 Cup) owner are taking 5 young cancer patients on a GP circuit trackday. I was due to go anyway and after some thought, booked a garage and offered it out to https://shinecancersupport.org/ who took me up on the offer. They've sent me 5 of their most willing volunteers and between the 2 cars I reckon we'll achieve some serious smiles and memories. Hopefully the weather will play ball and everything goes as smoothly as it did on Monday.

I'll keep you posted.

Eddie

Edited by ecain63 on Saturday 24th July 18:38

[ecain63]

Adding to the theme of modding 410s on pistonheads.....

Carbon fibre sills:





These arrived last week from Alias23. He's gone into partnership with Jason Fung on these and the quality is really good. My only niggle is that the weave is the same on both sides rather than being mirrored. But, it's a track car so I can't complain too much.

Getting them onto the car requires the drilling of 16 holes in the sills and then fitting aluminium rivnuts. Although this would have been sufficient for most cars..... because they usually only sit in a garage or at a beauty spot lol...... I've added the security of RP45 tape. Actually, I reckon you could fit with just the tape, it's really very sticky.

[ecain63]

I won't write a massive update post as I've added it elsewhere, but we had an amazing time on Monday with Shine Cancer Support. I think I'll look to do more of this

Video: https://youtu.be/4ijP9TAHJrQ

[ecain63]

It's been a busy few months for the car with Silverstone, Goodwood and other such events and trackdays. But, with the season drawing to a close and the reality of a cold, damp winter getting ever closer it seems only right to finish the summer on a high.

Silverstone saw so much fun and good spirits for all involved, but it did unfortunately kill my rear view camera. I always knew it was a bit exposed to the heat of the exhaust on track and after a good 10 days it finally melted. At £120 a pop I could accept it as a consumable...... or so I thought!







As you can see, the image had become blurry, the rubber seal had perished and there was a cloud of moisture residue on the inside of the lens.

The following morning I went to order a new one from AiM, but hesitated to check it wasn't available cheaper elsewhere. Queue Amazon finding me the exact same product (RearMaster) for £17.98 instead of the £120 from AiM...... and it included the extension cable that AiM charge an additional £45 for. The only difference (apart from AiM charging for the extension) is that the AiM camera and additional £45 cable comes pre fitted with the 712 5 pin binder.

So, I ordered the £17.98 camera and once it had arrived swapped over the binder from the old melted camera to the new one. On top of that I've also bonded in the cable that goes into the back of the camera housing to provide some extra waterproofing and also liberally coated the rubber seal in silicone grease. If it adds another couple of months to the waterproofing then that's a win in my book.











Job done:



With that done the next thing was to focus on our next event..... Ever since I first went in 2017 I have had the intention to take my boy to the Ring. Well, he's 7 now and old enough to appreciate the magnitude of the place and everything that it stands for. Here's how it went:

After a 2am start on Friday we got the 6.25am Chunnel to freedom. Belgium was a right royal pain to navigate (made worse by biblical speed bumps which threatened to scupper the trip) and because of the traffic chaos ended up refuelling and lunching at La Source, just outside the back gate of Spa.



We eventually arrived at the Ring around 3pm

Unusually the weather was amazing throughout the journey and it promised to stay the same for the whole weekend. After checking in at Hotel Am Tiergarten we went for a wander and a bit of shopping. The track wasn't due to open til 5 or 5.30 so we had a little time to kill before we popped the little fella's cherry.

And then the time came:



His first lap: https://youtu.be/V4P9jIH3VhE

To say he enjoyed it would be an understatement. From my point of view it was something of a bucket list moment as a dad, and after all the trauma, hurdles and opposition in my recent years a real milestone event to tick off the list. We'd booked 4 laps for the weekend though, so that wasn't all for him.

The following morning, after a great and much needed sleep for the both of us we headed down to the track again. The plan was to do a quiet early morning lap then head over to the GP circuit to watch some of the qualifying / racing that was going on.

2nd lap: https://youtu.be/sVzO81-a_bo

At the GP circuit they were running TCR, Super Trofeo and World GT. We stayed for a bit, did some shopping, backstage browse at Merc and then went for lunch at Brunchenen.

















The afternoon was quite busy on track but we managed to bag our last 2 laps. The first of them was quite quick and very busy with quick traffic..... we even had to dodge debris at Adenauer Forst which forced me onto the kerb..... but it was a proper thrill ride for the boy and great fun:

https://youtu.be/lVut5pWqSHs

Lap 4 we just chilled and waved to the crowds. What a way to sign off!!

https://youtu.be/BqdSnRoYAZ4

We headed back up to the GP circuit to catch a bit of the World GT before heaing down to Adenauer to enjoy a beer and an icecream while watching those lapping in the last of the days sun.





The rest of our trip we chilled, ate steak and hooked up with the local celebs...... like Pancake at Apex. He's such a cool dog:


















And that was that. We packed up, rolled out at sunrise and headed home through the glorious Eifel countryside:







The obvious next and final bit of the story are the pics off racetracker.de ...... no Ring trip is complete without blowing a load of money on those



















Next week.... tyres and a geo refresh,

[ecain63]

Paul_M3 said:

Just brilliant mate. Great photos from a great trip. You can tell from the way you describe it how much you and your son enjoyed it.

On a different note, have you spent any time playing with the settings on the Nitrons when you go on track?

Yeah, I played about with them a little after we sorted the geo. Finally settled on +2 clicks stiffer on everything. The big Uk tracks are pretty flat on the whole with few bumps. The bumpy ones up north I don't go to due to the distance and Castle Combe I've only done once, with no immediate plans to do again. The +2 setup works well at Silverstone, Goodwood, Thruxton and was great at Anglesey. It'll be fine at Spa too.

For the Ring, you'd need to soften everything up for a track day I'd say. It's a jittery track in the Exige with lots of bumps, changing surfaces and camber. For our purposes it was fine at +2 but I wouldn't want to bounce about at full speed there.

[ecain63]

Hi mate. Yes, I've got the 410/430 QP exhaust on mine. But, it didn't require any modifications to the standard box. It should uncouple from the midpipe and just bolt on / off.

See post here on fitting: pics on this page: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[ecain63]

In other news...... I finally needed new tyres... but only the rear ones. That's 14k on a set of rears. Incredible!! Had a fresh geo done ready for Goodwood on Friday too.

[ecain63]

With the new rear tyres fitted and a fresh geo / bit of a play with the suspension we were back at Goodwood on Friday for a morning of lapping with Goodwood Motor Circuit. It was a 98db day so needed the big cans again for driveby.





The weather was cracking and we had absolutely no red flags all morning. We managed 5 full sessions and around 45 laps The only negative is that it was quite busy, and with a high number of first timers so getting a clear run proved difficult and it was hard not to appear aggressive with the massive difference in pace. You have to remind yourself out there that everyone starts somewhere, but equally it does get frustrating when your laps are repeatedly interrupted by a lack of mirror use. Anyway, it was still a great morning and also a good opportunity to make new contacts.












Despite the traffic we did manage a number of quicker laps and bagged a few 1m28s for the logger. Unfortunately my only 1m27s run was scuppered on the finish straight by an instructor car who'd clearly not seen me approaching at 3 times their speed. Hey ho!, there's always next time

There was a chap there called Mark Briggs who was running a Cayman 2.7. He's a Goodwood regular and a well known Youtube vlogger. Here's his cracking video of the Cayman meeting up briefly with the Exige: https://youtu.be/jqNMyFSXVcY

And from the Exige, including my last 1m28s lap: https://youtu.be/2rEcJ2YROXU

Video of session 2: Nearly came a cropper with a Caterham on lap 2 lol: https://youtu.be/oYoWxBqY_wk

I've got a few weeks away from the track now but will hopefully be hitting Spa in early November. Following that the plan is to get it in for its 2 year service, get the suspension inspected and refreshed and then a few cosmetic / aero adjustments before the new season next spring

[ecain63]

New bits to fit next month when it goes in for it's 2 year service.

[ecain63]

A couple of weeks back I did a thing....... which most of you have probably seen on FB already. But for those that only follow here, I have fitted my Komotec vents (with my own daft hands):


So, the vents come with vinyl templates that are really easy to use. Simply clean off the bodywork, spray the clam with water and a hint of Fairy liquid and then squeegie it on like you would a big decal:









You can remove the decals without evidence of testicular shrinkage at this point if needs be

My car has PPF fitted that I wanted to retain so the next job was to cut round the inner edge of the template with a blade and then peel the PPF shape off that I didn't need. I was conscious that I didn't want it getting caught in the disc cutter and then cause damage by me dropping it or something.





At this point it's very much "do or die". I'd cut well into the paint in order to make sure I was through the PPF so any reversal or bottling out would mean an expensive paint repair at least.

I'd been to Toolstation that morning and bought a £30 Draper 12v disc cutter. Intent on doing it as cost free / financially least damaging if I cocked it up as possible I'd avoided buying one of the big, expensive jobbies. Admittedly, when I broke the first cutting disc in my fingers just opening the packaging I thought I might have done a number on myself...... but I cracked on anyway:



So, first cut made......



Not too much dust thanks to the super thin and brittle discs. You get 14 discs in the box. I'd fragged 9 by the time I'd done the first hole and there were no spares anywhere for at least a week. lol





The whole purpose of these vents is to allow the pressure / air out of the arches at speed and increase airflow over the car. In order to achieve this I had to cut the liners too. For road use I don't see it as a necessary measure because there are a few gaps here and there in the liner anyway. But, when doing 150mph at Goodwood the benefit of cutting additional holes might well be seen. Time will tell. I bought some mesh to cover the hole and have since added another mesh panel to the underside of the hole to stop big bits of track rubber smashing through the top piece. Best to be doubly sure it's secure.







With that side done I stopped, recharged the battery in the cutter and calmed myself down. It was an exciting and nervous morning and I knew I had to make the remaining discs last, so the next session needed to be low pressure and with a solid head on my shoulders. Luckily I had a clear evening to get on with it and managed to complete the job with 2 discs spare












With the holes cut and the vents sitting nicely I retired for the night. Before they could be bonded in the cut edges would need to be sealed and the mesh bonded in and cured. I did this the following day, left the sealant to cure again and then after another 24hrs bonded in the vents. The vents are curved to fit the clam profile but even then they need a bit of pressure to keep them in place during curing. I used a handy pair of axle stands.... but you could use something else lol



Once it was all cured and solid I gave the old beast a wash. And hey presto!













Another hop over to the Nurburgring next weekend hopefully and then Spa on Monday the 8th

[ecain63]

Did a bit of prep today for what might be a wet weekend...... although it's looking like it might actually be improving.

Diffuser off to check all the usual bolts, exhaust etc. Roof off to grease the seals and eradicate a squeak. I think we're all set

[ecain63]

Gibbo205 said:

Hi there

I was wondering do the 410's have TPMS? I can't seem to see anything on the dash on mine (AIM dash).

If not is it possible to retrofit please do you know?

Yeah, they have tpms. Mine shows an error on some trackdays until the tyres get warm. It tells you which tyre too.

[ecain63]

Paul_M3 said:

It’s just a shame that there’s no way to display live tyre pressures like some other cars do.

Buy the Connect kit with the new Cup 2 tyres. You have a live feed on your phone then.