Pauls Exige 410 Sport
Discussion
Hi Paul, looking at following you in fitting a stud set to the car due to expecting to take them off a lot with track days etc.
Which studs did you go for in the end? I've seen quite a few at c72mm long and am considering getting the kit from seriously Lotus although there are a lot on Ebay for about £50/60 less which are the same 10.9 steel. (https://www.seriouslylotus.com/v6-exige-and-evora-wheel-stud-kit).
Also, what torque did you then tighten to as haven't seen anything definitive on this?
Cheers, Charles
Which studs did you go for in the end? I've seen quite a few at c72mm long and am considering getting the kit from seriously Lotus although there are a lot on Ebay for about £50/60 less which are the same 10.9 steel. (https://www.seriouslylotus.com/v6-exige-and-evora-wheel-stud-kit).
Also, what torque did you then tighten to as haven't seen anything definitive on this?
Cheers, Charles
CM96 said:
Hi Paul, looking at following you in fitting a stud set to the car due to expecting to take them off a lot with track days etc.
Which studs did you go for in the end? I've seen quite a few at c72mm long and am considering getting the kit from seriously Lotus although there are a lot on Ebay for about £50/60 less which are the same 10.9 steel. (https://www.seriouslylotus.com/v6-exige-and-evora-wheel-stud-kit).
Also, what torque did you then tighten to as haven't seen anything definitive on this?
Cheers, Charles
Hi Charles,Which studs did you go for in the end? I've seen quite a few at c72mm long and am considering getting the kit from seriously Lotus although there are a lot on Ebay for about £50/60 less which are the same 10.9 steel. (https://www.seriouslylotus.com/v6-exige-and-evora-wheel-stud-kit).
Also, what torque did you then tighten to as haven't seen anything definitive on this?
Cheers, Charles
I got mine from here: https://www.trsuk.co.uk/shop/m12-x-1-5-stud-conver...
I got different lengths front and rear so that there wasn't excess thread showing.
The fronts were the 48mm version, and the rear were the 55mm ones.
As for the torque, I think I did them up to around 30Nm.
Last week I decided to start booking my 2022 track days. I'm really missing doing them, so I've decided to book a couple of days early in the year and risk the weather. I've got Snetterton on 28th Feb, and Bedford on 21st march. If the weather is really bad it's not the end of the world as the trackdays are cheap that time of year.
With that in mind, I needed to do a couple of quick jobs.
1) Replace the rear pads, and give the rear discs a bit of a clean while I'm at it.
As well as the disc needing a bit of a clean, the drum area was a bit corroded.
After a quick honing and wire brushing
Discs refitted with new pads.
2) The other thing I wanted to do was swap the wheels over from left to right. The left tyres wear more quickly as most tracks are clockwise, so I wanted to even things up a bit to maximise tyre life. The problem with the Exige, is that doing this is actually a bit of a pain. Because the centre jacking point lifts the entire side of the car up, you effectively will end up with all four wheels in the air once and the car 'balancing'. To get around this, I purchased a set of hub stands so that I can lower one side back to the ground without the wheels on it. Getting all four wheels off at once is now quick and easy. The stands should easily take the weight of the car, but I did keep my second jack there to take some of the load as a precaution.
With that in mind, I needed to do a couple of quick jobs.
1) Replace the rear pads, and give the rear discs a bit of a clean while I'm at it.
As well as the disc needing a bit of a clean, the drum area was a bit corroded.
After a quick honing and wire brushing
Discs refitted with new pads.
2) The other thing I wanted to do was swap the wheels over from left to right. The left tyres wear more quickly as most tracks are clockwise, so I wanted to even things up a bit to maximise tyre life. The problem with the Exige, is that doing this is actually a bit of a pain. Because the centre jacking point lifts the entire side of the car up, you effectively will end up with all four wheels in the air once and the car 'balancing'. To get around this, I purchased a set of hub stands so that I can lower one side back to the ground without the wheels on it. Getting all four wheels off at once is now quick and easy. The stands should easily take the weight of the car, but I did keep my second jack there to take some of the load as a precaution.
Today I changed the stereo head unit in the car. (Yes, I know I only fitted one a few months ago)
The previous Pioneer was quite a clever unit, but after regularly using the Apple Carplay unit in my daily driver the Pioneer felt a bit 'clunky' in terms of user interface.
Like a few other Lotus owners, I decided to fit a Pioneer AVH-Z7000 flip screen head unit. I really wanted a unit with wireless Apple Carplay but this wasn't supported as standard by the Pioneer.
After a bit of research, I ordered a Carlinkit wireless dongle. This attaches to the headunits USB port instead of the USB extension cable.
I first checked it out on the bench to make sure everything worked ok. Success.
Then it was just a case of swapping the head units over. In theory this should have been simple. I didn't even need to change any wiring as the same connector is used on the old and new units. The problem was simply space. The AVH-Z7000 has a separate box for the aerial connections. I also had the Carlinkit dongle. Trying to get all of this shoved in behind the head unit was awkward, but I got there in the end with some 'persuasion'. I'm not sure what state everything is in behind there, but it's all working.
Overall I'm really pleased with the AVH-Z7000. Having Apple Carplay on a nice big screen will be great, both for music and navigation. It's also nice having a 'proper' volume knob rather than push buttons. Yes, the screen catches on the indicator stalk unless you hold it out of the way, but then I would want the screen up all of the time anyway so it's not an issue.
The previous Pioneer was quite a clever unit, but after regularly using the Apple Carplay unit in my daily driver the Pioneer felt a bit 'clunky' in terms of user interface.
Like a few other Lotus owners, I decided to fit a Pioneer AVH-Z7000 flip screen head unit. I really wanted a unit with wireless Apple Carplay but this wasn't supported as standard by the Pioneer.
After a bit of research, I ordered a Carlinkit wireless dongle. This attaches to the headunits USB port instead of the USB extension cable.
I first checked it out on the bench to make sure everything worked ok. Success.
Then it was just a case of swapping the head units over. In theory this should have been simple. I didn't even need to change any wiring as the same connector is used on the old and new units. The problem was simply space. The AVH-Z7000 has a separate box for the aerial connections. I also had the Carlinkit dongle. Trying to get all of this shoved in behind the head unit was awkward, but I got there in the end with some 'persuasion'. I'm not sure what state everything is in behind there, but it's all working.
Overall I'm really pleased with the AVH-Z7000. Having Apple Carplay on a nice big screen will be great, both for music and navigation. It's also nice having a 'proper' volume knob rather than push buttons. Yes, the screen catches on the indicator stalk unless you hold it out of the way, but then I would want the screen up all of the time anyway so it's not an issue.
This is very un-Lotus type update, but it's only a quick one.
A lot of people fit new stereo equipment and because it sounds far better than the previous setup they just leave it as is. But the decent heads units come with a fair few settings to make things improve even further. I thought I'd have a little play around and see how good the new system could get.
Firstly I set up the crossover frequencies. For the front and rear speakers this blocks out very low frequencies. For the sub it blocks out high frequencies.
To set these I first moved the fader to front speakers only. Turned up some music and then blocked out more and more of the lower frequencies until the distortion went away. The 4" front speakers are not designed to handle bass. I then did the same with the rear. As they are bigger you can allow slightly lower frequencies through. Finally I set the sub to what I thought was reasonable based on its frequency response. I ended up with these settings.
Next there is an option to set the time alignment. In theory this makes it sounds as if the music is right in front of you by slightly delaying the sound from the speakers close to you. You just have to input the distance from your head to each speaker. Anyone with the same car can obviously copy these values as they should be the same.
The final thing to do was a bit more geeky. I used the Equaliser to tweak the frequency response and make sure the range was good all the way through. To do this I used an app called Octave RTA. This gives a real time indication of how loud each frequency is, and you can see any significant dips or gaps. You have to play something called pink noise on the stereo to do this. You're not necessarily looking for a perfectly flat curve, as it is partly to personal taste.
After a bit of tweaking with both the EQ and the speaker levels (I had to reduce the sub, it was too far powerful) I ended up with what I think is a pretty good response.
For those who wonder how much difference a tiny active sub makes, here's the response with the sub set to OFF, with no other changes.
Overall I'm really pleased with the result. Obviously an Exige is never going to sound amazing (especially once moving), but just sat on the drive it is actually pretty impressive.
A lot of people fit new stereo equipment and because it sounds far better than the previous setup they just leave it as is. But the decent heads units come with a fair few settings to make things improve even further. I thought I'd have a little play around and see how good the new system could get.
Firstly I set up the crossover frequencies. For the front and rear speakers this blocks out very low frequencies. For the sub it blocks out high frequencies.
To set these I first moved the fader to front speakers only. Turned up some music and then blocked out more and more of the lower frequencies until the distortion went away. The 4" front speakers are not designed to handle bass. I then did the same with the rear. As they are bigger you can allow slightly lower frequencies through. Finally I set the sub to what I thought was reasonable based on its frequency response. I ended up with these settings.
Next there is an option to set the time alignment. In theory this makes it sounds as if the music is right in front of you by slightly delaying the sound from the speakers close to you. You just have to input the distance from your head to each speaker. Anyone with the same car can obviously copy these values as they should be the same.
The final thing to do was a bit more geeky. I used the Equaliser to tweak the frequency response and make sure the range was good all the way through. To do this I used an app called Octave RTA. This gives a real time indication of how loud each frequency is, and you can see any significant dips or gaps. You have to play something called pink noise on the stereo to do this. You're not necessarily looking for a perfectly flat curve, as it is partly to personal taste.
After a bit of tweaking with both the EQ and the speaker levels (I had to reduce the sub, it was too far powerful) I ended up with what I think is a pretty good response.
For those who wonder how much difference a tiny active sub makes, here's the response with the sub set to OFF, with no other changes.
Overall I'm really pleased with the result. Obviously an Exige is never going to sound amazing (especially once moving), but just sat on the drive it is actually pretty impressive.
The new head unit has an option for a reversing camera, which is something that I've always fancied.
The trouble is that running a cable from the back of the car to the front seems like a bit of a ball ache, and quite frankly I wasn't sure if I could be bothered. I had the thought that there must be something out there that can send the signal wirelessly, and a quick bit of Googling found this:
I then had a look for a suitable camera. I believe this one is what gets supplied by AIM for the digital dash, but it's a lot cheaper on Amazon...
I fitted the receiver part of the transmitter to the headunit when I installed it, so it's just been sitting there waiting for me to fit the camera.
I needed to get the rear diffuser off, and it was a perfect opportunity to test my new 2-piece wheel cribs from race ramps. They are expensive for what they are, but they are very light and you can get the car high enough to completely crawl underneath.
I fitted the camera in the usual place, on the trim piece between the reversing sensors. The camera came with the correct size hole saw included.
I cable tied the wiring to the existing reversing sensor cables.
The transmitter is mounted to the inside of the clam near the back wheel using heavy duty velcro. If I need to try and move it around because of signal break up, I can.
The final job is to get power to it. Luckily, the reversing sensor cable goes straight up through a grommet into the battery area, so I pulled the cable through there.
The wiring on the transmitter cable is quite thin, so I soldered it to so better quality stuff which had a ring crimp for the earth, and a tap-a-fuse for the power. This easily allowed me to connect it to a source which only comes on with the ignition.
And that's it for the installation. The only part of the car you need to take off is the diffuser.
Job jobbed.
I haven't connected the head unit to a reversing signal, so it won't come on automatically. But turning the screen to camera just involves a single button press, so that's no big deal. I can also have the rear view turned on at any time when driving along.
The trouble is that running a cable from the back of the car to the front seems like a bit of a ball ache, and quite frankly I wasn't sure if I could be bothered. I had the thought that there must be something out there that can send the signal wirelessly, and a quick bit of Googling found this:
I then had a look for a suitable camera. I believe this one is what gets supplied by AIM for the digital dash, but it's a lot cheaper on Amazon...
I fitted the receiver part of the transmitter to the headunit when I installed it, so it's just been sitting there waiting for me to fit the camera.
I needed to get the rear diffuser off, and it was a perfect opportunity to test my new 2-piece wheel cribs from race ramps. They are expensive for what they are, but they are very light and you can get the car high enough to completely crawl underneath.
I fitted the camera in the usual place, on the trim piece between the reversing sensors. The camera came with the correct size hole saw included.
I cable tied the wiring to the existing reversing sensor cables.
The transmitter is mounted to the inside of the clam near the back wheel using heavy duty velcro. If I need to try and move it around because of signal break up, I can.
The final job is to get power to it. Luckily, the reversing sensor cable goes straight up through a grommet into the battery area, so I pulled the cable through there.
The wiring on the transmitter cable is quite thin, so I soldered it to so better quality stuff which had a ring crimp for the earth, and a tap-a-fuse for the power. This easily allowed me to connect it to a source which only comes on with the ignition.
And that's it for the installation. The only part of the car you need to take off is the diffuser.
Job jobbed.
I haven't connected the head unit to a reversing signal, so it won't come on automatically. But turning the screen to camera just involves a single button press, so that's no big deal. I can also have the rear view turned on at any time when driving along.
Paul_M3 said:
Today I changed the stereo head unit in the car. (Yes, I know I only fitted one a few months ago)
interesting Mod and one I am keen to do if only for Navigation.Is it easy thing for an idiot to do i.e direct plug and play or would you advise me letting an expert AV guy do it?
RevsPerMinute said:
Paul_M3 said:
Today I changed the stereo head unit in the car. (Yes, I know I only fitted one a few months ago)
interesting Mod and one I am keen to do if only for Navigation.Is it easy thing for an idiot to do i.e direct plug and play or would you advise me letting an expert AV guy do it?
The wiring harness simply plugs into the cars existing connectors. The hardest thing was pushing the head unit back into place because of lack of space behind it. The particular head unit has a separate box which the aerial plugs into so I had to push that into a gap behind the dials.
Depends how confident you are really. A proper AV guy shouldn't charge much, as they should be able to do it in well under an hour.
If you're considering that particular head unit you need to be aware that it will hit the indicator if you try and put the screen in and out. (Hence I've got it set to stay out the whole time, and not retract when the ignition is off).
Another cosmetic modification done yesterday, but one which makes a massive difference to the look of the car.
I was very fortunate to pick up a pair of Hell Slow Carbon Fibre mirrors second hand from Jon Seal Sportscars. These don't come up for sale second hand very often, and I just happened to be looking at my phone when the advert went up.
Before:
To remove the old mirrors you need to take out three bolts. Simple in theory, fiddly in practice and very easy to drop the bolts inside the door. (What would be even more annoying is if you got all the bolts done, and then dropped the Allen Key in, but who'd be stupid enough to do that...)
Size comparison of the old and new mirrors:
Next I had to make a decision, as the mirrors only use two of the original mounting holes.
Some people just put a small bung in the old hole. I wasn't sure if I liked this look, but my mind was made up by the indentations made in the paint by the original mirror.
I used some 3M matt black vinyl wrap to cover the hole and the imperfect paintwork.
Then it's just a case of bolting the mirror on.
Here's a half and half photo for comparison:
And the finished product:
Now there's no getting away from the fact that these mirrors aren't cheap (high quality, low production products never are). But equally, the difference these make to the look of the car is incredible. Once Lotus got into the realms of £80k+ Exiges, this is something that they really should have produced themselves.
I was lucky enough to pay less than full price, but now I've seen what a difference they make I think they are well worth the outlay.
An added bonus is that the field of view is much better with these mirrors, so you could use a bit a man maths to justify it as a safety improvement...
I was very fortunate to pick up a pair of Hell Slow Carbon Fibre mirrors second hand from Jon Seal Sportscars. These don't come up for sale second hand very often, and I just happened to be looking at my phone when the advert went up.
Before:
To remove the old mirrors you need to take out three bolts. Simple in theory, fiddly in practice and very easy to drop the bolts inside the door. (What would be even more annoying is if you got all the bolts done, and then dropped the Allen Key in, but who'd be stupid enough to do that...)
Size comparison of the old and new mirrors:
Next I had to make a decision, as the mirrors only use two of the original mounting holes.
Some people just put a small bung in the old hole. I wasn't sure if I liked this look, but my mind was made up by the indentations made in the paint by the original mirror.
I used some 3M matt black vinyl wrap to cover the hole and the imperfect paintwork.
Then it's just a case of bolting the mirror on.
Here's a half and half photo for comparison:
And the finished product:
Now there's no getting away from the fact that these mirrors aren't cheap (high quality, low production products never are). But equally, the difference these make to the look of the car is incredible. Once Lotus got into the realms of £80k+ Exiges, this is something that they really should have produced themselves.
I was lucky enough to pay less than full price, but now I've seen what a difference they make I think they are well worth the outlay.
An added bonus is that the field of view is much better with these mirrors, so you could use a bit a man maths to justify it as a safety improvement...
Had my first track day of the year at Snetterton on Monday. Thankfully it was all fairly uneventful and a great day.
Static noise test completed, and I was given a reading of 98dB which gives me a bit more confidence in the ability of my add on exhaust.
There have been two main changes to the car since my last track day. The first was the adjustment to the accelerator pedal, and I was really happy with the difference this has made. Heel and Toe on the downchanges is now far far easier. I'm not saying I've perfected it yet, but I was able to do it to some degree pretty much all of the time.
The second change was the Pagid RSL29 brake pads. These have got FAR more initial bite than the standard pads. I was hitting the pedal far to hard at first, and kicking the ABS in all the time. They took some getting used to, but were still as effective at the end of the day as they were on the first lap. The brake did however get very 'grumbly', with some quite severe vibrations at one point. There were quite significant pad deposits on the disc. These gradually went away over the course of the day, and maybe it was caused by me not bedding them in properly? He's a photo of how the rear discs looked mid way through the day:
Other than that, the day went very smoothly. There were a few red flags in the afternoon, but mainly for mechanical reasons. This included my garage mate in a BMW who had his entire exhaust system fall off onto the track! The main problem I had was with my rear GoPro giving SD card errors, and the front GoPro accidentally being set to something that gave a weird panning effect round corners.
A nice young bloke at the track took a few photos and sent to me.
Static noise test completed, and I was given a reading of 98dB which gives me a bit more confidence in the ability of my add on exhaust.
There have been two main changes to the car since my last track day. The first was the adjustment to the accelerator pedal, and I was really happy with the difference this has made. Heel and Toe on the downchanges is now far far easier. I'm not saying I've perfected it yet, but I was able to do it to some degree pretty much all of the time.
The second change was the Pagid RSL29 brake pads. These have got FAR more initial bite than the standard pads. I was hitting the pedal far to hard at first, and kicking the ABS in all the time. They took some getting used to, but were still as effective at the end of the day as they were on the first lap. The brake did however get very 'grumbly', with some quite severe vibrations at one point. There were quite significant pad deposits on the disc. These gradually went away over the course of the day, and maybe it was caused by me not bedding them in properly? He's a photo of how the rear discs looked mid way through the day:
Other than that, the day went very smoothly. There were a few red flags in the afternoon, but mainly for mechanical reasons. This included my garage mate in a BMW who had his entire exhaust system fall off onto the track! The main problem I had was with my rear GoPro giving SD card errors, and the front GoPro accidentally being set to something that gave a weird panning effect round corners.
A nice young bloke at the track took a few photos and sent to me.
Seeing as I cocked up the GoPro setting for the front camera, thought I'd make a slightly different video using the rear camera as the main view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgDM54-E2rg
Not a fast session, but it's my garage mate in the BMW compact race car, so thought he'd like it. (This was obviously before his entire exhaust fell off)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgDM54-E2rg
Not a fast session, but it's my garage mate in the BMW compact race car, so thought he'd like it. (This was obviously before his entire exhaust fell off)
I noticed that I was getting some vibrations once speed goes above 110 - 120mph, so I popped down my local tyre place today and got them to re-balance all four wheels. They said that all four needed a bit of a tweak, so hopefully it'll be an improvement.
I also had a decided I may as well do a video of my best lap from Monday, even if the video is a bit rubbish because of the messed up settings. If it wasn't for having to brake early and gently into the second hairpin because of spilled fluid, I'm sure it would have been a personal best for me. Not braking into Coram now must be gaining me a reasonable amount of time.
You can see the rear view camera signal being a bit flaky in this video. I assume it's because of all the radio transmissions around the circuit, because there was no flickering or anything during the drive home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HkmOoGULQ4
I also had a decided I may as well do a video of my best lap from Monday, even if the video is a bit rubbish because of the messed up settings. If it wasn't for having to brake early and gently into the second hairpin because of spilled fluid, I'm sure it would have been a personal best for me. Not braking into Coram now must be gaining me a reasonable amount of time.
You can see the rear view camera signal being a bit flaky in this video. I assume it's because of all the radio transmissions around the circuit, because there was no flickering or anything during the drive home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HkmOoGULQ4
Edited by Paul_M3 on Saturday 5th March 14:30
Gibbo205 said:
Hi Paul
I was at Donington on Monday and I ran in the morning without the silencer you designed and I got black flagged at 98.9Db driveby. So I re-fitted the silencer and never got black flagged again all day, so I think it is fair to say the silencer definitely works.
That's good to know mate. I think it's nice that you can just have it with you and quickly stick it on if necessary. (Especially when you're confident you won't get black flagged again with it fitted)I was at Donington on Monday and I ran in the morning without the silencer you designed and I got black flagged at 98.9Db driveby. So I re-fitted the silencer and never got black flagged again all day, so I think it is fair to say the silencer definitely works.
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