2007 Lotus 2-Eleven
Discussion
I've got a fair few booked this year:
Donington April
Anglesey May
Cadwell and Donington(Eve) June
Spa July
Hethel Sept
Oulton Oct
Silverstone Nov
Unfortunately (Fortunately??) I blew my load with Lotus on Track back in December when the calendar was released, and I haven't left myself much/any time to do some non-LOT days.
LOT is fantastic, but I have a few friends/family with non-Lotus who do the odd trackday so I'm a little annoyed with myself that I won't be able to join them.
Donington April
Anglesey May
Cadwell and Donington(Eve) June
Spa July
Hethel Sept
Oulton Oct
Silverstone Nov
Unfortunately (Fortunately??) I blew my load with Lotus on Track back in December when the calendar was released, and I haven't left myself much/any time to do some non-LOT days.
LOT is fantastic, but I have a few friends/family with non-Lotus who do the odd trackday so I'm a little annoyed with myself that I won't be able to join them.
Donington Update
I had a family trip away booked in the days leading up to Donny, so the car was parked up in the trailer ready to go a week ahead of time.
Whilst away, the postman dropped me off a present from Reverie.
It's something I've wanted on the car since day one. Although the 2-Eleven is not at Radical levels of engineered downforce, you can see that Lotus made have an attempt to generate a bit of downforce with it, with all of the body panels being custom for the car... with the exception of the rear wing fitted to the 'road' spec cars.
The road wing is, as far as I know just leftovers from the Exige S1 production line. Does a job, but by all accounts it's a fair bit draggy at the angle the car was delivered with in order to balance out the aero a bit.
The GT4 race cars came with something much more purposeful, a proper ironing board job. There are a couple of companies reproducing them to the same (or at least very similar) specs, and there's a fair bit of CFD info on them too for proper geeking out. I spoke to Reverie at the start of the year, and after deliberating on the dimensions a bit I opted for this. It's a 300mmx1400mm wing, in "low drag" configuration.
With it sat in my garage the day before Donny, I couldn't resist squeezing into the back of the trailer and bolting it on.
On it's flattest setting, in theory it should add a little bit of downforce but generate less drag than the previous 'road' wing on it's factory middle setting.
To be clear, this was 98% a styling modification. I'm nowhere near tuned into this car enough to start chasing downforce on what is at the end of the day, a pretty agricultural setup from Lotus. But if I can gain a little bit of top speed on the big GP circuits by shedding a bit of drag, then that would be a nice benefit.
From what I could see poking out of the back of the trailer, I loved it... but I'd have to wait till' the next day to see it properly.
It felt bloody nice to be hitching up the trailer in daylight, I'm not sure how I tolerate Winter...
Trip over was uneventful, and arrived just in time to get signed on and unloaded with some minutes to spare to tighten up the fasteners on the wing(!) before going out for sighting laps.
It was a sessioned day shared with MSVT, so we had 20mins of Lotus on Track, 20mins of MSVT cars and 20mins of MSVT bikes rotating throughout the day. I'd not done a full sessioned day before, it was 'ok' - I wouldn't avoid a trackday in future just because it was sessioned, but if all other factors are equal I do prefer OPL.
If anything the day felt a bit rushed, you came in - had a chat, ran to the bog and then before you knew it, it was time to queue up again to go out. Not only that, but the track was then busier as everyone was out at once, every time. Made it very hard to get a clean lap in but it was still a lot of fun, I probably ended up with more track time than I would have done left to my own schedule on OPL.
My only mechanical failure came on the sighting laps. Yes, I forgot to take my plate off again... yes, it fell off. That's the third rear plate this car has claimed.
Luckily it didn't hit anyone...
I saw my second 3-Eleven in as many weeks too, would be rude not to get a few photos of the two generations lined up.
Great bit of kit, and seriously fast too. Absolutely vanished after a fleeting moment of sharing some track with each other.
It was to be another social day with a couple of passengers, love sharing this car with others - as it's a bit of a sensory overload and so hard to explain in words.
The car was feeling fantastic on the track, expected to feel a bit mugged by the more powerful V6 cars at Donny, particularly dragging up the hill but the 2-Eleven held it's own and was able to just about say in touch with all but the fastest of the 6 cylinder cars.
I'm still trying to figure out Craners'. It's the sort of corner where 90mph can feel utterely terrifying and 100mph can feel safe as houses just due to a slight deviation of approach angle. The way the camber falls away from you on turn-in just does not come across in videos or photos at all, but it's really unsettling if you catch it wrong. I know I have loads of time to gain through here, especially when I do finally get it 'right' and realise I'm then barelling into the old hairpin 10mph faster than normal, which leads to me over slowing and losing more time than I gained from being brave in Craners! I'll get there eventually.
Elsewhere on the track I felt I was pushing the car a bit more, trailbraking into Redgate was getting better and better as the day went on. Coppice was a lot of fun too, found later in the day that I could just leave it in fourth, brake hard and turn in -and as soon as I was pointing at the apex I could floor it in fourth all the way around the corner and be at the thick end of 100mph whilst still in the corner... crazy stuff, and really paid dividends down the back straight where I was almost 10mph up on my last visit there in my Exige.
Brakes as ever, astonishing. Nothing really to add, I'm slowly creeping up to their limits on trackdays now and not leaving quite so much on the table - but still occasionally have a lapse in concentration and brake far too soon, leading to a snails pace through the corner.
Had a slight hiccup on the session before lunch, and went out without enough fuel in the car so had to cut that one short. Seemed like a very fuel heavy circuit so it caught me out a bit.
Got gassed up over lunch, and the sun came out for the afternoon. Even did a session without a fleece on, lovely stuff.
I checked the oil at some point, nothing to report. But another excuse to post a wing photo.
The day quickly drew in on us, and finished the last session with a dead GoPro. Wouldn't be a trackday update without complaining about GoPros.
I did get some footage from the penultimate session, which turned out to be one of the quieter ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUoeLh2W6gE
It's a shame I didn't get the last one though, as we were the last car (I think?) to go out, so was a great session of weaving through the traffic trying to chase as many cars down as possible.
Really happy with everything, never felt like I needed to make any change to the car all day - it was just working.
Anglesey up next in a couple of weeks, so will probably just clean it, fuel it and roll it back into the trailer. Happy days.
For fun a little comparison to my Exige, I had to cut the log short on the back straight as Exige was on the GP layout and this was the national layout, but still pretty indicative of the differences.
(Green is 2-Eleven)
Have to defend the Exige a little bit, it's not as bad as it looks - I'd only done a short evening of sessions on a very hot day, so didn't really get my teeth into the circuit until this week.
I had a family trip away booked in the days leading up to Donny, so the car was parked up in the trailer ready to go a week ahead of time.
Whilst away, the postman dropped me off a present from Reverie.
It's something I've wanted on the car since day one. Although the 2-Eleven is not at Radical levels of engineered downforce, you can see that Lotus made have an attempt to generate a bit of downforce with it, with all of the body panels being custom for the car... with the exception of the rear wing fitted to the 'road' spec cars.
The road wing is, as far as I know just leftovers from the Exige S1 production line. Does a job, but by all accounts it's a fair bit draggy at the angle the car was delivered with in order to balance out the aero a bit.
The GT4 race cars came with something much more purposeful, a proper ironing board job. There are a couple of companies reproducing them to the same (or at least very similar) specs, and there's a fair bit of CFD info on them too for proper geeking out. I spoke to Reverie at the start of the year, and after deliberating on the dimensions a bit I opted for this. It's a 300mmx1400mm wing, in "low drag" configuration.
With it sat in my garage the day before Donny, I couldn't resist squeezing into the back of the trailer and bolting it on.
On it's flattest setting, in theory it should add a little bit of downforce but generate less drag than the previous 'road' wing on it's factory middle setting.
To be clear, this was 98% a styling modification. I'm nowhere near tuned into this car enough to start chasing downforce on what is at the end of the day, a pretty agricultural setup from Lotus. But if I can gain a little bit of top speed on the big GP circuits by shedding a bit of drag, then that would be a nice benefit.
From what I could see poking out of the back of the trailer, I loved it... but I'd have to wait till' the next day to see it properly.
It felt bloody nice to be hitching up the trailer in daylight, I'm not sure how I tolerate Winter...
Trip over was uneventful, and arrived just in time to get signed on and unloaded with some minutes to spare to tighten up the fasteners on the wing(!) before going out for sighting laps.
It was a sessioned day shared with MSVT, so we had 20mins of Lotus on Track, 20mins of MSVT cars and 20mins of MSVT bikes rotating throughout the day. I'd not done a full sessioned day before, it was 'ok' - I wouldn't avoid a trackday in future just because it was sessioned, but if all other factors are equal I do prefer OPL.
If anything the day felt a bit rushed, you came in - had a chat, ran to the bog and then before you knew it, it was time to queue up again to go out. Not only that, but the track was then busier as everyone was out at once, every time. Made it very hard to get a clean lap in but it was still a lot of fun, I probably ended up with more track time than I would have done left to my own schedule on OPL.
My only mechanical failure came on the sighting laps. Yes, I forgot to take my plate off again... yes, it fell off. That's the third rear plate this car has claimed.
Luckily it didn't hit anyone...
I saw my second 3-Eleven in as many weeks too, would be rude not to get a few photos of the two generations lined up.
Great bit of kit, and seriously fast too. Absolutely vanished after a fleeting moment of sharing some track with each other.
It was to be another social day with a couple of passengers, love sharing this car with others - as it's a bit of a sensory overload and so hard to explain in words.
The car was feeling fantastic on the track, expected to feel a bit mugged by the more powerful V6 cars at Donny, particularly dragging up the hill but the 2-Eleven held it's own and was able to just about say in touch with all but the fastest of the 6 cylinder cars.
I'm still trying to figure out Craners'. It's the sort of corner where 90mph can feel utterely terrifying and 100mph can feel safe as houses just due to a slight deviation of approach angle. The way the camber falls away from you on turn-in just does not come across in videos or photos at all, but it's really unsettling if you catch it wrong. I know I have loads of time to gain through here, especially when I do finally get it 'right' and realise I'm then barelling into the old hairpin 10mph faster than normal, which leads to me over slowing and losing more time than I gained from being brave in Craners! I'll get there eventually.
Elsewhere on the track I felt I was pushing the car a bit more, trailbraking into Redgate was getting better and better as the day went on. Coppice was a lot of fun too, found later in the day that I could just leave it in fourth, brake hard and turn in -and as soon as I was pointing at the apex I could floor it in fourth all the way around the corner and be at the thick end of 100mph whilst still in the corner... crazy stuff, and really paid dividends down the back straight where I was almost 10mph up on my last visit there in my Exige.
Brakes as ever, astonishing. Nothing really to add, I'm slowly creeping up to their limits on trackdays now and not leaving quite so much on the table - but still occasionally have a lapse in concentration and brake far too soon, leading to a snails pace through the corner.
Had a slight hiccup on the session before lunch, and went out without enough fuel in the car so had to cut that one short. Seemed like a very fuel heavy circuit so it caught me out a bit.
Got gassed up over lunch, and the sun came out for the afternoon. Even did a session without a fleece on, lovely stuff.
I checked the oil at some point, nothing to report. But another excuse to post a wing photo.
The day quickly drew in on us, and finished the last session with a dead GoPro. Wouldn't be a trackday update without complaining about GoPros.
I did get some footage from the penultimate session, which turned out to be one of the quieter ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUoeLh2W6gE
It's a shame I didn't get the last one though, as we were the last car (I think?) to go out, so was a great session of weaving through the traffic trying to chase as many cars down as possible.
Really happy with everything, never felt like I needed to make any change to the car all day - it was just working.
Anglesey up next in a couple of weeks, so will probably just clean it, fuel it and roll it back into the trailer. Happy days.
For fun a little comparison to my Exige, I had to cut the log short on the back straight as Exige was on the GP layout and this was the national layout, but still pretty indicative of the differences.
(Green is 2-Eleven)
Have to defend the Exige a little bit, it's not as bad as it looks - I'd only done a short evening of sessions on a very hot day, so didn't really get my teeth into the circuit until this week.
Paul_M3 said:
It was a great day, and really nice to meet you and see the car.
I started going through my footage last night, and I've definitely got some of you on track. I'll probably upload most of the LoT sessions to Youtube for anyone interested.
I'm sure I've got some if you and the 3-11 together in front of me.
Likewise, seen one of your videos already. Said it before, but love your camera/mic positioning. I started going through my footage last night, and I've definitely got some of you on track. I'll probably upload most of the LoT sessions to Youtube for anyone interested.
I'm sure I've got some if you and the 3-11 together in front of me.
Scoobydrew95 said:
Fantastic choice of wang. Another great update - very cool to see this being used in anger on a regular basis.
Thank you! I love itsnotrag said:
Great footage that.
I presume the car is cornerweighted based on Driver only - how do you find it with a pax?
In my lowly ~130hp S2 on its soft suspension and tyres, another bloke sat next to you is VERY noticeable in terms of mass and performance!
Yes it's corner balanced for solo occupant but I haven't actually driven it on track yet this year without a passenger! It certainly doesn't drive badly 2 up, but there's a definite performance loss. Obviously the lighter you go, the more punishing a passenger becomes.. I presume the car is cornerweighted based on Driver only - how do you find it with a pax?
In my lowly ~130hp S2 on its soft suspension and tyres, another bloke sat next to you is VERY noticeable in terms of mass and performance!
On the laps I did solo last year, everything just feels sharper and more on its toes. Acceleration more fierce, turn in is more aggressive, and braking is even more mental than it is with a passenger. Arbitrarily I'd say a passenger is worth a couple of seconds at most tracks.
MTW said:
Amazing how much difference a more purposeful wing looks! It’s only after seeing the new one that you notice the normal one is a bit piddly. Looks fantastic
Yep I kept glancing the car and forgetting it was mine! It's very different, but looks very right to my eye. I love it.Paul_M3 said:
I've now uploaded a few laps from our 10am session.
The video at this point onwards has some footage of you and James in his 3-11 together on track.
https://youtu.be/RZngz9exZfo?t=448
Awesome, I'll try to cling on a little longer for more screen time next time The video at this point onwards has some footage of you and James in his 3-11 together on track.
https://youtu.be/RZngz9exZfo?t=448
Yazza54 said:
The trick to craners is often keeping it pinned, the absolute worst thing to do is lift as you start to drop into it.. Most cars will go down there flat in my experience but it's a confidence thing.
Agreed. 2-Eleven would almost certainly go in flat but it would not be without excitement. I imagine it would be the thick end of 125mph if you tried it.The Turn itself is a bit of a pussycat, but that little camber transition you have to do at turn-in is just really, really unnerving. I Can see why it spits so many cars into the gravel, but as you say - I'd bet these are mostly panic lifts rather than the car just leaping off the track.
I lied a bit when I said the car would just get cleaned before Anglesey, and found a couple of jobs to tick off.
First off, an aim to stop running GoPros flat.
A 12v - 5v step down thing which I can hard wire in at the battery (via an ignition live relay) and then directly connect two GoPros at once. Whenever the car is running, they'll be charging.
My battery box is starting to hide an ever increasing nest of accessory wiring, something I need to neaten up - but it's all fused and safe, so happy with it for now.
One USB will go straight up to the normal GoPro on the rollover bar, along with the external mic wire:
All sort of hidden away
The other USB will go through the engine bay, up through a panel gap (thanks Lotus) and to a rear mounted GoPro which hasn't left my camera bag for about 12 trackdays now. Just need to figure out where to mount it.
Next up I turned my attention to harnesses. I noticed a few weeks ago that my driver harness was missing the anti-submarining (ASM) yellow patch on the inside shoulder.
Not sure why, maybe it predates ASM, but I think more likely these shoulder straps were potentially from a previous 6 point installation, where of course the ASM attributes are much less important.
I'd planned to address this with a full harness swap, probably to 6point but I got a good inexpensive interim solution when some ASM shoulder straps came up for sale on their own.
All in, a bit safer. Still will try not to crash.
Next, the new rear wing got some attention. When assembling it I noted that the end plates would not be particularly watertight.
Washing the car and/or driving in bad weather would probably end up in some moveable ballast collecting inside the wing - so got to work on a solution.
Neoprene
All done
Final job, brake pads. I noticed they were getting close at Donny.
That finishes off the various part worn Pagid pads that I had in my collection, so time to stick some fresh stuff in for the first time. I'd been a bit of a Carbotech convert on my Exige, they have an initial bite which I find reassuring but we'll have to see if that translates to something a bit too harsh in the 2-Eleven which already feels like it will stand up on its nose if it slows any harder.
They're the XP8 from their range.
Pad swap is the work of a moment nowadays, almost feels like I'm getting good at something.
I followed the bedding in instructions on a quick road test, first three stops were very lethargic and then like someone has flicked a switch, they activate and sent me hurtling into my new shoulder straps. Really good first impression in the 2-Eleven.
I'd wager that they have similar outright performance to the Pagid RS14 but the early phase bite they have gives the illusion of a much more effective pad when not using the full force of the middle pedal.
They are expensive, though
That's about it. I did wash the car, I'll hoover the dead Donny bees out of the footwell and that should about do it for next week. Getting excited.
Anglesey Update!
You can probably copy and paste the opening paragraph of this from the last four years. Anglesey has asserted itself as my favourite fixture on the calendar, despite the fact we've had monsoon conditions every time we've been.
There's something about Anglesey, driving over the M62 and out of the dull/flat of central Yorkshire where I live, and slowly seeing the glorious Snowdonia national park unfold out infront of me as I toddle along with my trailer. The 4 hour drive was broken up by a meet and catchup with @MrP80 at Chester Services, and an appreciated stay with another friend who resides in what must be one of the most beautiful parts of a beautiful Country.
This friend has recently equipped himself with a sequential Caterham R500 and would be joining in for the day, recreating 2/3rds of an old track test that Harris, Jethro and Dickie did at this very circuit back when these cars were new. Potato Video here if you're interested:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT2W1cpxqX4. It 's a sickening reminder that I paid more than RRP for a 16 year old car though
The forecast was lots of rain in the AM, with maybe a less wet afternoon. Again this is a repeat of every single Anglesey I've done.
I was secretly looking forward to the wet, I had a really good time here last October time in similar conditions and the variable TC on the 2-Eleven was providing loads of fun, and allowing me to push my luck considerably. This year I'd be here with a similar variable TC, but one I had tuned/programmed myself - so I was expecting some work on it, but excited at the prospect of testing it properly.
You'd think I'd be good at packing for trackdays by now, but I forgot a couple of items which made the day slightly less pleasant.
1. Clear visor for my helmet
2. The remote I'd just bought and tested for my GoPro to prevent those "is it or isn't it recording right now" moments in the pit lane queue
3. My waterproof romper suit...
We drove to the circuit in the rain, and got the cars tucked up in the garage ASAP to keep as dry as possible, for as long as possible.
It was raining steadily for the sighting laps, I pulled out of the garage into the queue to find that the laps would be done in two groups, and group 1 had just set off... so there I sat for 8 or 9 mins in the rain, stationary in the pits. Not a great start!
Sighting laps done, I'd stayed surprisingly dry once I got moving and it was soon onto the first session. Shod with AD08R tyres as my 'all weather' option, I set off with my TC mode set to 'fully intrusive' at 10 on the dial.
My strategy for the TC tuning was to preset a wide range of config before I left home, and try to find two settings throughout the day:
1. A nanny mode that would allow almost no slip, and could be used as my maximum setting.
2. A Playful mode that would allow me to slide the car, and deploy enough torque to keep the rears spinning enough to sustain a bit of a slide
As the car is still with an open differential, I configure the TC to bias the slip measurement from the slowest of the driven wheels. This means it doesn't start going mental when the inside rear flares up, and it pays closer attention to the outside wheel instead.
I have 10 settings to play with, setting #1 being "off", so 9 levels of granularity.
Across the settings I can change four parameters:
1. Slip target (difference between driven and undriven axle)
2. Torque Reduction modifier
The PID controller in the ECU would measure slip against slip target, then come up with a "torque reduction" value. It is then on me as the tuner to say what happens at any given level of torque reduction. Here we dovetail in the following two parameters:
1. Ignition retard
2. Fuel Cut events
Obviously a well setup system will slowly ramp in ignition retard to dull the power without that 'papapapapap' of the more intrusive cut events, but then as the torque reduction demand increases, the papapapap is gradually feathered in.
My settings looked something like this:
So if the ECU was demanding a 22% decrease in torque, I would get 7 degrees of ignition timing reduced, and 9% of my ignition events would be cut (via fuel cut). The ignition retard then flatlines at 12degrees from 44% and above because I don't want to melt any valves from a sustained period of intervention - and fuel cut ramps up.
When switching my knob, a multiplier is applied to the torque reduction output:
So at Pos 5, if the ECU returns a 20% reduction in torque, then 20% is what I get.
At Pos10, if the ECU returns the same 20% reduction in torque, I actually get 28%
At Pos1, if the ECU returns the same 20% reduction in torque, I actually get 14%
etc etc.
This was setup to give me a wide range to play with, and I could try a different setting on every corner rather than getting the laptop out between sessions.
What I ended up figuring out quite quickly is that anything from setting 10-5 was pretty intrusive and didn't allow much in the way of fun. Setting 4 allowed a bit of slip, but very quickly got things back in line. It also didn't let me sustain a slide because it dulled the power too much. Setting 3 was my sweetspot, where I'd stay for the rest of the day.
As I don't have any stability management, you can definitely still spin the car on any setting. Getting a Lotus to slide is primarily about being too fast on entry, and pivoting round - rather than using power to break traction. They're generally over gripped and under powered, outside of the more extreme variations.
Anyway, back to the day - the first session lasted exactly one outlap, then I got black flagged. I'd done a little bit of a skid on the hairpin just as part of my aforementioned TC exploring, but surely not a flaggable offense?!
I got in to be told my new GoPro setup was not allowed. I could not have any cameras 'outside the silhouette of the car', which in a 2-Eleven is quite difficult... I was also told that my rear facing camera was not allowed, even though it sat within the silhouette of the rear wing - there's apparently a flat out ban now on external cameras which is a shame, but rules are rules.
After reshuffling my cameras, it was back out and I steadily lapped the morning sessions in varying degrees of rainfall. Got very wet, but had a blast.
The Caterham looked like an absolute murderer in the wet. Using the sequential box at part throttle with the engine a little 'rough' when also at part load (a property of the TBs apparently) made it a bit of a handful, with the car happily spinning up the wheels in a straight line during most gear changes. Pretty terrifying, but Paul was handling it brilliantly.
A little spin on entry to the hairpin was the worst the morning had to offer after a sequential downshift locked up the rears. Definitely a steep learning curve from the sequential box.
The rain worsened over lunch, so we kept our heads down and tried to dry out socks/shoes/etc the best we could.
Right on schedule, the rain drifted away and after a couple of post-lunch damp sessions, dry lines started to appear. We went out for a fairly long session as the track was drying and the AD08R went from 'entertaining' to 'frustrating' quite quickly as I was trying to put together sensible laps, it was just sliding all over the place. Couple of examples here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6hH3y5RgY
At this point Paul and his R500 was a distant spec on the horizon (actually, I think he was behind me - but no question I was holding him up big time) so I came in, and decided to stick the AR1 on.
In the half hour or so it took me to get swapped over, the track had completely dried. It clearly wasn't as grippy as it would be on a warm/dry day - but the AR1 instantly switched on. Within the second corner of the outlap I could feel a totally different car under me. Brakes felt assertive, turn in sharp, bags of traction.
Reviewing video afterwards, my 'quickest' lap on the overheating AD08 was a 1.57. My very first hotlap on the AR1 while the tyres were still cold etc was a 1.47, and by the end of the session they were almost an additional 7 seconds quicker. The difference was mind blowing, and it was a lot of fun.
This video is a back to back comparison of a rainy morning session, vs the first AR1 session in the afternoon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkb5aZ_Zos
The Pos3 on the TC was a little limiting here, where I could enter the hairpin fast enough to rotate the rears around, I couldn't quite get enough power down to sustain it. I think this is a combination of being one gear higher, and also the TC not allowing enough slip at that speed. I think in hindsight I should have gone down one more setting to prove the theory.
Inevitably, this happened. Maybe more than once...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMXgwZE1N1U
We wrapped up a successful day, on the AR1s the 2-Eleven was once again able to keep touch with the R500 and despite very different approaches to performance, they were both very similar over a lap. The Caterham smashing me in a straight line, but a little exposed under braking. Both very similar in the slow corners.
Towed home without drama, and the sun came out the following day to allow me to start drying everything out...
My plan for the TC now is to adjust all of the scaling and make the previous Pos3 my new Pos5. Pos10 will remain my road setting, Pos5 will become my wet trackday setting and I think somewhere between Pos3 and Pos1(off) will be used in the dry.
You can probably copy and paste the opening paragraph of this from the last four years. Anglesey has asserted itself as my favourite fixture on the calendar, despite the fact we've had monsoon conditions every time we've been.
There's something about Anglesey, driving over the M62 and out of the dull/flat of central Yorkshire where I live, and slowly seeing the glorious Snowdonia national park unfold out infront of me as I toddle along with my trailer. The 4 hour drive was broken up by a meet and catchup with @MrP80 at Chester Services, and an appreciated stay with another friend who resides in what must be one of the most beautiful parts of a beautiful Country.
This friend has recently equipped himself with a sequential Caterham R500 and would be joining in for the day, recreating 2/3rds of an old track test that Harris, Jethro and Dickie did at this very circuit back when these cars were new. Potato Video here if you're interested:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT2W1cpxqX4. It 's a sickening reminder that I paid more than RRP for a 16 year old car though
The forecast was lots of rain in the AM, with maybe a less wet afternoon. Again this is a repeat of every single Anglesey I've done.
I was secretly looking forward to the wet, I had a really good time here last October time in similar conditions and the variable TC on the 2-Eleven was providing loads of fun, and allowing me to push my luck considerably. This year I'd be here with a similar variable TC, but one I had tuned/programmed myself - so I was expecting some work on it, but excited at the prospect of testing it properly.
You'd think I'd be good at packing for trackdays by now, but I forgot a couple of items which made the day slightly less pleasant.
1. Clear visor for my helmet
2. The remote I'd just bought and tested for my GoPro to prevent those "is it or isn't it recording right now" moments in the pit lane queue
3. My waterproof romper suit...
We drove to the circuit in the rain, and got the cars tucked up in the garage ASAP to keep as dry as possible, for as long as possible.
It was raining steadily for the sighting laps, I pulled out of the garage into the queue to find that the laps would be done in two groups, and group 1 had just set off... so there I sat for 8 or 9 mins in the rain, stationary in the pits. Not a great start!
Sighting laps done, I'd stayed surprisingly dry once I got moving and it was soon onto the first session. Shod with AD08R tyres as my 'all weather' option, I set off with my TC mode set to 'fully intrusive' at 10 on the dial.
My strategy for the TC tuning was to preset a wide range of config before I left home, and try to find two settings throughout the day:
1. A nanny mode that would allow almost no slip, and could be used as my maximum setting.
2. A Playful mode that would allow me to slide the car, and deploy enough torque to keep the rears spinning enough to sustain a bit of a slide
As the car is still with an open differential, I configure the TC to bias the slip measurement from the slowest of the driven wheels. This means it doesn't start going mental when the inside rear flares up, and it pays closer attention to the outside wheel instead.
I have 10 settings to play with, setting #1 being "off", so 9 levels of granularity.
Across the settings I can change four parameters:
1. Slip target (difference between driven and undriven axle)
2. Torque Reduction modifier
The PID controller in the ECU would measure slip against slip target, then come up with a "torque reduction" value. It is then on me as the tuner to say what happens at any given level of torque reduction. Here we dovetail in the following two parameters:
1. Ignition retard
2. Fuel Cut events
Obviously a well setup system will slowly ramp in ignition retard to dull the power without that 'papapapapap' of the more intrusive cut events, but then as the torque reduction demand increases, the papapapap is gradually feathered in.
My settings looked something like this:
So if the ECU was demanding a 22% decrease in torque, I would get 7 degrees of ignition timing reduced, and 9% of my ignition events would be cut (via fuel cut). The ignition retard then flatlines at 12degrees from 44% and above because I don't want to melt any valves from a sustained period of intervention - and fuel cut ramps up.
When switching my knob, a multiplier is applied to the torque reduction output:
So at Pos 5, if the ECU returns a 20% reduction in torque, then 20% is what I get.
At Pos10, if the ECU returns the same 20% reduction in torque, I actually get 28%
At Pos1, if the ECU returns the same 20% reduction in torque, I actually get 14%
etc etc.
This was setup to give me a wide range to play with, and I could try a different setting on every corner rather than getting the laptop out between sessions.
What I ended up figuring out quite quickly is that anything from setting 10-5 was pretty intrusive and didn't allow much in the way of fun. Setting 4 allowed a bit of slip, but very quickly got things back in line. It also didn't let me sustain a slide because it dulled the power too much. Setting 3 was my sweetspot, where I'd stay for the rest of the day.
As I don't have any stability management, you can definitely still spin the car on any setting. Getting a Lotus to slide is primarily about being too fast on entry, and pivoting round - rather than using power to break traction. They're generally over gripped and under powered, outside of the more extreme variations.
Anyway, back to the day - the first session lasted exactly one outlap, then I got black flagged. I'd done a little bit of a skid on the hairpin just as part of my aforementioned TC exploring, but surely not a flaggable offense?!
I got in to be told my new GoPro setup was not allowed. I could not have any cameras 'outside the silhouette of the car', which in a 2-Eleven is quite difficult... I was also told that my rear facing camera was not allowed, even though it sat within the silhouette of the rear wing - there's apparently a flat out ban now on external cameras which is a shame, but rules are rules.
After reshuffling my cameras, it was back out and I steadily lapped the morning sessions in varying degrees of rainfall. Got very wet, but had a blast.
The Caterham looked like an absolute murderer in the wet. Using the sequential box at part throttle with the engine a little 'rough' when also at part load (a property of the TBs apparently) made it a bit of a handful, with the car happily spinning up the wheels in a straight line during most gear changes. Pretty terrifying, but Paul was handling it brilliantly.
A little spin on entry to the hairpin was the worst the morning had to offer after a sequential downshift locked up the rears. Definitely a steep learning curve from the sequential box.
The rain worsened over lunch, so we kept our heads down and tried to dry out socks/shoes/etc the best we could.
Right on schedule, the rain drifted away and after a couple of post-lunch damp sessions, dry lines started to appear. We went out for a fairly long session as the track was drying and the AD08R went from 'entertaining' to 'frustrating' quite quickly as I was trying to put together sensible laps, it was just sliding all over the place. Couple of examples here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6hH3y5RgY
At this point Paul and his R500 was a distant spec on the horizon (actually, I think he was behind me - but no question I was holding him up big time) so I came in, and decided to stick the AR1 on.
In the half hour or so it took me to get swapped over, the track had completely dried. It clearly wasn't as grippy as it would be on a warm/dry day - but the AR1 instantly switched on. Within the second corner of the outlap I could feel a totally different car under me. Brakes felt assertive, turn in sharp, bags of traction.
Reviewing video afterwards, my 'quickest' lap on the overheating AD08 was a 1.57. My very first hotlap on the AR1 while the tyres were still cold etc was a 1.47, and by the end of the session they were almost an additional 7 seconds quicker. The difference was mind blowing, and it was a lot of fun.
This video is a back to back comparison of a rainy morning session, vs the first AR1 session in the afternoon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkb5aZ_Zos
The Pos3 on the TC was a little limiting here, where I could enter the hairpin fast enough to rotate the rears around, I couldn't quite get enough power down to sustain it. I think this is a combination of being one gear higher, and also the TC not allowing enough slip at that speed. I think in hindsight I should have gone down one more setting to prove the theory.
Inevitably, this happened. Maybe more than once...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMXgwZE1N1U
We wrapped up a successful day, on the AR1s the 2-Eleven was once again able to keep touch with the R500 and despite very different approaches to performance, they were both very similar over a lap. The Caterham smashing me in a straight line, but a little exposed under braking. Both very similar in the slow corners.
Towed home without drama, and the sun came out the following day to allow me to start drying everything out...
My plan for the TC now is to adjust all of the scaling and make the previous Pos3 my new Pos5. Pos10 will remain my road setting, Pos5 will become my wet trackday setting and I think somewhere between Pos3 and Pos1(off) will be used in the dry.
Cheers Gents, yeah was lots of fun.
Something I forgot to mention, in the preflight checks before my trackday I found the Accusump wasn't working again.
When clicking the key to power on the car, as there's no oil pressure in the engine - a pressure switch should fire, open the accusump valve and let it discharge into the engine preoiling it before cranking. This wasn't happening, which also meant the AS wouldn't release oil under an oil surge event on track either.
I wasn't too concerned, it happened before (it was dead when I bought the car) and a new sensor is inexpensive. I proved it was the sensor by bridging the wires, which caused it to discharge. I also had a baffled sump, so I was doubling up on protection anyway.
I asked around on a 2-Eleven group to be almost unanimously told to rip the accusump out. They're prone to failure, not just the pressure switch but also prone to leaking, sometimes catestrophically.
I'm torn, I love the fact it has an Accusump because it's a bit of a Lotus Motorsport stamp, and some geeky bragging rights in my own little world... but it's a heavy bit of kit, doubles the cost of my oil changes and I've had it fail twice in a year... so hardly reliable.
Still deciding what to do here...
Something I forgot to mention, in the preflight checks before my trackday I found the Accusump wasn't working again.
When clicking the key to power on the car, as there's no oil pressure in the engine - a pressure switch should fire, open the accusump valve and let it discharge into the engine preoiling it before cranking. This wasn't happening, which also meant the AS wouldn't release oil under an oil surge event on track either.
I wasn't too concerned, it happened before (it was dead when I bought the car) and a new sensor is inexpensive. I proved it was the sensor by bridging the wires, which caused it to discharge. I also had a baffled sump, so I was doubling up on protection anyway.
I asked around on a 2-Eleven group to be almost unanimously told to rip the accusump out. They're prone to failure, not just the pressure switch but also prone to leaking, sometimes catestrophically.
I'm torn, I love the fact it has an Accusump because it's a bit of a Lotus Motorsport stamp, and some geeky bragging rights in my own little world... but it's a heavy bit of kit, doubles the cost of my oil changes and I've had it fail twice in a year... so hardly reliable.
Still deciding what to do here...
jeremyc said:
s there a dry sump option that you could look at installing as the ultimate upgrade?
Yep dry sump kits are available but $$$$$ (Cost of 2 or 3 engines). Worthwhile protecting the investment of an expensive build, but a bit overkill for a standard engine.I'm really happy with my Seriously Lotus baffled sump, data logs prove that it's working better than any sump I've had on my other Lotus cars. Accusump is just for cool points really
Yazza54 said:
Do you have adjustable bars and dampers? She looks a bit snap oversteery.
Yeah Front ARB and independent comp/rebound on dampers.I'm not too fussed about making setup changes for the wet, the laps/clips I uploaded are not necessarily a fair representation of the car, the wet lap was extremely wet and it was more just an excercise of seeing the traffic through the spray and logging as much slip as I could for the TC tinkering. Was very slow on entry and overly ambitious on exit to exaggerate that a bit.
When trying to string together a vaguely smooth lap in the wet, the car felt pretty good. Loads of understeer on entry but can alter the angle of the car dead easily with throttle. The first banked hairpin was fantastic for this, understeered all the way round so it looks total crap on camera, but in the car I was constantly tweaking the actual trajectory with the throttle, constantly hovering between under and over steer. I'm a long way from knowing what I'm talking about, but I imagine a proper driver could extract a hell of a lot of speed out of this car in the wet.
A-ha I follow you now.
It may be a technique thing but I've always felt like all my Lotus cars have been weakest when turning in. I most likely need to work on my trailbraking a bit to transition off the brakes a bit smoother.
In terms of the setup of the car, its probably something I should look at eventually. So far all I've done is stuck the car in the 'track mode' according to the Lotus Motorsports manual, and tried to keep variables as few as possible. At Anglesey the grip was drastically different from lap to lap, so was hard to be particularly consistent or scientific. Got some trackdays coming up though at familiar tracks which will hopefully be very dry and very boring, so I can start digging into it a bit.
It may be a technique thing but I've always felt like all my Lotus cars have been weakest when turning in. I most likely need to work on my trailbraking a bit to transition off the brakes a bit smoother.
In terms of the setup of the car, its probably something I should look at eventually. So far all I've done is stuck the car in the 'track mode' according to the Lotus Motorsports manual, and tried to keep variables as few as possible. At Anglesey the grip was drastically different from lap to lap, so was hard to be particularly consistent or scientific. Got some trackdays coming up though at familiar tracks which will hopefully be very dry and very boring, so I can start digging into it a bit.
MJK 24 said:
I don’t usually bother with any of the Elise based threads but this has been a fantastic read! Really enjoyed it and will continue to follow.
Thank you, on behalf of the Elise based community 
Seamus54 said:
I have only just come across this thread and I have found it fascinating. I also have a 2-Eleven with some of the same mods such as a GT4 wing, baffled sump and Pro Alloy charge cooler.
Keep up the good work!
Great stuff, I was surprised to find how few 2-Eleven cars have gone for a chargecooler. Keep up the good work!
I'd let my MOT lapse as I just didn't get time to sort prior to Anglesey, but today was the big day.
I don't plan on using the car too much on the road*, but it's nice to have the option.
To my local test centre, good bunch of lads and I only ever use them for MOT's but I have confidence that they do test my stuff properly knowing that I'm a fan of taking my cars to bits regularly.
The Emissions were the only area of concern, with the EMU Black and 2bular sports cat combo I'd had a rocky history, my Exige initially needing a map tweak to get through and then the following year not going through at all due to a fluctuating idle messing up the lambda readings.
This year I'd done my driveway testing, was confident that my lambda was at least in order - so it would be up to the catalyst to see if the other stuff fell into place.
Oh, I'd also had to buy yet another rear plate!
As expected, car flew through all the usual tests after a giggle about ingress/egress and finding the start button. All too soon it was time to get the emissions rig out.
I've talked about this before, but both tuners I've used have pretty much neglected the MOT testing conditions on the two cars I've had mapped, and I've seen many others in the community that are the same. MOT's test emissions under "fast idle" conditions which is at 2500rpm with no load on the engine, which puts the fuel table into an area that just wouldn't be active under normal driving conditions, so you have to specifically map this area just for MOT purposes.
After learning all this a couple of MOT's ago, I spent some time driveway tuning it. I can't measure CO or HC at home, but I can peg the throttle electronically and hold 2500rpm and use my lambda sensor to keep it at 1.0 lambda (0.03 tolerance either way).
With this setup, I had to just hope the MOT sensor agreed with mine.... which it did!
Initially the Lambda and HC readings were bang on spec, CO needed the cat to warm up a little bit - but soon was right in the centre of it's tolerance. Happy days.
Tester was surprised, I was relieved, car had passed.
I took the back roads home, got my foot down a bit. *I mentioned earlier about not planning much road use but Christ this car is hilarious on a back road. Had my dampers in track settings, tyres a bit low on pressure but it was an absolute monster and had me giggling after just a couple of miles.... maybe I will use it a bit on the road.
Got the car home and safe, pinging away and proudly road legal again... plate only just survived the trip though
I don't plan on using the car too much on the road*, but it's nice to have the option.
To my local test centre, good bunch of lads and I only ever use them for MOT's but I have confidence that they do test my stuff properly knowing that I'm a fan of taking my cars to bits regularly.
The Emissions were the only area of concern, with the EMU Black and 2bular sports cat combo I'd had a rocky history, my Exige initially needing a map tweak to get through and then the following year not going through at all due to a fluctuating idle messing up the lambda readings.
This year I'd done my driveway testing, was confident that my lambda was at least in order - so it would be up to the catalyst to see if the other stuff fell into place.
Oh, I'd also had to buy yet another rear plate!
As expected, car flew through all the usual tests after a giggle about ingress/egress and finding the start button. All too soon it was time to get the emissions rig out.
I've talked about this before, but both tuners I've used have pretty much neglected the MOT testing conditions on the two cars I've had mapped, and I've seen many others in the community that are the same. MOT's test emissions under "fast idle" conditions which is at 2500rpm with no load on the engine, which puts the fuel table into an area that just wouldn't be active under normal driving conditions, so you have to specifically map this area just for MOT purposes.
After learning all this a couple of MOT's ago, I spent some time driveway tuning it. I can't measure CO or HC at home, but I can peg the throttle electronically and hold 2500rpm and use my lambda sensor to keep it at 1.0 lambda (0.03 tolerance either way).
With this setup, I had to just hope the MOT sensor agreed with mine.... which it did!
Initially the Lambda and HC readings were bang on spec, CO needed the cat to warm up a little bit - but soon was right in the centre of it's tolerance. Happy days.
Tester was surprised, I was relieved, car had passed.
I took the back roads home, got my foot down a bit. *I mentioned earlier about not planning much road use but Christ this car is hilarious on a back road. Had my dampers in track settings, tyres a bit low on pressure but it was an absolute monster and had me giggling after just a couple of miles.... maybe I will use it a bit on the road.
Got the car home and safe, pinging away and proudly road legal again... plate only just survived the trip though
I know I know... I'll just bite the bullet and bolt it on, but I really wanted to avoid holes in my rear plinth
Quick Accusump update. The 2-Eleven community (all 5 of them) unanimously voted that I take the accusump off, and throw it in the bin.
The baffled sump that I have means it's highly unlikely that the accusump will ever be needed (outside of it's fringe benefit of preoiling the engine before cranking) and they're prone to failure, which means I may be just lugging around its dead weight occasionally like I was at Anglesey.
For some reason though, I like it. It's a bit of Lotus Motorsport bling and I can't come to terms with scrapping it yet. It may go in the future when I have the car in bits and I want to lose a few KG, but for now... I'm fixing it.
Dead easy with a new pressure switch from Seriously Lotus:
Swapping is the work of a minute, just some PTFE and in we go.
As expected, it worked a treat and the accusump is now operational again. I may have already come up with a plan to make this pressure switch redundant though...
The 2ZZ in Elise/Exige format comes equipped with a heat soak pump, a small electric water pump that circulates coolant through the heater circuit if the car is ever powered off whilst coolant temp is very high (triple digits). I'm fairly sure the 2-Eleven won't have this pump because it has no heater circuit, which means there's a redundant switch to ground output sat right next to the accusump, already wired into the ECU! I'll have a proper look later, but if that's the case - I'll just replug the accusump wiring to match the redundant plug in the engine bay, connect it up and change the heatsoak pump logic in the ECU to trigger when oil pressure falls below a certain threshold, job jobbed.
This has the benefit too that I'll effectively be datalogging whenever the accusump triggers, so I can say with confidence that it is indeed redundant after a large enough sample size.
Quick Accusump update. The 2-Eleven community (all 5 of them) unanimously voted that I take the accusump off, and throw it in the bin.
The baffled sump that I have means it's highly unlikely that the accusump will ever be needed (outside of it's fringe benefit of preoiling the engine before cranking) and they're prone to failure, which means I may be just lugging around its dead weight occasionally like I was at Anglesey.
For some reason though, I like it. It's a bit of Lotus Motorsport bling and I can't come to terms with scrapping it yet. It may go in the future when I have the car in bits and I want to lose a few KG, but for now... I'm fixing it.
Dead easy with a new pressure switch from Seriously Lotus:
Swapping is the work of a minute, just some PTFE and in we go.
As expected, it worked a treat and the accusump is now operational again. I may have already come up with a plan to make this pressure switch redundant though...
The 2ZZ in Elise/Exige format comes equipped with a heat soak pump, a small electric water pump that circulates coolant through the heater circuit if the car is ever powered off whilst coolant temp is very high (triple digits). I'm fairly sure the 2-Eleven won't have this pump because it has no heater circuit, which means there's a redundant switch to ground output sat right next to the accusump, already wired into the ECU! I'll have a proper look later, but if that's the case - I'll just replug the accusump wiring to match the redundant plug in the engine bay, connect it up and change the heatsoak pump logic in the ECU to trigger when oil pressure falls below a certain threshold, job jobbed.
This has the benefit too that I'll effectively be datalogging whenever the accusump triggers, so I can say with confidence that it is indeed redundant after a large enough sample size.
Paul_M3 said:
It’s also the reason it’s important to get it on the right side, so that you twist towards the door. Having it the wrong way round could result in the driver and passenger twisting towards each other (in theory).
Yep, this. Schroth updated their documentation fairly recently to say it no longer mattered which side they went on. I don't understand why, maybe assuming a solo occupant but I'd always keep the yellow patch on the inside, just in case.
I still fancy dropping 6 point harnesses in, need some seats with holes in the base but the rest of the holes/hardware is already in the 2-Eleven ready to go.
Steve H said:
Interesting stuff thanks chaps 
BTW, not trying to distract from your thread Fonzey but put some sunglasses on and tell how you like the new wrap.
Love it! At least we won't get them mixed up with each other BTW, not trying to distract from your thread Fonzey but put some sunglasses on and tell how you like the new wrap
.Blyton Update,
This trackday wasn't on my agenda for the year - I got bullied into it. It was a private club day at Blyton Park organised by Jonny @ Performance Autocare. Did his day last year, and it was great fun with very low numbers - giving almost exclusive access to the circuit for most of the day.
Weather forecast looked good, car was feeling good, and hopefully would be an opportunity to see what I could do around Blyton after my last day got cut short due to my ECU faffing.
The day also had the benefit of seeing my old Exige lap around too.
I'll cut to the chase on this one, because I didn't take many photos and there's not a huge amount to write about but:
- Day was fantastic, ran well, very relaxed and good manners from everyone on track
- Rarely saw another car on circuit, makes for boring footage but great for putting the car (and myself) through its paces
- In session 1 I was already right on my best pace for Blyton, so felt like it was going to be a strong day. I usually gain 4-5 seconds as the day progresses.
- In session 2 I'd smashed my PB by over 2 seconds (according to footage, etc), but had a couple of moments so toned it down a bit after that
- Sessions 3 and 4 were more of the same, settled into a groove and got some really consistent laps in. From what my footage has showed me, I had five laps on the trot within half a second of each other. All of which quicker than my previous PB but still a second or so down from my total best.
By late morning the sun was out and it was getting proper hot. Kept an eye on the car, but nothing needed my attention.
This is easily the closest I've been to 10/10ths in the 2-Eleven, but there's still more to come. I was pushing harder and harder into braking zones, and exposed a few weaknesses in the car/setup for the first time in the dry. Main observations were:
- Rear a bit light on entry, but fairly sure this is all technique. Not quite getting off the brakes smoothly enough. Where I left a bit on the table with brakes, and got on the throttle earlier - the rear was planted
- Quite big understeer mid corner. Still driveable, and didn't feel like it was slowing me down too much. I think I prefer this, it feels safer and allows me to push harder.
- Open differential exposed on exit, flaring the inside rear on a few corners. I was able to keep this in check by keeping the TC on a very relaxed setting, which just dulled the power enough to keep the spinning to a minimum.
It's the first time since buying the 2-Eleven where I felt I could go faster with an LSD.
IAT's crept up a bit by late morning, which has given me something to think about. With my 2.9" supercharger pulley, I can get to 300bhp but I'm spending 95% of my time in the 'slower' map which is closer to 270-280ish. Problem is, the blower is still working just as hard so I'm carrying the IAT penalty for that. It's still well within safe limits, and I'm only losing a degrees or so of timing advance which is barely perceptible... but if I get to the end of the year and I'm still not brave enough to put 300bhp through the gearbox regularly, I may be better stepping the pulley size up a bit and going back to a single map with lower IATs. Food for thought.
Got to lunch time feeling pretty good, gave the tyres a quick check and visual inspection of the brakes, then found this.
End of day, the crack could have been there for a while for all I knew, or it could be brand new. Either way, there's no way I could push on knowing it was there, and I didn't want it to get worse and cheese grate my brand new Carbotech pads, which aren't cheap! So car went back on the trailer.
I did have options to go home in the Volvo and retrieve some spares I had, or even pop over to Seriously Lotus and get some new ones - but by the time I'd done this, fitted them, bedded in, etc- it would have been nearly home time.
I've had this happen once before on my Exige, different discs (grooved rather than drilled) and different pads (Pagid RS14 vs Carbotech XP8). First time was considered unlucky, second time it's making me want to put a plan together to avoid future issues. Still thinking about that, but I'm sure it will form a future update.
Day was far from ruined, nice environment to sit and get sunburned. Got a passenger session in my old Exige which felt fantastic.
I think this is the best lap from the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtMk1jejhGk
I think short term, some similar discs will go back on the car but I'll maybe carry some spares with me.
Edited by Fonzey on Tuesday 23 May 12:41
EmBe said:
Me too, it's far more interesting for the reader than 'As everone knows, the car does xyz so I put a,b and c on it so that doesn't happen, hammered round the track and went home....'
Your approach would drive me mad personally, which is why I bought my track/road car fully resolved by others but as a reader this thread is always a 'go to' when I see an update.
I'll do my best to keep that going then. The challenge I had with the 2-Eleven is that it's my third 111' based car now, so I've learned a lot of lessons on previous cars, which is why this car maybe felt a bit like I was just aiming the parts-cannon at it over Winter. Happy to say though that I'm now into new territory, and learning with everyone else as I find new limits.Your approach would drive me mad personally, which is why I bought my track/road car fully resolved by others but as a reader this thread is always a 'go to' when I see an update.
There are a few things I've "always wanted to do" in my various Lotus, which I'll soon be addressing on the 2-Eleven.
I took the cracked disc off at the weekend, put the good one from the NSR onto the NSF and put a crappy old lipped one on the NSR (would rather trash a rear pad than a front one) so I could take the car to the NYLOC meet at the weekend.
Went, didn't take any photos, caught up with some people.
Got home and decided to clean off the Blyton scum, and also give my suspension/wheel arches a quick blast just to see how the new coatings are getting on after almost six months (already!!).
I didn't get too harsh with any cleaning products, just a quick spritz with a heavily diluted Bilt Hamber Surfex stuff and a snow foaming as the rest of the car got done. Everything still looking good under there, I'd opted against painting the trackrod ends and balljoint caps for this refurb. They normally rust with the first sign of water, so historically had blobbed them with some silver hammerite. This time I just stuck a few coats of Bilt Hamber Dynax UC on it, till it got really waxy. Seems to have done the job.
I did find though that the OSF disc was on its way too, so this definitely isn't some fluky material failure - there's a lack of capacity to shed the heat I'm generating on these discs.
Whether I could manage this better with driving style? Not sure, I am pretty disciplined with warmup and cooldown laps, but perhaps I need to be better. They are basic, entry level discs as I've never wanted for more brake performance - but perhaps this needs changing.
Dragged a rag over the rest of the car too, but didn't take any clean photos. Just trust me!
The car is driveable as it sits, but next outing is Donny on 13th June. I'm still collecting thoughts/parts for the brake solution, but if I can't get everything organised in time I may just have to throw some more disposable cheap discs on to get me through the next trackday or two... and I'll pack spares.
New update, pretty exciting one for me as I've been waiting for these for ages. Arguably since I bought my first Elise back in 2016 or whenever it was.
I've decided to upgrade my seats for a few reasons, in order of importance:
- Mainly bling factor, the Tilletts are very cool
- Get better hold of me on track
- Allow me to add a harness crotch strap later
- Get rid of the OEM seat rail and the slop in the driver runner.
- Easy/quick to dry when car has been washed or I've been to Anglesey
- Lose a bit of weight
Tillett do a range of seats applicable for a Lotus, some with compromise, some more road focussed, others more track/race focussed and the particular model I've gone for is the B6 Screamer XL.
In an Elise/Exige the higher sides make ingress/egress a little difficult (but far from impossible) but in a 2-Eleven I crane myself in from above, so these have no real downside in that regard.
Tillett make/sell padded inserts for these. I've given them a miss for now because that would just bring me back to soaking up a load of water when I wash the car, but depending on how I get on, they may feature later.
The B6 Screamer is FIA certified, not something I'm chasing for particularly but it's reassuring to have.
There are a fair few carbon seat options out there, some of which are considerably lighter than even these... so knowing they've passed some sort of test is something I find comforting.
In terms of weight, obviously I should factor in the seat rails to that too - but I've gone for the Tillett EBS fixed rails for both sides. You can mount Tilletts onto OEM runners with the right combination of brackets, but I'm the only person who ever drives this and I don't need to slide the seat back and forth for easy access as I would in an Exige, so seemed like a no brainer to save a bit of weight and get a properly fixed seat.
The total weight saving across both seats and rails is 4.6kg. The seats themselves are not THAT light for carbon, mainly because they're part carbon and part GRP, but also I assume for the FIA stiffness tests.
Though fixed, the runners have a lot of combinations for front/back adjustment in addition to seat height and angle.
The quality of the seats themselves are fantastic, but all of the included hardware is just top notch too. Everything has been thought about, particularly with the access challenges of a Lotus chassis and the best effort has been made to make an awkward job just a little less awkward.
One of the my favourite bits are the aluminium bobbins in the seat which you bolt the seat rails too. The OEM seats always felt a bit flakey here (even though they're fine), and had to try hard not to imagine them under the stress of a frontal impact but the Tillett ones just ooze strength.
Onto fitment, Tillett sent me out some instructions ahead of time which to be honest blew my mind a bit. There was a lot of text, a lot of pictures and even a few diagrams - but for some reason the words I could understand in isolation - but put them all together in a sentence and I just wanted to go to bed.
With the parts in front of me, initially things got worse! The diagrams were subtly different to what I actually had, presumably due to product evolution but the general gist of how to approach an installation was there, so I cracked on.
The main challenges are that the Elise chassis has a bunch of holes drilled in the floor to allow for various combinations of LHD, RHD and seat position. The cabin isn't actually symmetrical and the passenger side gets less room to play with. This means the passenger holes are not "square" and allowances need to be made with the seat rail to accommodate this.
The passenger rails have 'joggles' to allow you to figure this out, but the general approach is:
- Get the floor rails in
- Bolt the side rails to the seat
- Offer the seat into the car, noting how far off the alignment is between floor and side rails
- Space out the side rails from the seat with the included nylon spacers until it all lines up
So lots of trial and error. The Guide does give you a recommended starting point, which I had to tweak properly as my transmission tunnel prevented me from using the recommended floor holes - but pretty soon I had the passenger seat in hand tight.
The passenger seat was probably in and out of the car 6 or 7 times to get this far, so I appreciated the lightweight nature of the seat... but was still a fair bit stiff the morning after! Due to the narrower nature of the passenger side, if going for the B6 Screamer XL you pretty much need the passenger seat as far back as it will possibly go to clear the transmission tunnel. I imagine this gets quite tight in an Elise/Exige with a harness bar.
I had to relocate my intercom slightly, but that's worked out better because I can actually access the knobs now!
Onto the driver side, this promised to be easier because the floor holes are all square, you can reach them all from above (the passenger side had some very difficult to access fixings in the front left) and as advertised, it was much, much easier.
I had it out maybe 3-4 times to finetune the seating position but soon got happy with a leg length. The seats are quite a lot lower than the Lotus seats on their rails which gave me a slight cause for concern as my front right corner is already a bit of a blindspot in the 2-Eleven due to how high up the clam comes, but I wanted to persist with it as I envisioned some other benefits to sitting lower. I could always raise the seat after a test drive if it was really bad.
Next up, I took them all out again...
Something I've been stewing over since ordering these months ago was how battered the carbon finish would get from climbing in and out of the car, bashing harness buckles and HANS devices against them, and stonechips on the unoccupied passenger side.
I reached out to no fewer than 7 of the most local PPF dealers from the big franchises like XPEL and nobody was even bothered about having a conversation about it. The best I got was an offer for some FoC offcuts to have a go myself, then even they ghosted me on the follow up. I mostly got ignored, no returned calls etc - but the one place that did engage in conversation just admitted they're only bothered about sticking precut templates onto supercars.
So if you're a PPF dealer in Yorkshire, shame on you - because you probably ignored me. Really soured me against the PPF industry in general.
Next step was to buy a roll and have a go myself... but even that's bloody hard! Seems like to buy a decent quantity of stuff you need to be a franchised dealer. Eventually I settled with https://www.grafityp.co.uk/grafiguard/paint-protec... I'm not a PPF expert, but I'd never heard of them. It was the only way I could find a reasonable sized roll so was worth a punt.
I had no idea how well PPF would work with the various compound curves of the seat base, but I had enough material to experiment so I started big.
Made a template of the whole base, cut a piece to size, then of course had absolutely no chance getting it right. Ripples all over the place as the seat curved in every possible direction. Any attempt to gently 'stretch' the film round a curve resulted in it lifting up from the base of the bowl... no chance.
Went to bed a bit annoyed, but woke up with a plan to do some more smaller, achievable bits:
This would in theory protect from HANS device and road debris.
This went much better, I ended up cutting that template into three and got some great results.
Over the next couple of days I took the approach of just piecing together smaller, more achievable bits. Slowly learning what could, and couldn't be done with my limited skillset. I eventually ended up with this:
I had enough left to do two large rectangles to go up the length of the back, either side of the spine - but I wanted to save enough to have a go at my rear wing too - so I'll do those bits later, probably with a future roll.
The driver seat was the experimental one, and the passenger seat learned a few lessons as a result. Neither is perfect, but the passenger seat is more than acceptable. The driver side has a few bubbles in the main base area, but not bad enough for me to peel it off and go again. I'd rather save the film and see how it weathers the next few weeks.
I could definitely make all of the templates better now that I know my tactic for coverage, and at some stage this will all get done again and will be significantly better, but I'm very happy with what I managed. Very difficult to see the PPF and the join lines etc, especially with the carbon weave backdrop.
It's hard to photograph, which is a good thing!
I had a trackday evening coming up, so would be an idea few hours to test out the seating position, but I did fancy some road mileage first just so I could get it somewhere close. TBC.
Quick footnote on brakes, working on a solution but for now just thrown some like for like 288mm discs back on to get me through Donny on tuesday night.
I've decided to upgrade my seats for a few reasons, in order of importance:
- Mainly bling factor, the Tilletts are very cool
- Get better hold of me on track
- Allow me to add a harness crotch strap later
- Get rid of the OEM seat rail and the slop in the driver runner.
- Easy/quick to dry when car has been washed or I've been to Anglesey
- Lose a bit of weight
Tillett do a range of seats applicable for a Lotus, some with compromise, some more road focussed, others more track/race focussed and the particular model I've gone for is the B6 Screamer XL.
In an Elise/Exige the higher sides make ingress/egress a little difficult (but far from impossible) but in a 2-Eleven I crane myself in from above, so these have no real downside in that regard.
Tillett make/sell padded inserts for these. I've given them a miss for now because that would just bring me back to soaking up a load of water when I wash the car, but depending on how I get on, they may feature later.
The B6 Screamer is FIA certified, not something I'm chasing for particularly but it's reassuring to have.
There are a fair few carbon seat options out there, some of which are considerably lighter than even these... so knowing they've passed some sort of test is something I find comforting.
In terms of weight, obviously I should factor in the seat rails to that too - but I've gone for the Tillett EBS fixed rails for both sides. You can mount Tilletts onto OEM runners with the right combination of brackets, but I'm the only person who ever drives this and I don't need to slide the seat back and forth for easy access as I would in an Exige, so seemed like a no brainer to save a bit of weight and get a properly fixed seat.
The total weight saving across both seats and rails is 4.6kg. The seats themselves are not THAT light for carbon, mainly because they're part carbon and part GRP, but also I assume for the FIA stiffness tests.
Though fixed, the runners have a lot of combinations for front/back adjustment in addition to seat height and angle.
The quality of the seats themselves are fantastic, but all of the included hardware is just top notch too. Everything has been thought about, particularly with the access challenges of a Lotus chassis and the best effort has been made to make an awkward job just a little less awkward.
One of the my favourite bits are the aluminium bobbins in the seat which you bolt the seat rails too. The OEM seats always felt a bit flakey here (even though they're fine), and had to try hard not to imagine them under the stress of a frontal impact but the Tillett ones just ooze strength.
Onto fitment, Tillett sent me out some instructions ahead of time which to be honest blew my mind a bit. There was a lot of text, a lot of pictures and even a few diagrams - but for some reason the words I could understand in isolation - but put them all together in a sentence and I just wanted to go to bed.
With the parts in front of me, initially things got worse! The diagrams were subtly different to what I actually had, presumably due to product evolution but the general gist of how to approach an installation was there, so I cracked on.
The main challenges are that the Elise chassis has a bunch of holes drilled in the floor to allow for various combinations of LHD, RHD and seat position. The cabin isn't actually symmetrical and the passenger side gets less room to play with. This means the passenger holes are not "square" and allowances need to be made with the seat rail to accommodate this.
The passenger rails have 'joggles' to allow you to figure this out, but the general approach is:
- Get the floor rails in
- Bolt the side rails to the seat
- Offer the seat into the car, noting how far off the alignment is between floor and side rails
- Space out the side rails from the seat with the included nylon spacers until it all lines up
So lots of trial and error. The Guide does give you a recommended starting point, which I had to tweak properly as my transmission tunnel prevented me from using the recommended floor holes - but pretty soon I had the passenger seat in hand tight.
The passenger seat was probably in and out of the car 6 or 7 times to get this far, so I appreciated the lightweight nature of the seat... but was still a fair bit stiff the morning after! Due to the narrower nature of the passenger side, if going for the B6 Screamer XL you pretty much need the passenger seat as far back as it will possibly go to clear the transmission tunnel. I imagine this gets quite tight in an Elise/Exige with a harness bar.
I had to relocate my intercom slightly, but that's worked out better because I can actually access the knobs now!
Onto the driver side, this promised to be easier because the floor holes are all square, you can reach them all from above (the passenger side had some very difficult to access fixings in the front left) and as advertised, it was much, much easier.
I had it out maybe 3-4 times to finetune the seating position but soon got happy with a leg length. The seats are quite a lot lower than the Lotus seats on their rails which gave me a slight cause for concern as my front right corner is already a bit of a blindspot in the 2-Eleven due to how high up the clam comes, but I wanted to persist with it as I envisioned some other benefits to sitting lower. I could always raise the seat after a test drive if it was really bad.
Next up, I took them all out again...
Something I've been stewing over since ordering these months ago was how battered the carbon finish would get from climbing in and out of the car, bashing harness buckles and HANS devices against them, and stonechips on the unoccupied passenger side.
I reached out to no fewer than 7 of the most local PPF dealers from the big franchises like XPEL and nobody was even bothered about having a conversation about it. The best I got was an offer for some FoC offcuts to have a go myself, then even they ghosted me on the follow up. I mostly got ignored, no returned calls etc - but the one place that did engage in conversation just admitted they're only bothered about sticking precut templates onto supercars.
So if you're a PPF dealer in Yorkshire, shame on you - because you probably ignored me. Really soured me against the PPF industry in general.
Next step was to buy a roll and have a go myself... but even that's bloody hard! Seems like to buy a decent quantity of stuff you need to be a franchised dealer. Eventually I settled with https://www.grafityp.co.uk/grafiguard/paint-protec... I'm not a PPF expert, but I'd never heard of them. It was the only way I could find a reasonable sized roll so was worth a punt.
I had no idea how well PPF would work with the various compound curves of the seat base, but I had enough material to experiment so I started big.
Made a template of the whole base, cut a piece to size, then of course had absolutely no chance getting it right. Ripples all over the place as the seat curved in every possible direction. Any attempt to gently 'stretch' the film round a curve resulted in it lifting up from the base of the bowl... no chance.
Went to bed a bit annoyed, but woke up with a plan to do some more smaller, achievable bits:
This would in theory protect from HANS device and road debris.
This went much better, I ended up cutting that template into three and got some great results.
Over the next couple of days I took the approach of just piecing together smaller, more achievable bits. Slowly learning what could, and couldn't be done with my limited skillset. I eventually ended up with this:
I had enough left to do two large rectangles to go up the length of the back, either side of the spine - but I wanted to save enough to have a go at my rear wing too - so I'll do those bits later, probably with a future roll.
The driver seat was the experimental one, and the passenger seat learned a few lessons as a result. Neither is perfect, but the passenger seat is more than acceptable. The driver side has a few bubbles in the main base area, but not bad enough for me to peel it off and go again. I'd rather save the film and see how it weathers the next few weeks.
I could definitely make all of the templates better now that I know my tactic for coverage, and at some stage this will all get done again and will be significantly better, but I'm very happy with what I managed. Very difficult to see the PPF and the join lines etc, especially with the carbon weave backdrop.
It's hard to photograph, which is a good thing!
I had a trackday evening coming up, so would be an idea few hours to test out the seating position, but I did fancy some road mileage first just so I could get it somewhere close. TBC.
Quick footnote on brakes, working on a solution but for now just thrown some like for like 288mm discs back on to get me through Donny on tuesday night.
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