Pauls Exige 410 Sport

[Paul_M3]

That's a lovely car Quags.

With regards to the battery monitor, yes, you need to be within bluetooth range to get a reading from it.

[Paul_M3]

No mods this time, just another track day. This time at Cadwell Park.

The day didn't start of great when my name wasn't on the list to be there, so I had to go back at 8:30am when they could ring head office. Turns out I was the first person to try and sign on, and they actually had the attendee list for a different circuit. Nobody there was on the list...

Next up was noise testing, and I'd heard from somebody that their 410 had squeezed through the week before with a wink. I decided to chance my arm and I also managed to get through. A full day with maximum noise and no additional stupid silencer hanging off the back of my car.

I've only been to Cadwell once before, and it was about 8 years ago. So I was basically starting from scratch again. I'd forgotten what a daunting circuit it is, and it took me much longer than normal to build up speed and confidence in the grip levels. The best lap in my first session was over 2 minutes. By lunchtime it was down to about 1m50s. And by the end of the day I was down to 1m44s. The laps were still far from perfect, and I've identified a few places to improve when I go back.

As usual, the car itself performed faultlessly. I had a few people come up to me to chat about it, and more than one person say it was the best sounding car out there (normally followed by "How the hell did you pass the noise test").

This video is from the final session of the day:

https://youtu.be/ET4FFYfwzaA

And a few of the photos from the day:











I think the Clio in the final picture might have been pushing quite hard...

https://youtu.be/PZeFUhPB2TA

[Paul_M3]

Finally thought of a simple solution to something that I've been trying to figure out. I really like doing videos of my track sessions with the data overlay, but I think it adds something when you also have a rear view on the video. Finding a way to do this on an Exige isn't as simple as most cars - an internal camera looking backwards won't show a lot! I initially tried a clamp mount on the diffuser, but as well as being a bit low, it was too hot and the GoPro kept shutting down. Next I considered a suction cup mount on the surface where the number plate lights are, but I just don't have enough confidence in them. That's when I thought that looking back from the number plate is actually a perfect place, especially if you could find a way to attach an external microphone for the exhaust noise...

Number plate was previously stuck on with pads, so I took this off, cleaned everything up, and fitted some strips of proper heavy duty velcro.



Then it was just a case of finding an old number plate, and mounting a GoPro base on it. I fitted a tether point and tether in case the main mount fails (and to potentially keep the track day marshals happy). It also allowed me to mount an external microphone with wind shield permanently on the plate. 




Now once I get to the circuit it'll take me about 20 seconds to go from this..



To this...



Okay... it's not the prettiest thing in the world, but then neither is a big suction cup with an additional safety tether. The heavy duty velcro grips well, so there's no way it's going anywhere, which means I won't constantly worrying like I would with a suction cup.

Now to just wait and see how the footage actually turns out.

[Paul_M3]

CTE said:

How did you get on with noise at Cadwell? Last time I was there I noted there were several noisy cars and lets face it the track is in a hole and there is nothing around for miles? I note you don't have your extra exhaust pipes on...does your car otherwise have the standard set up...but not the titanium back box I guess although not sure if that makes any difference to the sound level when compared to the standard rear box??

Cadwell were ‘generous’ during noise testing. I didn’t need to but the extra pipe on.

(They knew that as the valve was opening at 4500rpm it was going over the limit though).

Mine is the standard exhaust, but not the titanium one.

[Paul_M3]

Not the best track day I've ever had. My front end doesn't look quite so immaculate now. Must admit it took the shine off the day a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biPGU36hKMQ

[Paul_M3]

No PPF on mine Eddie unfortunately.

The middle and right hand side grills are dented and have had paint chipped off. Im hoping I can just straighten those out.

The windscreen has a small chip, but it’s over the passenger side and doesn’t really justify a replacement.

There are several stone chips on the front clam, so I’ll just try and touch those up.

The carbon front panel has a deep scratch a couple of cm long. Not sure what I can do about that, and I think it’s the most annoying of all the damage.

[Paul_M3]

ecain63 said:

Unfortunately this is just life on track and you have to accept some battle scars.

Yeah, exactly. An MSV guy came up and was chatting to me just after it happened. Even though I was gutted I said something along the lines of "Well, if you want them to stay perfect you need to just lock them in a garage and polish them, not bring them here"

ecain63 said:

Ref the scratch in the carbon.... speak to Roy Pack on the Facebook group. He fixed his carbon splitter recently and it's nigh on invisible.

Thanks mate, I'll check it out.

keo said:

Gutted for you Paul did you have a good day apart from that?

Yeah, other than that it was a great day. Track was wet initially but soon dried out. Nice mixture of cars there. Only a couple of red flags all day. And I did my best time ever around Snetterton, which made me happy.

[Paul_M3]

So, just a small post about my track day on Monday which is fun but fairly uneventful other than getting about 300 stones thrown at me.

The car was loaded up more than normal due to the petrol station issue. Snetterton had e-mailed in advance saying you would be limited to 20 litres per person from the on site pumps and to try and bring your own. I took 45 litres along with all my usual equipment including a trolley jack, and my extra exhaust both of which take up a bit of space. Who says an Exige isn't practical?

1 x 20 litre container
5 x 5 litre containers
1 toolbag
1 trolley jack
1 exhaust silencer
1 impact driver
1 torque wrench
1 rucksack
1 helmet
1 HANS device





With everything unpacked I just needed to fit my 'add-ons'. And the award for most ridiculous looking Exige goes to...



So on the subject of the exhaust, this was the first time I'd been properly static noise tested since I made it. Previously all I'd known is that is was working on the drive by, so I was quite interested in the result.

I manually opened the exhaust valve to ensure it was in loud mode, and told them my red line was 7000rpm.

The result - 99.9dB. Now I don't know what my Exige 410 is as standard with the valve open, but from previous forum info I would say that I've had a fairly decent reduction.

I know that I'm ok with it at Snetterton, Cadwell and Donington Park. And based on that static, I think I'd have a good chance at Brands Hatch, and possibly even Bedford Autodrome. So for now I'll be keeping the standard exhaust and seeing how well the bolt-on works at other tracks.

Ready to play...





The other test of the day was my new rear camera set-up. Overall, I was very pleased with it. Quick and easy to fit, the mounting is solid with no movement, the marshals said nothing about it all day, and the sound on the video was definitely an improvement.

My friend came along in his Audi RS5 which has been remapped. It's a big heavy old thing, but the acceleration and braking (huge ceramics) was pretty impressive.

This video is from a session where we went out together:

https://youtu.be/qEWrzgwOFHs

This one is my fastest lap of the day. It should have been much quicker, but there was traffic it the end so I had to slow down and go off line. I'd have been in the 2:10's otherwise:

https://youtu.be/3pStVe7lTdg

Main lesson from the day...I really need to find a way to get comfortable with heel and toe in this car. Every time I try it seems awkward and difficult compared to previous cars. I definitely need to spend some time addressing that as it will make a big difference.

[Paul_M3]

Not a mod this time, just a bit of fun. Decided that instead of my track day helmet being boring black it might be nice to have it done in a colour scheme which matches the car. I know it's a bit sad, but it'll only ever be seen on track days.

Edited by Paul_M3 on Sunday 31st October 15:56

[Paul_M3]

Back to the functional modifications todays.

One of the things I have found difficult in this car is heel and toeing on track. I have just found it quite awkward compared to some other cars I've owned. I've been having a look trying to determine the issue. Firstly, I think the car itself doesn't help. I find it needs quite a decent 'stab' of the accelerator to blip the engine.  Secondly, because I'm 6ft it's harder to manoeuvre and twist my foot without hitting the steering wheel. Finally I don't think the pedal layout is quite as optimum as it could be for me. I can't do anything about the first two, but I can address the third one. 

Looking at the pedals, even with the brake pedal pushed down it's still a bit higher than the accelerator. This is quite hard to show in photographs, but...



There is also a reasonable gap between the brake and accelerator pedal, so there is the potential to close that up a bit.

I wanted to have a pedal that would close the gap slightly, but far more importantly give me the option to adjust the height. I ordered these just for the accelerator pedal. 



The original pedal cover is rivetted and glued on, so relatively easy to remove without damaging it. 



The new accelerator pedal would be bolted in place, so I had to drill some new holes in the pedal mounting.



The new pedal ends up about 7 or 8mm closer to the brake pedal. As it is in the photo above, it would be the same as the standard pedal. The advantage I have now is that I can fit spacers between the mounting plate and the new pedal. For now I've fitted about a 12mm spacer and it seems pretty good based on a few practice goes. The accelerator is level with the brake when I push down on it really hard. From here I can practice with it and then tweak the height as required.



Compared to some of the aftermarket pedals I've seen fitted, it doesn't look too bad. I don't think somebody looking in the car would immediately know that it's an aftermarket add on, and I can refit the original pedal back whenever I want.



Hopefully now I'll be able to master heel and toe in this car and make my braking on track a lot smoother. 

[Paul_M3]

Gibbo205 said:

Car looks superb mate!

Can I ask where you purchased the silencer from please? Any reduction in power noticed though car seems to go very well!

Thanks mate.

I did a guide about making the silencer here, with details of all the components: https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/115347...

There's no reduction in power or increase in backpressure. The silencer assembly is fully straight through with the same bore as the rest of the exhaust.

[Paul_M3]

RevsPerMinute said:

Looking good.

Personally I have never found the pedal positioning or shape to be a problem and H+T relatively easy in the recent S3 exiges.

That's interesting, as quite a few people have said they have issues compared to other cars they've owned.

Obviously it also comes down to individual techniques, foot size and various other factors.

[Paul_M3]

I've finally done a very common and very simple cosmetic mod; the gear knob numbers. I wasn't a huge fan of the bare engraved look, and always liked the photos I'd seen where people had painted the numbers. I wasn't sure what colour to go for, but as I had the blue touch up pen with a fine nib I thought I give it a go...

[Paul_M3]

I knew from my monitoring of the brake and tyre wear that the last track I did would be the final one on the existing set of pads.

Time to get the car up in the air again...



Pins out of the caliper, and out with the pads. Yep, I reckon I got the perfect amount of use out of those.



If anybody regularly does their own brakes, I highly recommend getting one of this piston spreader tools. Makes that part of the job so quick and easy.



Then it was time for the new pads. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to fit. The DS2500 work pretty well, they're quiet, and they're kind to discs. On the downside the don't bite that hard, tail off slightly when they get hot, and only last 4 days.

I didn't want to get anything that would be aggressive to the (very expensive) discs, so I made the decision to give Pagid RSL29's a shot. I've used these before on other cars and can't fault them for performance. The main downsides are price and noise. The price may be justifiable if they last longer than the DS2500's. Time will tell, and I will monitor wear closely.



To make them perform as well as possible, and bed them in nicely I decided to do the job properly and give the discs a bit of a resurfacing using a flex-hone tool I bought a while ago. This should remove the old pad transfer layer, and give a nice honed surface for the new pads.

Before:


After:


I also measured the discs very accurately while they were off so I can monitor how much they wear with the Pagids.

And finally all back together looking as good as new.

[Paul_M3]

JP__FOX said:

Where did you get that tool from? Wondering whether it'd be good for removing pad deposits...

I've had it a while, and that was the exact reason I bought it in the first place!

It's one of these: https://www.mscdirect.co.uk/FXR-60250E/SEARCH:KEYW...

There may be cheaper places to get it these days, there were limited suppliers when I bought mine.

[Paul_M3]

JP__FOX said:

Cheers, will take a look around as they still seem somewhat limited in supply. Do you use honing oil on the discs or go without?

I didn't bother with oil for just doing the discs. Although I think their generic guidance says use oil, I think that's really for their 'proper' honing tools for cylinder bores etc.

Saves worrying about needing to get all the oil out the grooves/holes in case it weeps out later. (Which obviously isn't ideal on a brake disc...)

[Paul_M3]

BertBert said:

Those pads are very worn! Perhaps personal choice, but I'd not go quite so low. Good job though!!

Nah, they’d have had another few hundred road miles in them if I wanted.

Joking aside, it’s not like I suddenly discovered them and was lucky. I do a full wheels off inspection after every track day and record the pad thickness (both inner and outer) each time. I knew how much material was left before the last track day I did, and how much wear would likely occur.

Performance does not noticeably drop off even with so little material left.

Edited to add - That’s not to say I haven’t made mistakes in the past…

Edited by Paul_M3 on Monday 22 November 20:09

[Paul_M3]

BertBert said:

I think that makes it worse! Deliberately running pads that low is a bad idea. Leads to overheating and the risk of mistakes. Not sure why you'd do it in the grand scheme of things. But hey ho, you use the car well for what it's supposed to do.
Cheers
Bert

That's definitely not an unreasonable comment, but my response would be;

You call it "running them low", but as an engineer I call it "Optimisation of replacement strategy based on previous degradation data"

Obviously that approach is only fine if you consider the risk of getting wrong to be relatively low. They are mild race pads designed to handle heat, and the performance wouldn't drop off a cliff. There was no sign of pad damage or crumbling during my routine inspections. If they overheated on track I'd start noticing pad fade. In reality, the performance was a strong that day as any other. (In fact, I did my best lap ever around Snetterton on those pads)

As to 'why?' Well a full set of those pads is £300. (The Pagids are over £500).

I had done 3 track days on them, and was very confident I could do one more before replacing them. Considering the replacement cost, that's exactly what I decided to do.

[Paul_M3]

Rocket. said:

A question I have regarding brakes was modulation, I struggled a bit into high speed corners to get the right amount of braking, was that just me? fwiw I am not sure which pads the experience cars are running but the cars were stickered up with 'Textar' so I assume road biased pads. Also struggled with heel and toe, my size 11 feet never seemed to be in the right place and regular trainers almost seem to big to drive in, have you tried out your new throttle pedal yet?

I haven't really struggled with modulation. I wonder if those cars do run different pads? The standard 410 pad is effectively Ferodo DS2500. (Albeit with an AP Racing part number on it)

I also struggle to drive it in my regular trainers which are pretty wide. Narrower shoes are definitely worth having for driving in.

I haven't tried the new pedal on track yet, but I did take the car to work and have a bit of a 'play'. Obviously it's not quite the same as being on track, but it definitely felt much much easier to get some sort of blip. Hopefully on track with a bit of practice I'll be able to get a consistent blip each time.

[Paul_M3]

Gibbo205 said:

Hi Paul

Just wanted to say thanks for the guide for the silencer, I followed it, works a treat, a big reduction in noise to my ears.
Took the car Donnington a week ago, silencer attached, valves open and zero issues the whole day with a noise level of 98Db driveby, so well happy, it works and cost less than £100 and means I get to keep the fruity factory 410 exhaust for driving on the road.

That’s great news. Did you use exactly the same parts as mine?

If so, keep me updated with any noise test results you get and if you use it with success on any of the stricter circuits.