Pauls Exige 410 Sport
Discussion
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.
Hi Gary.
I got these dust covers off eBay.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203635542633?mkcid=16&a...
They are big enough that they go over the bulbs and still leave a small amount of space for the air to circulate around the heat sink. I was concerned that the bulbs might get too hot, but they seem ok so far.
I got these dust covers off eBay.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203635542633?mkcid=16&a...
They are big enough that they go over the bulbs and still leave a small amount of space for the air to circulate around the heat sink. I was concerned that the bulbs might get too hot, but they seem ok so far.
It's been a little while since I updated this thread, but not much has really happened other than a couple of track days.
I did make one further tweak to the rear view mirror, as there was still parts of it that were pointless height wise. I basically masked up a bigger mirror so that the size perfectly matched the area worth looking at. The best comparison of original, version 1, and version 2 is stills from my track videos, as the camera is always in the same place. Forward visibility is much improved, and I can see just as much behind as I could with the OEM mirror.
I went to Cadwell Park on 24th May, and it was one of the quietest track days I've ever been on. There were only around 30 cars present. Weather forecast was terrible, which may have had something to do with it. In the end, it only started raining properly at 5pm. I had loads of clear laps, and managed to improve last years time by over 2 seconds.
https://youtu.be/WXZ8eFd363o
Last week I was back at Snetterton. This was a very mixed day weather wise. Wet, dry, wet and then dry again. No problems all day, and I managed to improve my Snetterton best by a fraction.
https://youtu.be/28O9bAhgJpg
As it was a Javelin day, I've got a few photos with needing to pay an arm and leg for them.
I met up with my friend Viren who I met last year at Donington. He's got an Exige 350 with Alias23 intake, 1-way Nitrons and Cup2 tyres. We had a few good sessions together, and I don't think there's much speed difference in a straight line between a 350 with Alias intake and 410! Our sessions together were in mixed conditions, getting drier as each one went on.
https://youtu.be/Yg4yWW7T-SY
https://youtu.be/5E76PL-jsCI
Other than that, not much to report. Car is working well, and I'm having lots of fun. Next week is Brands Hatch GP circuit with Lotus on Track. I'm hoping for good weather, as my rear Cup2's are now down to around 3mm of tread...
I did make one further tweak to the rear view mirror, as there was still parts of it that were pointless height wise. I basically masked up a bigger mirror so that the size perfectly matched the area worth looking at. The best comparison of original, version 1, and version 2 is stills from my track videos, as the camera is always in the same place. Forward visibility is much improved, and I can see just as much behind as I could with the OEM mirror.
I went to Cadwell Park on 24th May, and it was one of the quietest track days I've ever been on. There were only around 30 cars present. Weather forecast was terrible, which may have had something to do with it. In the end, it only started raining properly at 5pm. I had loads of clear laps, and managed to improve last years time by over 2 seconds.
https://youtu.be/WXZ8eFd363o
Last week I was back at Snetterton. This was a very mixed day weather wise. Wet, dry, wet and then dry again. No problems all day, and I managed to improve my Snetterton best by a fraction.
https://youtu.be/28O9bAhgJpg
As it was a Javelin day, I've got a few photos with needing to pay an arm and leg for them.
I met up with my friend Viren who I met last year at Donington. He's got an Exige 350 with Alias23 intake, 1-way Nitrons and Cup2 tyres. We had a few good sessions together, and I don't think there's much speed difference in a straight line between a 350 with Alias intake and 410! Our sessions together were in mixed conditions, getting drier as each one went on.
https://youtu.be/Yg4yWW7T-SY
https://youtu.be/5E76PL-jsCI
Other than that, not much to report. Car is working well, and I'm having lots of fun. Next week is Brands Hatch GP circuit with Lotus on Track. I'm hoping for good weather, as my rear Cup2's are now down to around 3mm of tread...
I haven't updated this for a while, as not too much of interest has been going on.
I did a track day at Brands Hatch GP which was a bit of a disaster really. The car went into limp mode, I got black flagged for noise, and I also felt really sick.
The limp mode issue turned out to be related to my charge coolant reservoir leaking. New one fitted and issue hasn't reappeared.
The following track day after that was back to Cadwell Park, and I had a great day with no issues at all.
After Cadwell I just had one more track day booked, and that was in November. Although my rear tyres still had a little bit of life left, I thought I'd play it safe and replace them. The risk of heavy rain and just over 2mm of tread on CUP2's was the deciding factor.
It was nice to see how evenly the tyres had worn though, suggesting that my geo settings are working well.
Last week was my final track day of the year, and my first time at the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit. I'd had this booked for ages, and I'd always wanted to do Silverstone. I took the risk of booking a November date as it was half the price of a summer date. Luckily the weather was cloudy, dry and about 13 degrees. in other words, the best I could have hoped for.
In actual fact, I've been hugely lucky with the weather all year. I think every track day I've done has been fully dry or partially dry. No fully wet days.
Lots of lovely cars there, and my mate brought his fairly rare Evora GT430 along. Was also nice to meet Eddie Cain and see his Exige back to its former glory.
I loved the circuit, and as the day went on I managed to build my speed up to a fairly respectable level.
This was a fun session before lunch with me, my mate, and Charles in his Exige 420 Final Edition.
https://youtu.be/wr6M90ObIg8
It got a bit quieter towards the end of the day as usual, and I managed to get a nice clear lap in.
https://youtu.be/VcGaHFqQsgQ
The was no static noise testing, and amazingly I went all day without needing to fit my additional silencer. (The same couldn't be said for the Evora, which has a Komotec kit fitted)
And so that's it for this year. I've done 9 track days in total, which is more than I've ever done in a year before. The car has been basically faultless with the exception of the coolant reservoir and I still struggle to imagine a car which would be better for what I want. Drive to a circuit in relative comfort, leave the car parked outside a hotel if needed, have loads of fast fun on track, and then drive home again with the air con on and Apple Carplay running.
The Pagid RS29 pads I fitted at the start of the year are still in the car, so they've lasted 9 days and still have some material left. I'm not sure if they'll do a 10th day as I haven't looked closely yet. They have also been kind to the discs, which show no obvious wear and no cracks.
The only thing I still want to do now is give it a good clean and spray a load of ACF50 anti corrosion around the suspension.
Oh, and I'm also toying with the idea of removing the headlight surround decals, as I'm starting to think that cars look better without them...
I did a track day at Brands Hatch GP which was a bit of a disaster really. The car went into limp mode, I got black flagged for noise, and I also felt really sick.
The limp mode issue turned out to be related to my charge coolant reservoir leaking. New one fitted and issue hasn't reappeared.
The following track day after that was back to Cadwell Park, and I had a great day with no issues at all.
After Cadwell I just had one more track day booked, and that was in November. Although my rear tyres still had a little bit of life left, I thought I'd play it safe and replace them. The risk of heavy rain and just over 2mm of tread on CUP2's was the deciding factor.
It was nice to see how evenly the tyres had worn though, suggesting that my geo settings are working well.
Last week was my final track day of the year, and my first time at the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit. I'd had this booked for ages, and I'd always wanted to do Silverstone. I took the risk of booking a November date as it was half the price of a summer date. Luckily the weather was cloudy, dry and about 13 degrees. in other words, the best I could have hoped for.
In actual fact, I've been hugely lucky with the weather all year. I think every track day I've done has been fully dry or partially dry. No fully wet days.
Lots of lovely cars there, and my mate brought his fairly rare Evora GT430 along. Was also nice to meet Eddie Cain and see his Exige back to its former glory.
I loved the circuit, and as the day went on I managed to build my speed up to a fairly respectable level.
This was a fun session before lunch with me, my mate, and Charles in his Exige 420 Final Edition.
https://youtu.be/wr6M90ObIg8
It got a bit quieter towards the end of the day as usual, and I managed to get a nice clear lap in.
https://youtu.be/VcGaHFqQsgQ
The was no static noise testing, and amazingly I went all day without needing to fit my additional silencer. (The same couldn't be said for the Evora, which has a Komotec kit fitted)
And so that's it for this year. I've done 9 track days in total, which is more than I've ever done in a year before. The car has been basically faultless with the exception of the coolant reservoir and I still struggle to imagine a car which would be better for what I want. Drive to a circuit in relative comfort, leave the car parked outside a hotel if needed, have loads of fast fun on track, and then drive home again with the air con on and Apple Carplay running.
The Pagid RS29 pads I fitted at the start of the year are still in the car, so they've lasted 9 days and still have some material left. I'm not sure if they'll do a 10th day as I haven't looked closely yet. They have also been kind to the discs, which show no obvious wear and no cracks.
The only thing I still want to do now is give it a good clean and spray a load of ACF50 anti corrosion around the suspension.
Oh, and I'm also toying with the idea of removing the headlight surround decals, as I'm starting to think that cars look better without them...
RevsPerMinute said:
I had always assumed the headlight black decal was paint as per the rear light panel no?
Nope, it's just a black decal.Item 29.
https://www.bellandcolvill.co.uk/deroure?qs=1&...
Did a little bit of work on the car last weekend.
First job was brake pads. The old ones had done 9 track days and were starting to get a bit low:
Now in reality I probably could have done one more track day with these, and certainly with the rear ones. But at this point I decided to just go ahead and replace them anyway.
I decided to stick with the Pagid RS29s as I've been more than happy with them. Good performance (including from cold), No noise, and seem to be relatively kind to discs. In terms of wear rates, averaged out, the front pads had worn at a rate of 0.92mm per track day, and the rears were 0.83mm per track day.
New ones ready to go on. To try and reduce noise as much as possible I always chamfer the edges, fit 3M anti-squeal rubber shims and use Ceratec brake grease.
Next job was one I'd been looking forward to doing, fitting some side skirts. I'd seen a few cars with skirts fitted and I am a big fan of the look.
Got the car up on the Race Ramps and then used my jack to position the skirts in place whilst marking the holes. Fitment then involved drilling some holes and fitting rivnuts. I did have a bit of a panic when I though I'd drilled into a coolant pipe, but it must have been rain water which had somehow entered the sill and got trapped.
Skirts are held in place with M6 bolts and large washers. When people fit these they go for different levels of 'aggressive' in terms of how far they stick out. I spent a while messing around with this before deciding on the final position, and I'm really pleased with the outcome. I think it compliments the front splitter nicely.
Now I'm just waiting to do my first track day of the year, which will be at Snetterton on March 12th.
First job was brake pads. The old ones had done 9 track days and were starting to get a bit low:
Now in reality I probably could have done one more track day with these, and certainly with the rear ones. But at this point I decided to just go ahead and replace them anyway.
I decided to stick with the Pagid RS29s as I've been more than happy with them. Good performance (including from cold), No noise, and seem to be relatively kind to discs. In terms of wear rates, averaged out, the front pads had worn at a rate of 0.92mm per track day, and the rears were 0.83mm per track day.
New ones ready to go on. To try and reduce noise as much as possible I always chamfer the edges, fit 3M anti-squeal rubber shims and use Ceratec brake grease.
Next job was one I'd been looking forward to doing, fitting some side skirts. I'd seen a few cars with skirts fitted and I am a big fan of the look.
Got the car up on the Race Ramps and then used my jack to position the skirts in place whilst marking the holes. Fitment then involved drilling some holes and fitting rivnuts. I did have a bit of a panic when I though I'd drilled into a coolant pipe, but it must have been rain water which had somehow entered the sill and got trapped.
Skirts are held in place with M6 bolts and large washers. When people fit these they go for different levels of 'aggressive' in terms of how far they stick out. I spent a while messing around with this before deciding on the final position, and I'm really pleased with the outcome. I think it compliments the front splitter nicely.
Now I'm just waiting to do my first track day of the year, which will be at Snetterton on March 12th.
GRC70 said:
Hi Paul, really appreciate this thread and all the useful info. Can you remember which wiper blade you sourced to replace the standard one? I have a 390 and would like to do the same. Thanks, Gordon
It was this one I think mate: Bosch Wiper Blade Aerotwin AR22U, Length: 550mm − Single Front Wiper Bladess https://amzn.eu/d/h1Cj38xI haven't updated this for a while, but seeing as it's cold and wet outside and it's the end of the year....
Unfortunately I've been quite busy this year with work and other things, so I haven't been out in the car as much as I'd like to have been. Hopefully next year I can get back to plenty of track days and summer drives.
I think since the last update, the earliest thing I did was install some rear carbon blades from Aerie Performance. I felt like these were the final missing piece of the puzzle to go with the front splitter and side skirts.
Installation was very simple, as the mounting holes were already present on my car. One hole needed to be opened out very slightly, but other than that they just bolted straight on. One of the easiest mods yet.
I was very happy with these, and I think that's now the end of the aesthetic modifications to the car.
Next up I added some protection to the underneath of the carbon splitter. Because I'm tight, I had a look around to see what alternatives there were to the standard Sliplo installation. I came across a cheaper version on Amazon and thought I'd give it a go. At the end of the day, as long as it stays stuck to the splitter then it will basically do its job.
I did a couple of tidy up jobs such as polishing up the exhaust...
And repainting the rusty boot stay bracket....
I did have a couple of minor issues with the car during the year. It started making a squealing noise which was related to engine speed rather than wheel speed. A brief investigation suggested that one of the idler pulleys for the drive belt was the culprit. I also had a wheel speed sensor fault. It went in to Hangar111 to be sorted as well as to have the wheel alignment reset as it hadn't been done since I first got the car.
After I got the car back, within a few days I took it to Snetterton for a test run to make sure all was good. Thankfully the car performed faultlessly, and it was great day. Cold and damp in the morning, but gradually drying out. There were also only about 25 people booked on for the day.
In the garage ready to go....
The car felt great that day, with the reset alignment clearly working well. I think the damp start to the day was actually a blessing. Most of my track days so far have been dry, so getting used to the car sliding around under in the damp gave me additional confidence to push a bit harder when it dried out later.
In one of the later sessions I was chasing a Ginetta race car which was great fun and also resulted in my best ever lap around Snetterton, a nice way to end track days for the year.
https://youtu.be/FRRfUoN8_XQ?si=gExCqaeY0voLdLO-
Whilst at Snetterton I got talking to a nice chap about tyre pressure monitoring. I find it shame that there's no way to see live readouts from our sensors, as it just makes life a little bit easier. You can see how quickly pressures are going up, and also how much they've dropped at the start of the next session. The chap I was speaking to said that he got some of the cheap external sensors from Amazon and that they weren't actually too bad. Based on that, I thought I'd have a little look, and ended up ordering these off eBay for £40
They weigh around 10g, so shouldn't be too much of an issue with wheel balancing (I get heavier chunks of rubber stuck to the rims than that). Now obviously they look a bit ridiculous, but a) they will only be installed when on track, and b) they still look far less ridiculous than my track exhaust!
They transmit directly to an App on you phone, no other equipment is required. My tyres had been pumped up to 29psi front and 32psi rear with my tyre pump, but not accurately checked with a gauge. When the sensors were installed these were the readings:
So they are within 0.5psi reading of each other across axles, and potentially 1 - 2psi low overall depending on the accuracy of my tyre pump. However, for what I want this is perfectly ok. The important information is how much the pressure is increasing or decreasing. As long as I know my baseline when I've set the tyres using my gauge I'll be able to tell when I need to keep coming in to bleed some air out.
That did lead to one final area that needed addressing. Because I have wireless Apple Carplay installed, I've never needed to bother with a phone holder. But the cheap app isn't Carplay compatible so I needed the phone to be mounted somewhere and ideally easy to glance at. Trying to find a solution that was neat, solid enough for a track day, and easily removable wasn't that easy. Whilst sitting there thinking about it I thought the ideal place would be next to the headunit screen, just angled towards the driver slightly. The headunit and the LCD screen are actually pretty strong and well engineered. The screen also has a metal plate at the back.....
Thin sheet, some magnets (which don't affect LCD screens) some glue, a dismantled magsafe mount, and a tin of black paint later, this was my new phone mount.
This will do the job nicely, and to be honest it looks subtle enough that I think I might just leave it in place permanently.
Cheap tablet photo of the phone in place:
And that is it for this year. I can't imagine that the car will move very much between now and spring. Hopefully next year I should have much more free time and will be aiming to do more track days and possibly some car meets. I think it's time I travelled a bit further afield and tried at least one track which I haven't done before too.
Unfortunately I've been quite busy this year with work and other things, so I haven't been out in the car as much as I'd like to have been. Hopefully next year I can get back to plenty of track days and summer drives.
I think since the last update, the earliest thing I did was install some rear carbon blades from Aerie Performance. I felt like these were the final missing piece of the puzzle to go with the front splitter and side skirts.
Installation was very simple, as the mounting holes were already present on my car. One hole needed to be opened out very slightly, but other than that they just bolted straight on. One of the easiest mods yet.
I was very happy with these, and I think that's now the end of the aesthetic modifications to the car.
Next up I added some protection to the underneath of the carbon splitter. Because I'm tight, I had a look around to see what alternatives there were to the standard Sliplo installation. I came across a cheaper version on Amazon and thought I'd give it a go. At the end of the day, as long as it stays stuck to the splitter then it will basically do its job.
I did a couple of tidy up jobs such as polishing up the exhaust...
And repainting the rusty boot stay bracket....
I did have a couple of minor issues with the car during the year. It started making a squealing noise which was related to engine speed rather than wheel speed. A brief investigation suggested that one of the idler pulleys for the drive belt was the culprit. I also had a wheel speed sensor fault. It went in to Hangar111 to be sorted as well as to have the wheel alignment reset as it hadn't been done since I first got the car.
After I got the car back, within a few days I took it to Snetterton for a test run to make sure all was good. Thankfully the car performed faultlessly, and it was great day. Cold and damp in the morning, but gradually drying out. There were also only about 25 people booked on for the day.
In the garage ready to go....
The car felt great that day, with the reset alignment clearly working well. I think the damp start to the day was actually a blessing. Most of my track days so far have been dry, so getting used to the car sliding around under in the damp gave me additional confidence to push a bit harder when it dried out later.
In one of the later sessions I was chasing a Ginetta race car which was great fun and also resulted in my best ever lap around Snetterton, a nice way to end track days for the year.
https://youtu.be/FRRfUoN8_XQ?si=gExCqaeY0voLdLO-
Whilst at Snetterton I got talking to a nice chap about tyre pressure monitoring. I find it shame that there's no way to see live readouts from our sensors, as it just makes life a little bit easier. You can see how quickly pressures are going up, and also how much they've dropped at the start of the next session. The chap I was speaking to said that he got some of the cheap external sensors from Amazon and that they weren't actually too bad. Based on that, I thought I'd have a little look, and ended up ordering these off eBay for £40
They weigh around 10g, so shouldn't be too much of an issue with wheel balancing (I get heavier chunks of rubber stuck to the rims than that). Now obviously they look a bit ridiculous, but a) they will only be installed when on track, and b) they still look far less ridiculous than my track exhaust!
They transmit directly to an App on you phone, no other equipment is required. My tyres had been pumped up to 29psi front and 32psi rear with my tyre pump, but not accurately checked with a gauge. When the sensors were installed these were the readings:
So they are within 0.5psi reading of each other across axles, and potentially 1 - 2psi low overall depending on the accuracy of my tyre pump. However, for what I want this is perfectly ok. The important information is how much the pressure is increasing or decreasing. As long as I know my baseline when I've set the tyres using my gauge I'll be able to tell when I need to keep coming in to bleed some air out.
That did lead to one final area that needed addressing. Because I have wireless Apple Carplay installed, I've never needed to bother with a phone holder. But the cheap app isn't Carplay compatible so I needed the phone to be mounted somewhere and ideally easy to glance at. Trying to find a solution that was neat, solid enough for a track day, and easily removable wasn't that easy. Whilst sitting there thinking about it I thought the ideal place would be next to the headunit screen, just angled towards the driver slightly. The headunit and the LCD screen are actually pretty strong and well engineered. The screen also has a metal plate at the back.....
Thin sheet, some magnets (which don't affect LCD screens) some glue, a dismantled magsafe mount, and a tin of black paint later, this was my new phone mount.
This will do the job nicely, and to be honest it looks subtle enough that I think I might just leave it in place permanently.
Cheap tablet photo of the phone in place:
And that is it for this year. I can't imagine that the car will move very much between now and spring. Hopefully next year I should have much more free time and will be aiming to do more track days and possibly some car meets. I think it's time I travelled a bit further afield and tried at least one track which I haven't done before too.
Hi Mark, thanks for the comments.
My alignment is this:
Front
Camber: -1°38'
Total Toe: -0°08' (toe out)
Rear
Camber -2°15'
Total Toe 0°40' (toe in)
No, I don't use the standard Nitron settings on track. I adjust them when I get there (apart from Rebound as I that's a bit of a pain. I just leave that on the settings below)
I actually use settings that I got off another forum, and they were ones recommended to him by a specialist. I must admit that with my basic knowledge of what the settings do, they seem a bit strange. But I tried them and they seem to give a nice balance so I haven't really tried messing with them.
These number a clicks from full hard:
Front:
Low Speed Compression: 4
High Speed Compression: 8
Rebound: 6
Rear:
Low Speed Compression: 8
High Speed Compression: 4
Rebound: 4
I also aim for tyre pressures of 29psi front and 31 - 32 psi rear. These are hot pressures. My tyre wear seems pretty even.
My alignment is this:
Front
Camber: -1°38'
Total Toe: -0°08' (toe out)
Rear
Camber -2°15'
Total Toe 0°40' (toe in)
No, I don't use the standard Nitron settings on track. I adjust them when I get there (apart from Rebound as I that's a bit of a pain. I just leave that on the settings below)
I actually use settings that I got off another forum, and they were ones recommended to him by a specialist. I must admit that with my basic knowledge of what the settings do, they seem a bit strange. But I tried them and they seem to give a nice balance so I haven't really tried messing with them.
These number a clicks from full hard:
Front:
Low Speed Compression: 4
High Speed Compression: 8
Rebound: 6
Rear:
Low Speed Compression: 8
High Speed Compression: 4
Rebound: 4
I also aim for tyre pressures of 29psi front and 31 - 32 psi rear. These are hot pressures. My tyre wear seems pretty even.
hypermark said:
Thanks Paul - really appreciate that. I need to get Hangar111 to set my car up in the New Year. Currently on factory settings which seem ok but I dont have the confidence to push on corner exit as the car wants to understeer too much for my liking.
No problem. :-) Yeah, that was exactly the issue that I was trying to resolve too. Mine is certainly a lot better now, although it still tends towards understeer on corner exit rather than oversteer. I think that can probably be further tuned out with damper settings if I played around. Increasing rear compression or front rebound would help (I think)
Autobantz said:
Enjoyed reading this thread. I’ve just been watching your YouTube vids, Paul. Great pedaling!
I just joined the Lotus fraternity after a lifetime of the usual German stuff.
Haven’t really used the car much, but I do live next door to Yas Marina GP circuit, so I’ll have to remedy that. Already. I’m looking at some Komo-Tec upgrades. The one thing I hoped for was a tiny bit more shove (I have a motorbike addiction also).
Have you upgraded the performance of your car? Any particular upgrades that you’d recommend?
Thanks for the comments. 🙂I just joined the Lotus fraternity after a lifetime of the usual German stuff.
Haven’t really used the car much, but I do live next door to Yas Marina GP circuit, so I’ll have to remedy that. Already. I’m looking at some Komo-Tec upgrades. The one thing I hoped for was a tiny bit more shove (I have a motorbike addiction also).
Have you upgraded the performance of your car? Any particular upgrades that you’d recommend?
No, I haven’t really made any performance upgrades to the car.
The only performance related upgrade I’ve really made is changing the brake pads to the Pagid RS29’s. I found the OEM pads a bit lacking in bite, and the Pagids also last much longer.
I’d certainly recommend getting the suspension alignment tweaked if you’re planning track days. Mainly more camber on the front.
Shnozz said:
Do you know how to go about painting the gear surround and the harness hole inserts in body colour?
I don’t I’m afraid mate. It’s not something that I’ve ever looked into, although I do have a vague recollection of reading that it’s very difficult to remove the harness inserts without breaking them. Well spring is here, and therefore it's time to start thinking about car stuff and track days again.
The MOT a couple of week ago showed I've only done 2275 miles in the last 12 months, mainly due to work and being away a lot of last summer. Hopefully it'll be a bit more this year.
I gave the car a bit of love over the last week or so;
Brake fluid change with some fresh Castrol SRF
While the wheels were off I gave the arches a good clean, and cleaned and coated the brake calipers
The wheels also got given a proper deep clean and then a fresh ceramic coating with Gtechniq C5
The next change was quite a significant one. At Snetterton in November I got my first warning for noise there, with me hitting 91.7dB on the drive by against a limit of 92dB. Apparently they check at different locations around the track, and on this day it was obviously very borderline for me even with my DIY silencer. Subsequent to this, I was reading on facebook track pages that people were getting sent home from Donington who had previously passed. When they questioned this, they were told the noise meters had been recalibrated and were now accurate. All of this worried me, as I really don't want to be getting sent home. I considered a Mk2 version of my DIY exhaust, but also had a good look at the official options. That was when I came across a the newest option available from South West Lotus. I messaged James at SWL who was incredibly helpful, and also spoke to Eddie who has got one but hasn't fitted it yet. I felt encouraged, and decided to bite the bullet.
The exhaust appears to be very well made, and is very good value for money. The cost was £900 + Postage. Except by sheer luck I saw it on their eBay page and I just happened to have a 10% discount on car parts through eBay at that time. So a brand new track exhaust cost me £810 plus postage.
So it was off with the old....
And this was where I hit a snag. There's a 90 degree bend which needs to be transferred to the new exhaust. The plan was to do this along with the clamp holding it on. Except it turns out that clamp is spot welded to the OEM exhaust. Unfortunately I needed to car to be operable so had to put everything back together. Offending parts...
With the a fresh clamp obtained, the entire job then took less than an hour from start to finish. The new exhaust is noticeably lighter than the OEM one. I got some scales out, and I think there's about a 4kg weight saving, with the new exhaust being around 11kg. The fitment was perfect, and the tips lined up perfectly in the centre of the grill cut out.
After first start up I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't really WANT to fit a quiet track exhaust and I was worried it would sound rubbish. But it still has a nice tone, a burble at low revs and sounds sporty. It was also noticeably quieter than the OEM exhaust at high revs. I decided to do some comparison testing and make a little video of it. (And yes, I know I sound like a farmer....)
https://youtu.be/lBU3ChkaHL8
Since then I've been at Snetterton and got some 'real' noise test results. It was 96dB on the static reading (well below the 105dB limit) and I didn't get any warnings for drive by. Overall I have to say I'm very happy with, and James at South West Lotus has been brilliant to deal with in all respects.
Clean and shiny ready to get on track:
Snetterton was very busy, fully booked up with 80 cars. It was a lovely day though with nice weather, lots of interesting cars and decent driving standards. A couple of obligatory videos below. One rear view only to show the new exhaust noise, and another of a full session with my mate who came along to his first ever track day.
https://youtu.be/8igMCXUqSOQ?si=AxRt_PgEw521JqsL
https://youtu.be/bIabK3dE178?si=JCfcRd5FdReez4O8
The MOT a couple of week ago showed I've only done 2275 miles in the last 12 months, mainly due to work and being away a lot of last summer. Hopefully it'll be a bit more this year.
I gave the car a bit of love over the last week or so;
Brake fluid change with some fresh Castrol SRF
While the wheels were off I gave the arches a good clean, and cleaned and coated the brake calipers
The wheels also got given a proper deep clean and then a fresh ceramic coating with Gtechniq C5
The next change was quite a significant one. At Snetterton in November I got my first warning for noise there, with me hitting 91.7dB on the drive by against a limit of 92dB. Apparently they check at different locations around the track, and on this day it was obviously very borderline for me even with my DIY silencer. Subsequent to this, I was reading on facebook track pages that people were getting sent home from Donington who had previously passed. When they questioned this, they were told the noise meters had been recalibrated and were now accurate. All of this worried me, as I really don't want to be getting sent home. I considered a Mk2 version of my DIY exhaust, but also had a good look at the official options. That was when I came across a the newest option available from South West Lotus. I messaged James at SWL who was incredibly helpful, and also spoke to Eddie who has got one but hasn't fitted it yet. I felt encouraged, and decided to bite the bullet.
The exhaust appears to be very well made, and is very good value for money. The cost was £900 + Postage. Except by sheer luck I saw it on their eBay page and I just happened to have a 10% discount on car parts through eBay at that time. So a brand new track exhaust cost me £810 plus postage.
So it was off with the old....
And this was where I hit a snag. There's a 90 degree bend which needs to be transferred to the new exhaust. The plan was to do this along with the clamp holding it on. Except it turns out that clamp is spot welded to the OEM exhaust. Unfortunately I needed to car to be operable so had to put everything back together. Offending parts...
With the a fresh clamp obtained, the entire job then took less than an hour from start to finish. The new exhaust is noticeably lighter than the OEM one. I got some scales out, and I think there's about a 4kg weight saving, with the new exhaust being around 11kg. The fitment was perfect, and the tips lined up perfectly in the centre of the grill cut out.
After first start up I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't really WANT to fit a quiet track exhaust and I was worried it would sound rubbish. But it still has a nice tone, a burble at low revs and sounds sporty. It was also noticeably quieter than the OEM exhaust at high revs. I decided to do some comparison testing and make a little video of it. (And yes, I know I sound like a farmer....)
https://youtu.be/lBU3ChkaHL8
Since then I've been at Snetterton and got some 'real' noise test results. It was 96dB on the static reading (well below the 105dB limit) and I didn't get any warnings for drive by. Overall I have to say I'm very happy with, and James at South West Lotus has been brilliant to deal with in all respects.
Clean and shiny ready to get on track:
Snetterton was very busy, fully booked up with 80 cars. It was a lovely day though with nice weather, lots of interesting cars and decent driving standards. A couple of obligatory videos below. One rear view only to show the new exhaust noise, and another of a full session with my mate who came along to his first ever track day.
https://youtu.be/8igMCXUqSOQ?si=AxRt_PgEw521JqsL
https://youtu.be/bIabK3dE178?si=JCfcRd5FdReez4O8
One other thing I forgot to mention in case any one was thinking it (as I was), was whether the new exhaust resulted in any loss of power.
I looked at my AIM data from when I was there in November with the OEM exhaust, and yesterday with the SWL one. This shows the acceleration / speed down the main back straight in 3rd, 4th and 5th gear. Green is November, Brown is yesterday. You can see the 4th gear traces perfectly align, and although my gear change was different, 5th gear traces follow the same curve. I think this gives a pretty good indication that there is no loss of power.
I looked at my AIM data from when I was there in November with the OEM exhaust, and yesterday with the SWL one. This shows the acceleration / speed down the main back straight in 3rd, 4th and 5th gear. Green is November, Brown is yesterday. You can see the 4th gear traces perfectly align, and although my gear change was different, 5th gear traces follow the same curve. I think this gives a pretty good indication that there is no loss of power.
Thought I'd just do a little update to this...
After Snetterton I decided to book a track day at Bedford Autodrome. I'd been there once previously in the Exige, but had to keep lifting off past the noise meters even with my old track silencer add-on fitted.
I thought I'd give it another try, although to be honest I was still partially expecting to trip at least one of the noise meters as they are so strict there.
It was a nice day weather wise, and there were a few other Exiges there.
I started off short shifting past the worst noise meter, and gradually increased the revs each time I went past to find the 'limit' of what I'd be able to do. I was pleased to discover that I could go fully revs and full throttle past every noise meter with the SWL exhaust which makes it more enjoyable. A lot of people don't like Bedford, but I think it has a nice mixture of corners and enough run off to let you push harder than at some other circuits.
It's a long circuit to learn and try and perfect, but I was starting to get there by the end of the day. I definitely want to go back and try to improve further now I know I have no noise concerns.
I also ended up giving a fellow Exige owner a lift home after he had a coming together with a BMW.....
A couple of clear laps from the day:
https://youtu.be/OdMQtsWLozI?si=pdAj7PA2548OHJJD
Next on the agenda was Cadwell Park, one of my favourite circuits. Complete opposite of Bedford, with lots of undulations and plenty of armco barriers in close proximity.
This ended up being one of the least enjoyable track days I've had for a while unfortunately.
Firstly, the day was incredibly busy. I've never really needed to queue up waiting to get out on circuit before, but I certainly did on this day. That aspect wasn't helped by the second issue....red flags. Lots and lots of them. And it was for all sorts. Cars breaking down, spinning on their own oil after a leak, a Mini caught fire, a BMW had a wheel come off, and finally a Clio t-boned a Toyota Corolla after the Corolla spun. I haven't seen car to car contact in 15 years of track days, and then it happened on two consecutive events!
After lunch I was hoping to actually get a decent amount of laps in. On my second afternoon session I pulled out of the pit area and then everything suddenly got very loud in terms of exhaust noise. I cruised back round to the pits, and began to investigate. This is what I found:
I was relieved to find that the exhaust pieces had just separated at the clamp. At this point I was hopeful to be back on track shortly. Unfortunately, although I managed to get the clamp back in position ok, as I was tightening the clamp back up one of the bolts seized. Subsequent removal has shown that the thread had picked up on the bolt and made a mess of itself. So unfortunately I didn't want to risk going back out on track. That meant an early pack up and a careful drive home. The Javelin photographer did manage to get a few nice shots though:
And a video of one of the sessions:
https://youtu.be/jcN0kJIFDWg?si=gpCTFZo_tdQ18Nvt
Yesterday I intended to fix the exhaust but the discovery of the stripped thread on the clamp bolt initially put a delay on that. (It seems to be an M11 x 1.75 bolt. Stupid size, nobody has those)
However, whilst have a general poke around under there I also spotted this:
The bracket has snapped off the y-pipe section. I don't know if the extra movement now possible contributed to the pieces pulling out of the clamp or not, but I need to get it sorted.
Other than that, the car hasn't missed a beat. I've currently got two more track days booked. One at the Lotus test track at Hethel, and the second at Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. I'm really looking forward to Brands. I love the GP circuit but had a few issues there last time (including failing the drive by noise meter). Fingers crossed this time will be better!
After Snetterton I decided to book a track day at Bedford Autodrome. I'd been there once previously in the Exige, but had to keep lifting off past the noise meters even with my old track silencer add-on fitted.
I thought I'd give it another try, although to be honest I was still partially expecting to trip at least one of the noise meters as they are so strict there.
It was a nice day weather wise, and there were a few other Exiges there.
I started off short shifting past the worst noise meter, and gradually increased the revs each time I went past to find the 'limit' of what I'd be able to do. I was pleased to discover that I could go fully revs and full throttle past every noise meter with the SWL exhaust which makes it more enjoyable. A lot of people don't like Bedford, but I think it has a nice mixture of corners and enough run off to let you push harder than at some other circuits.
It's a long circuit to learn and try and perfect, but I was starting to get there by the end of the day. I definitely want to go back and try to improve further now I know I have no noise concerns.
I also ended up giving a fellow Exige owner a lift home after he had a coming together with a BMW.....
A couple of clear laps from the day:
https://youtu.be/OdMQtsWLozI?si=pdAj7PA2548OHJJD
Next on the agenda was Cadwell Park, one of my favourite circuits. Complete opposite of Bedford, with lots of undulations and plenty of armco barriers in close proximity.
This ended up being one of the least enjoyable track days I've had for a while unfortunately.
Firstly, the day was incredibly busy. I've never really needed to queue up waiting to get out on circuit before, but I certainly did on this day. That aspect wasn't helped by the second issue....red flags. Lots and lots of them. And it was for all sorts. Cars breaking down, spinning on their own oil after a leak, a Mini caught fire, a BMW had a wheel come off, and finally a Clio t-boned a Toyota Corolla after the Corolla spun. I haven't seen car to car contact in 15 years of track days, and then it happened on two consecutive events!
After lunch I was hoping to actually get a decent amount of laps in. On my second afternoon session I pulled out of the pit area and then everything suddenly got very loud in terms of exhaust noise. I cruised back round to the pits, and began to investigate. This is what I found:
I was relieved to find that the exhaust pieces had just separated at the clamp. At this point I was hopeful to be back on track shortly. Unfortunately, although I managed to get the clamp back in position ok, as I was tightening the clamp back up one of the bolts seized. Subsequent removal has shown that the thread had picked up on the bolt and made a mess of itself. So unfortunately I didn't want to risk going back out on track. That meant an early pack up and a careful drive home. The Javelin photographer did manage to get a few nice shots though:
And a video of one of the sessions:
https://youtu.be/jcN0kJIFDWg?si=gpCTFZo_tdQ18Nvt
Yesterday I intended to fix the exhaust but the discovery of the stripped thread on the clamp bolt initially put a delay on that. (It seems to be an M11 x 1.75 bolt. Stupid size, nobody has those)
However, whilst have a general poke around under there I also spotted this:
The bracket has snapped off the y-pipe section. I don't know if the extra movement now possible contributed to the pieces pulling out of the clamp or not, but I need to get it sorted.
Other than that, the car hasn't missed a beat. I've currently got two more track days booked. One at the Lotus test track at Hethel, and the second at Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. I'm really looking forward to Brands. I love the GP circuit but had a few issues there last time (including failing the drive by noise meter). Fingers crossed this time will be better!
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