460hp Lotus Exige V6
Discussion
avenger286 said:
Brilliant! Tbh I don't usually look at threads of cars I can't afford! But I really like this and like the way you have gone about making it your own and the attention to detail.
You must also be a good photographer as the photo's are another reason I keep looking at the thread as they are very good and the car just pops out in all of them. Wish I could take pictures like that as I don't do my car justice when I take them.
Interesting comment on affordability. I'm only 25, and only two years ago I couldn't have dreamed of affording the car. Lots of hard work and some luck (of course!) later, I have got myself into a position where I can enjoy myself with the car. Having said that, spending will unfortunately have to slow down on the car mods this year. Luckily I've done most things you can do already!You must also be a good photographer as the photo's are another reason I keep looking at the thread as they are very good and the car just pops out in all of them. Wish I could take pictures like that as I don't do my car justice when I take them.
I'm a professional car photographer, so although most of the shots I take of my own car are just quick snaps, I occasionally use it as a practice subject.
mikeulster500 said:
Looks great George. Where did you get the parts anodised? I’m not too far from you and have a couple of bits to do for my Caterham
Cheers
Malden Plating Works - I tried A1 Anodising and they didn't even start the process in a week and a half so I took it somewhere else...Cheers
Tickle said:
As always great photos!
Car is looking good too. You not tempted to whip the roof off while over in Spain?
I've had the roof off a few times, but during the day it's too hot to have the roof off as I burn to a crisp. The hard to insulates a lot better than the black soft top, plus I think it looks a lot better, which is nice for photos! Car is looking good too. You not tempted to whip the roof off while over in Spain?
Having said that, early in the morning or around sunset time, it's perfect driving a mountain road, or along the coast with the roof off.
I should add, at the moment I have a trackday quiet exhaust on the car, so it's not exactly an inspiring noise. I'm hoping to get a new custom exhaust built in the next month which will be quite unique in the way it sounds
Yesterday my new lights arrived from Greg's Race Parts. I'm super impressed with how good quality these are, easily OEM quality IMO and the functionality is spot on. These are a new version called "GT" lights, which feature a new design, which I absolutely love.
To address the elephant in the room, I used to have a set of lights from T********** and I was extremely disappointed with the quality of the lights. The LEDs failed repeatedly and the last set caused the car to go into limp mode. My new lights aren't even comparable, they really are another level when it comes to quality.
Lights Off:
Side Lights On:
Indicator On:
Reverse On:
A side view last night which shows the shape of them nicely:
For those wondering about spec, I have the European Elise/Exige spec, which is smoked lenses, amber indicators and reverse light.
To address the elephant in the room, I used to have a set of lights from T********** and I was extremely disappointed with the quality of the lights. The LEDs failed repeatedly and the last set caused the car to go into limp mode. My new lights aren't even comparable, they really are another level when it comes to quality.
Lights Off:
Side Lights On:
Indicator On:
Reverse On:
A side view last night which shows the shape of them nicely:
For those wondering about spec, I have the European Elise/Exige spec, which is smoked lenses, amber indicators and reverse light.
shirt said:
They do look great and that wing looks damn fantastic.
I asked for vids on the fb post but that is comprehensive, but how do the brake lights function - running lights just brighter? Also, are those smoked or clear? Just had my elise back panel painted gloss black and those look perfect.
The running lights are fairly dim, they're similar to the brightness of the stock lights, so you don't really see them much if it's bright sunlight. As it gets darker they're bright enough to see the car no problem.I asked for vids on the fb post but that is comprehensive, but how do the brake lights function - running lights just brighter? Also, are those smoked or clear? Just had my elise back panel painted gloss black and those look perfect.
The brake lights are much brighter and very clear.
These lights are the smoked lights with amber indicators and white reverse lights.
Time to introduce my new car! It's a Caterham 7 Sigma 150, 6 speed gearbox, LSD, Carbon dash, Shift Lights, 13" Apollo Wheels with ZZS tyres, Wide track suspension with adjustable height dampers.
Some of you may recall that I used to own this actual car and sold it at the beginning of 2017. It came up for sale again and I just had to have it, so thanks to Oracle Finance, a deal is now done and I own it again. I also bought a new plate to match the Exige plate...
So I've been out enjoying the car, already doing a load of miles, just having fun. The car needed a bit of a service, so I've balanced the throttle bodies, replaced the spark plugs, changed the oil, flushed and replaced the coolant, greased things up, and generally got it running really nice.
Plans for the car aren't quite as extreme as with the Lotus, my first priority is to pay off the finance as quick as I can, before I start modifying it.
I guess what people will be interested in is how it compares to the Lotus? The Lotus is quite significantly quicker and also has more grip, but doesn't have as much feel, and it feels a bit numbed down compared to the Caterham. The Caterham isn't that fast, and when you overtake you need so much more space, which takes some getting used to. In reality, the Lotus is better than the Caterham in almost every way, but somehow the little Caterham wins on fun factor, with a brilliant feeling of steering from the rear as you accelerate out of corners. I think the Caterham will be even better for some setup work, it's following the bumps in the road a lot more than I feel it should.
One thing I did to the Caterham straight away was add the "JustAddLightness" LED rear lights. I feel being seen in a Caterham is challenging at the best of times, so adding this helps with that and hopefully reduces the chances of someone driving into the back of me. I had a bad experience where someone in an Audi nearly smashed into the back of me on the A3 and decided to order them straight away.
Some of you may recall that I used to own this actual car and sold it at the beginning of 2017. It came up for sale again and I just had to have it, so thanks to Oracle Finance, a deal is now done and I own it again. I also bought a new plate to match the Exige plate...
So I've been out enjoying the car, already doing a load of miles, just having fun. The car needed a bit of a service, so I've balanced the throttle bodies, replaced the spark plugs, changed the oil, flushed and replaced the coolant, greased things up, and generally got it running really nice.
Plans for the car aren't quite as extreme as with the Lotus, my first priority is to pay off the finance as quick as I can, before I start modifying it.
I guess what people will be interested in is how it compares to the Lotus? The Lotus is quite significantly quicker and also has more grip, but doesn't have as much feel, and it feels a bit numbed down compared to the Caterham. The Caterham isn't that fast, and when you overtake you need so much more space, which takes some getting used to. In reality, the Lotus is better than the Caterham in almost every way, but somehow the little Caterham wins on fun factor, with a brilliant feeling of steering from the rear as you accelerate out of corners. I think the Caterham will be even better for some setup work, it's following the bumps in the road a lot more than I feel it should.
One thing I did to the Caterham straight away was add the "JustAddLightness" LED rear lights. I feel being seen in a Caterham is challenging at the best of times, so adding this helps with that and hopefully reduces the chances of someone driving into the back of me. I had a bad experience where someone in an Audi nearly smashed into the back of me on the A3 and decided to order them straight away.
Time for a bit of a post trackday report...
It was at Abingdon which is an airfield near Oxford. The track is laid out using cones, and is a fairly fun layout, although a bit "safe and easy" compared to a "proper track" like Brands or Silverstone. Due to the very changeable weather, the track in the morning was changing almost every lap. I decided to drive the Caterham for most of the day and then do a couple of sessions in the afternoon in the Lotus when it was due to dry up.
I'll first report on the Caterham. In the wet, the car is quite twitchy, which makes it quite exciting to drive. I think it's too twitchy though as it doesn't really inspire confidence. The car needs some setup work which DPR Racing will do at some stage before it next goes on track. In the morning, the Caterham was comfortably the fastest car on track, although this was quite a lot due to me and my mate not being afraid to push on in wet conditions. The car has a slight misfire issue due to the spark plugs (I think) and felt a tiny bit down on power compared to usual, but just felt quite slow on the straights. It's actually pretty frustrating on a trackday when you don't have the power to easily get past people, but can corner so much quicker. In the afternoon, the track dried out and we did a couple of sessions in the Caterham and it was like a totally different car. The level of grip was super impressive and it was very well stuck. No sliding about and inspired a lot of confidence, but was a much more similar pace to a load of other cars on track in the dry.
I then decided to do a few sessions in the Lotus. Now I knew that the Lotus would be faster, but I didn't realise quite how much faster... After driving the Caterham all day up to that point, I had to really re learn how to drive the Lotus on track as it really requires a different driving style. To start with, it's carrying an extra 10-15mph into almost all the corners, so you need to scrub off a lot more speed. Baring in mind the straights aren't very long at the track, that's a big difference! Then the car requires a very different braking technique. In the Caterham I was braking in a straight line, then coming off the brakes to get it turned in. In the Lotus I needed to brake hard to begin with, then ease them off right upto the apex of the corner before getting onto the power. I'm normally pretty comfortable in the Lotus, but it took me a bit of time to get used to this again. I think also that my Nankang NS2-Rs front tyres have gone off a bit as the car didn't seem to turn in as well as usual. Having said all those excuses, the car was just crazy how capable it is. I was passing all the other cars as if they were standing still. In fact, on a few occasions I found myself approaching other cars so quick it nearly caught me out as the speed difference was massive. Que a bit of a telling off from the Marshalls... Strange getting a telling off that's not about drifting!
Overall, it was a really enjoyable day, although in future I know it's pointless bringing the Exige on airfield days. I'll stick to Caterham on little tracks, and Exige on the big, proper, tracks! Really happy with the noise testing on the Exige coming out at 90db, that means I can book trackdays next year at almost any track without worries. I now have the debate of which tyres I should run at Silverstone next month. I think Michelin Cup 2s are my favourite tyre I've run so far.
It was at Abingdon which is an airfield near Oxford. The track is laid out using cones, and is a fairly fun layout, although a bit "safe and easy" compared to a "proper track" like Brands or Silverstone. Due to the very changeable weather, the track in the morning was changing almost every lap. I decided to drive the Caterham for most of the day and then do a couple of sessions in the afternoon in the Lotus when it was due to dry up.
I'll first report on the Caterham. In the wet, the car is quite twitchy, which makes it quite exciting to drive. I think it's too twitchy though as it doesn't really inspire confidence. The car needs some setup work which DPR Racing will do at some stage before it next goes on track. In the morning, the Caterham was comfortably the fastest car on track, although this was quite a lot due to me and my mate not being afraid to push on in wet conditions. The car has a slight misfire issue due to the spark plugs (I think) and felt a tiny bit down on power compared to usual, but just felt quite slow on the straights. It's actually pretty frustrating on a trackday when you don't have the power to easily get past people, but can corner so much quicker. In the afternoon, the track dried out and we did a couple of sessions in the Caterham and it was like a totally different car. The level of grip was super impressive and it was very well stuck. No sliding about and inspired a lot of confidence, but was a much more similar pace to a load of other cars on track in the dry.
I then decided to do a few sessions in the Lotus. Now I knew that the Lotus would be faster, but I didn't realise quite how much faster... After driving the Caterham all day up to that point, I had to really re learn how to drive the Lotus on track as it really requires a different driving style. To start with, it's carrying an extra 10-15mph into almost all the corners, so you need to scrub off a lot more speed. Baring in mind the straights aren't very long at the track, that's a big difference! Then the car requires a very different braking technique. In the Caterham I was braking in a straight line, then coming off the brakes to get it turned in. In the Lotus I needed to brake hard to begin with, then ease them off right upto the apex of the corner before getting onto the power. I'm normally pretty comfortable in the Lotus, but it took me a bit of time to get used to this again. I think also that my Nankang NS2-Rs front tyres have gone off a bit as the car didn't seem to turn in as well as usual. Having said all those excuses, the car was just crazy how capable it is. I was passing all the other cars as if they were standing still. In fact, on a few occasions I found myself approaching other cars so quick it nearly caught me out as the speed difference was massive. Que a bit of a telling off from the Marshalls... Strange getting a telling off that's not about drifting!
Overall, it was a really enjoyable day, although in future I know it's pointless bringing the Exige on airfield days. I'll stick to Caterham on little tracks, and Exige on the big, proper, tracks! Really happy with the noise testing on the Exige coming out at 90db, that means I can book trackdays next year at almost any track without worries. I now have the debate of which tyres I should run at Silverstone next month. I think Michelin Cup 2s are my favourite tyre I've run so far.
Podie said:
Lovely, just lovely 
Thanks!OzzyR1 said:
Somehow managed not to see this thread before, what a beautiful car, the interior changes have completely transformed it from the original.
Photography just stunning.
Thanks for the kind words Photography just stunning.
DanG355 said:
Just read this thread from start to finish - what a great project!
OEM+ feel to the car and improved in every area. The interior is very well thought out and it’s the little touches together that make it great.
I’d love to do something similar to a Cayman S of around 2005-2007 at some point - I’m a little large for an Elise plus I’ve got a 986 at the moment and learnt lots about Porsche from working on that plus it would be cheaper to purchase and easier to work on myself than an Elise based car (from what I have seen by Elise owners on Readers Cars threads).
Great work OP.
I think a Cayman S would be a great project, although I'd prefer to do it on a 981 Boxster S or GTS. A supercharged 981 would be an interesting prospect...OEM+ feel to the car and improved in every area. The interior is very well thought out and it’s the little touches together that make it great.
I’d love to do something similar to a Cayman S of around 2005-2007 at some point - I’m a little large for an Elise plus I’ve got a 986 at the moment and learnt lots about Porsche from working on that plus it would be cheaper to purchase and easier to work on myself than an Elise based car (from what I have seen by Elise owners on Readers Cars threads).
Great work OP.
Turbojuice said:
Absolutely stunning car. Always been a big fan of Lotus cars and it's great to see that you're really enjoying that yellow beast and using it as it was supposed to be used!
I've got to say as well that your photography skills are something else. As someone who hasn't long been trying photography it would be great if you could share some tips on how you get such incredible shots, though i can imagine it's probably just a case of trial and error.
To be honest, it's hard to give advice to improve photography in a short space, it's taken me 10 years of doing it as a job to get to where I am. I guess if there's one thing I advise, it's to use a polariser of shooting cars.I've got to say as well that your photography skills are something else. As someone who hasn't long been trying photography it would be great if you could share some tips on how you get such incredible shots, though i can imagine it's probably just a case of trial and error.
Smitters said:
Just dipping back in to very belatedly say bravo. It seems like your view of how an interior should be on such a car matches mine. I have an S1 and my intention is to keep it for a long time, so although I can't romp through the jobs, I intend on making the interior the place it could and should have been. An example is the delightful Vauxhall indicator stalks - nothing fundamentally wrong with the way they work, but they could look so much better, so I intend on making my own carbon arms and, because mines yellow, inscribing and infilling the icons in yellow. It'll be a work in progress but images like this are motivational.
It's funny, your one example of the indicator stalks is something I haven't changed. My car has cruise control on the stalk which I want to retain for when I do long journeys (plus there are more and more average speed zones popping up and it's more fun to do roundabouts in average speed zones on cruise control).stew-STR160 said:
Damn the photography here is insanely good! I already love the Exige shape, but my word, the scenery, the lighting, everything...just beautiful.
Thanks, I'm lucky to have managed to travel quite a lot in it now! Looking forward to some winter trips next, maybe the Highlands in January... BRR said:
That Lotus is stunning, superbly modified. I've not seen a car I've wanted so much in a long time. Congratulations on transforming a great car into a truly special one. Awesome photography too
Thanks, not much left to do now, but there is always maintenance and things to tinker with. Next job is to fix the mirrors which snapped 
Ballistic said:
Having just discovered this thread by accident and reading through, what a brilliant read and a great project.
The way you have transformed the interior with the race seats, dash, alcantara and c/f is IMO how Lotus should have finished the car in the first place and really gives it that race car feel with the wow factor.
It's interesting to see how Lotus has developed the Exige from the S2 I had in 2006
Liquid Yellow is one of my favourite colours (there is a Clio RS in LY opposite work that I enviously admire and the colour really pops in the sun. I was seriously tempted to have ordered my R8 in LY but just couldn't imagine if it would suit the shape and work with the black wheels, so I played safe and went with Ara Blue.
What also made your thread so enjoyable was the quality of the photo's, I see you recommend using a polarising filter. What difference will this make when taking car pics on a sunny day? I have been using an entry level Nikon SLR, but am disappointed with the results, so now I just use my Samsung S9
Now off to look at the Lotus classifieds!
PS. If you don't mind me asking, roughly how much does your car currently stand you, when compared to a used 430 and if you were starting again from scratch, which path would you go down and why? - Feel free to answer with a pm.
Only just seen this, so apologies for the slow response.The way you have transformed the interior with the race seats, dash, alcantara and c/f is IMO how Lotus should have finished the car in the first place and really gives it that race car feel with the wow factor.
It's interesting to see how Lotus has developed the Exige from the S2 I had in 2006
Liquid Yellow is one of my favourite colours (there is a Clio RS in LY opposite work that I enviously admire and the colour really pops in the sun. I was seriously tempted to have ordered my R8 in LY but just couldn't imagine if it would suit the shape and work with the black wheels, so I played safe and went with Ara Blue.
What also made your thread so enjoyable was the quality of the photo's, I see you recommend using a polarising filter. What difference will this make when taking car pics on a sunny day? I have been using an entry level Nikon SLR, but am disappointed with the results, so now I just use my Samsung S9
Now off to look at the Lotus classifieds!
PS. If you don't mind me asking, roughly how much does your car currently stand you, when compared to a used 430 and if you were starting again from scratch, which path would you go down and why? - Feel free to answer with a pm.
In terms of the photography, I am a professional photographer, so it's many years of learning to get the photos to how they look. If there was a simple way to get amazing photos in one forum post then I'd be out of a job pretty quickly. Having said that, I think the best way to learn to get better photos is to look at photos you like and try and reverse engineer what you like about it, then try to apply those elements to your own photos. Phones are amazing now days, but a DSLR is still better if you know what you're doing. A lot of the advantage is that you have the ability to control things after when processing the images.
In terms of how much the car has set me back now, I try not to think about it, but running costs plus upgrades and getting worryingly close to the purchase price of the car now. To me, the car is better in every way, apart from weight, to a 430 Cup though.
Next up, a little update after a brilliant day out at Silverstone GP circuit earlier this week.
I went to the day with the intention of improving my driving, aiming to smooth things out to build speed and stability. Overall I'd say that was a success, and my lap times reflected this, showing a 2:25.57 best time of the day (in traffic) and a 2:23.80 ideal time which is calculated using my best sector times. Having a racelogic lap timer was brilliant and meant I wasn't as tempted to "play" with the other similar cars on track.
So my driving was a big improvement from the last time I was there, and the car was better in ways, but worse in others. The first thing was that I was running Nankang NS2-R on the rear (Cup2 on the front) as I couldn't justify another set of Cup 2 for the rear. I of course regret this decision as the NS2-Rs can't really handle my car and just don't have enough grip. The second thing which was a problem was the alignment on the car, which was making the car feel quite unstable at speed. The race mode is normally very good and quite unintrusive in the Exige, but it was causing havoc at high speed and applying individual brakes in the high speed corners which was really throwing the car out of balance. Traction all the way off meant you could power through these issues, but I still didn't have the confidence I would have liked and was finding myself with quite a lot of reserve in the higher speed corners like Abbey & Farm. The positives were that the LSD made the car a lot better coming out of the slower corners and the Nitrons made the car feel better (hard to describe after complaining about the alignment, but the dampers felt good). The 60l tank was a nice addition too.
After spending the day trying to drive smoother, my friend then went out in his GT2RS and I couldn't resist trying to keep up. Out the window went all the nice smoothness I'd learnt and I was back to my old ways of overdriving
Makes for a nice video though and I pretty much kept up apart from the straights.
You can see a video of me chasing the GT2RS here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_yZtvMobvQ
And some photos from the day
I went to the day with the intention of improving my driving, aiming to smooth things out to build speed and stability. Overall I'd say that was a success, and my lap times reflected this, showing a 2:25.57 best time of the day (in traffic) and a 2:23.80 ideal time which is calculated using my best sector times. Having a racelogic lap timer was brilliant and meant I wasn't as tempted to "play" with the other similar cars on track.
So my driving was a big improvement from the last time I was there, and the car was better in ways, but worse in others. The first thing was that I was running Nankang NS2-R on the rear (Cup2 on the front) as I couldn't justify another set of Cup 2 for the rear. I of course regret this decision as the NS2-Rs can't really handle my car and just don't have enough grip. The second thing which was a problem was the alignment on the car, which was making the car feel quite unstable at speed. The race mode is normally very good and quite unintrusive in the Exige, but it was causing havoc at high speed and applying individual brakes in the high speed corners which was really throwing the car out of balance. Traction all the way off meant you could power through these issues, but I still didn't have the confidence I would have liked and was finding myself with quite a lot of reserve in the higher speed corners like Abbey & Farm. The positives were that the LSD made the car a lot better coming out of the slower corners and the Nitrons made the car feel better (hard to describe after complaining about the alignment, but the dampers felt good). The 60l tank was a nice addition too.
After spending the day trying to drive smoother, my friend then went out in his GT2RS and I couldn't resist trying to keep up. Out the window went all the nice smoothness I'd learnt and I was back to my old ways of overdriving
Makes for a nice video though and I pretty much kept up apart from the straights.You can see a video of me chasing the GT2RS here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_yZtvMobvQ
And some photos from the day
Well I didn't update the thread since last year as I wasn't sure there was much interest. It's been a good year of ownership though, with quite a few mods to the car again, so I thought it would be good to update.
I've now owned the car for 3 years, final payment has been paid on the finance so I now actually fully own it!
It would have been more sensible to pay off the finance easy than spend a fortune on mods, but being honest, I never would have kept the car unless I modified it. This is by far the longest I've ever kept a car and I have no intensions of selling it.
So with that, it's time for some updates. It's been a year since the last update, so I'll try and highlight everything I've done to the car in that time.
The year started off with a damper rebuild, so this meant the car was off the road for a month. This gave me an opportunity to make some updates to the interior.
Looked a bit sorry for itself with most of the interior panels removed.
The original plan was to get D:Class Automotive to trim the following parts:
- Trim dash top in Alcantara with black diamond stitch. Also add extra hole for tweeter. At this stage I upgraded to Focal 2 way speakers.
- Retrim door cards in Alcantara with yellow stitch to match the seats. I debate whether the diamond stitch was too much with hindsight, but I can always change it in the future.
- Trim steering column surround in Alcantara. This was plastic before so makes the car feel a lot nicer.
While it was away for trimming I had a few extra ideas. First of all, I mounted my race logic datalogger into the dash on the passenger side. I had to cut the carbon to make this fit, but it came out pretty neatly which I'm happy about. I bought a spare carbon panel for when I am only doing road driving as the interior looks cleaner without the logger attached.
You may notice in the picture above that the air vents have also changed. Previously I did a lot of modifications to the dash to make Mercedes A-Class air vents fit. They were a bit plasticy, so I was never 100% happy, despite them being a huge improvement compared to the Lotus original air vents. I therefore set up eBay alerts for Ferrari F12 air vents, and with perfect timing, they came up. The 3 centre vents from the F12 fitted in the space the old Mercedes vents required, but the outer one required cutting as it was too long. Turns out Ferrari use a very solid metal as it required the use of an air powered cutting wheel to get it to the right size!
As the interior was still in bits and I was bored, I wired in some red LED lights to the vents for "tart mode". Of course, this is on a switch so is off most of the time.
Back together and this is how it was looking!
I was super happy, but there was one thing letting the interior down still for me, the gear linkage. The Exige S gear linkage can be described as imprecise at best and it was always a bit of guesswork when selecting a gear. The new Exige Sport 350 onwards had the exposed linkage which was very much re-engineered and feels great. Lotus had told me it wouldn't work on my car a few times, but I thought it was worth the risk, so I ordered the parts anyway and got Dan at HPE to have a stab at installing them. It was a bit of a risk as the linkage is also a bit different on the gearbox end, plus I had aftermarket cables. Luckily it worked perfectly and it feels identical to the new Exiges.
I ordered the surround untrimmed as D:Class could match it perfectly to the rest of my interior. I also bought a new gear knob so it was back to OEM silver.
This is the finished interior. I'm still debating getting the shifter anodised in black or dark grey, but it's fine for now.
Onto the mirrors. I previously ordered a set of mirrors from a company in America who I won't name. The actual mirror housings were great, but the stalks were 3D printed and crap quality, breaking almost immediately with some use. I loved the look of the mirrors and the improved visibility, so decided to talked to a machinist about making some stalks out of aluminium. The actual mirror housings are from Japan, so this meant we could get them direct without having to deal with the awful supplier.
A few months later, this is what he came up with. They're SUPER strong, which was the most important thing to me. Visibility is great, and to me, they make the car look a lot more modern than the awful rover mirrors they come with as standard.
So onto more external changes on the car. This was an expensive one... Carbon fibre engine lid from the Cup 430.
I also fitted the Exige 380 front access panel and got it painted in body colour (with a black edge, under the lacquer)
While adding new parts, I also aded the new diffuser from the Cup 430
You'll notice in the previous picture that the T on the lotus text was peeling off. This was driving me mad, so I got KSD Custom Paint to redo it in the new Lotus font, all in paint, under a satin lacquer. I feel this freshened up the rear of the car a lot!
Gregs Race Parts in America brought out new V3 lights, so I got the first set. They're absolutely brilliant, much brighter than the old ones and a sharper design.
I think that brings us up to date for stuff you can see.
I also had a gearbox oil cooler fitted and various other things mechanically to make it drive better. Next year I intend to have more of a track focus so will do a few changes for that, hopefully adding brake cooling ducts.
I've now owned the car for 3 years, final payment has been paid on the finance so I now actually fully own it!
It would have been more sensible to pay off the finance easy than spend a fortune on mods, but being honest, I never would have kept the car unless I modified it. This is by far the longest I've ever kept a car and I have no intensions of selling it.
So with that, it's time for some updates. It's been a year since the last update, so I'll try and highlight everything I've done to the car in that time.
The year started off with a damper rebuild, so this meant the car was off the road for a month. This gave me an opportunity to make some updates to the interior.
Looked a bit sorry for itself with most of the interior panels removed.
The original plan was to get D:Class Automotive to trim the following parts:
- Trim dash top in Alcantara with black diamond stitch. Also add extra hole for tweeter. At this stage I upgraded to Focal 2 way speakers.
- Retrim door cards in Alcantara with yellow stitch to match the seats. I debate whether the diamond stitch was too much with hindsight, but I can always change it in the future.
- Trim steering column surround in Alcantara. This was plastic before so makes the car feel a lot nicer.
While it was away for trimming I had a few extra ideas. First of all, I mounted my race logic datalogger into the dash on the passenger side. I had to cut the carbon to make this fit, but it came out pretty neatly which I'm happy about. I bought a spare carbon panel for when I am only doing road driving as the interior looks cleaner without the logger attached.
You may notice in the picture above that the air vents have also changed. Previously I did a lot of modifications to the dash to make Mercedes A-Class air vents fit. They were a bit plasticy, so I was never 100% happy, despite them being a huge improvement compared to the Lotus original air vents. I therefore set up eBay alerts for Ferrari F12 air vents, and with perfect timing, they came up. The 3 centre vents from the F12 fitted in the space the old Mercedes vents required, but the outer one required cutting as it was too long. Turns out Ferrari use a very solid metal as it required the use of an air powered cutting wheel to get it to the right size!
As the interior was still in bits and I was bored, I wired in some red LED lights to the vents for "tart mode". Of course, this is on a switch so is off most of the time.
Back together and this is how it was looking!
I was super happy, but there was one thing letting the interior down still for me, the gear linkage. The Exige S gear linkage can be described as imprecise at best and it was always a bit of guesswork when selecting a gear. The new Exige Sport 350 onwards had the exposed linkage which was very much re-engineered and feels great. Lotus had told me it wouldn't work on my car a few times, but I thought it was worth the risk, so I ordered the parts anyway and got Dan at HPE to have a stab at installing them. It was a bit of a risk as the linkage is also a bit different on the gearbox end, plus I had aftermarket cables. Luckily it worked perfectly and it feels identical to the new Exiges.
I ordered the surround untrimmed as D:Class could match it perfectly to the rest of my interior. I also bought a new gear knob so it was back to OEM silver.
This is the finished interior. I'm still debating getting the shifter anodised in black or dark grey, but it's fine for now.
Onto the mirrors. I previously ordered a set of mirrors from a company in America who I won't name. The actual mirror housings were great, but the stalks were 3D printed and crap quality, breaking almost immediately with some use. I loved the look of the mirrors and the improved visibility, so decided to talked to a machinist about making some stalks out of aluminium. The actual mirror housings are from Japan, so this meant we could get them direct without having to deal with the awful supplier.
A few months later, this is what he came up with. They're SUPER strong, which was the most important thing to me. Visibility is great, and to me, they make the car look a lot more modern than the awful rover mirrors they come with as standard.
So onto more external changes on the car. This was an expensive one... Carbon fibre engine lid from the Cup 430.
I also fitted the Exige 380 front access panel and got it painted in body colour (with a black edge, under the lacquer)
While adding new parts, I also aded the new diffuser from the Cup 430
You'll notice in the previous picture that the T on the lotus text was peeling off. This was driving me mad, so I got KSD Custom Paint to redo it in the new Lotus font, all in paint, under a satin lacquer. I feel this freshened up the rear of the car a lot!
Gregs Race Parts in America brought out new V3 lights, so I got the first set. They're absolutely brilliant, much brighter than the old ones and a sharper design.
I think that brings us up to date for stuff you can see.
I also had a gearbox oil cooler fitted and various other things mechanically to make it drive better. Next year I intend to have more of a track focus so will do a few changes for that, hopefully adding brake cooling ducts.
Tickle said:
Love this car, it's a credit to you.
I notice Komotec / Dymag have released pics of upcoming Lotus carbon wheels, should also reduce your wallet weight too!
Thanks, unfortunately the Dymag wheels are Evora fitment, also I can't afford them anyway!I notice Komotec / Dymag have released pics of upcoming Lotus carbon wheels, should also reduce your wallet weight too!
Diablos-666 said:
Really like those side mirrors and the rear lights! I also like the front access panel you got. I really hate the standard mirrors, they also have massive blind spots.
What’s your thoughts on the rear wing? Any plans to change it?
I really love the look with the standard rear wing to be honest. I had an aftermarket wing for a while, but to be honest, I never loved it. Felt a bit silly on the road with it, and it takes a lot to make me feel silly in a car (hence bright yellow car).What’s your thoughts on the rear wing? Any plans to change it?
On track I do feel that it would be nice to have some more rear end aero grip, so I might get a wing at some stage and only bolt it on for trackdays.
Gameface said:
Apart from the dash top quilting that's about as perfect as an Exige gets.
Thanks, personal choice about the dash top. I was worried it was too much, but in person I really love it Fonzey said:
Very cool project, I think most people have a few things that bug them about the aesthetics of their cars but never do anything about it - nothing seems to be phasing you though!
I've been tracking your progress via IG etc, I think your work to get the mirrors into the public domain is also very smart. That said I think your car pulls off all of the aesthetic bits as a package, but if anyone tried to just lob one or two bits onto their car in isolation it would look a bit naff.
... like sticking F12 vents in my S2 would look a bit naff. I fear the same for the mirrors too, actually think an older car in standard trim would suit the MG mirrors better, but perhaps that's just my lack of imagination.
Lotus should be taking note though, if they want £100k+ for an Exige, it needs to look and feel like it's contemporaries at that price.
You've pretty much summed up why I couldn't stop the mods once I started! I've now reached a stage I'm really happy with though, so it's just about driving it and enjoying it. Got a big trip planned for next year in it which will be a trip of a lifetime.I've been tracking your progress via IG etc, I think your work to get the mirrors into the public domain is also very smart. That said I think your car pulls off all of the aesthetic bits as a package, but if anyone tried to just lob one or two bits onto their car in isolation it would look a bit naff.
... like sticking F12 vents in my S2 would look a bit naff. I fear the same for the mirrors too, actually think an older car in standard trim would suit the MG mirrors better, but perhaps that's just my lack of imagination.
Lotus should be taking note though, if they want £100k+ for an Exige, it needs to look and feel like it's contemporaries at that price.
WojaWabbit said:
Excellent choice of mods. The exposed shifter and the mirrors look superb.
Thanks, the mirrors were very rewarding, came out exactly how I wanted them!Gameface said:
The gear linkage conversion will be of most interest to other owners I suspect.
So Lotus were talking crap about it being incompatible? Very strange.
What was the cost to change if you don't mind me asking?
it required some holes being drilled into the chassis for the new mounting points, so therefore Lotus said it wasn't possible.So Lotus were talking crap about it being incompatible? Very strange.
What was the cost to change if you don't mind me asking?
Costs worked out at about £2500 I think.
RumbleOfThunder said:
That's one of the nicest interiors I've ever seen. Looks vibrant and exciting without being vulgar.
Thanks, it's sometimes hard to get the balance right. I might make a few small changes to tone it down a little in the future.Diablos-666 said:
I wouldn’t mind getting a pair of the side mirrors myself. Could you pass on their details?
They're unfortunately sold out at the moment, if you contact Alias23 through his website, he should be able to add you to the waiting list.https://alias23.com/collections/exige-s3-v6-all-pr...
The demand was quite a lot higher than expected, I expected to sell 5-10 sets, but we've sold over 30 sets with a waiting list of nearly 30 more people. I handed off the project to other people to supply them to people as I'd rather focus my time on my actual work.
MX6 said:
Lovely motor, I like the changes. Great photography as usual too.
Thanks rob999 said:
Satsuma/Citron meet up nudge George 
Maybe in the new year!deadscoob said:
What is the quality of the grip v3 lights Like? I have the v2 and although they look good from a distance, the quality of the ones I received wasn’t great and I spent a lot of time trying to improve them.
I never had an issue with the V2 quality, only the brightness of the lights. The V3 are significantly brighter, so I'm very happy about that.Went to Brands Hatch yesterday as Circuit-Days were doing a trackday there on the Indy Circuit. Unfortunately I had to get on with work in the afternoon, so so could only stay for the morning.
It was very very slippery, here's a little video of me discovering how little grip there was on my second lap out...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7YC_5QB5V8
It was very very slippery, here's a little video of me discovering how little grip there was on my second lap out...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7YC_5QB5V8
Max_Torque said:
Amazing how your relatively minor mods have made this Exige look so much more special than the standard car! Lotus should implement these changes for the production model!! :-)
Incidentally, what's the insurance like on a mod'd Exige?
In fairness to them, they have, the new Exiges look a lot nicer from the factory. Just a shame they're stupid money as a result of it...Incidentally, what's the insurance like on a mod'd Exige?
I set up a fleet policy for all the cars in my family (9 cars) with a good insurance company, so as a result it was £950 this year with mods declared.
I may have a Mercedes C-Class, but it's more fun to collect the Christmas tree in the Exige. Lots of thumbs up and smiles when we were driving around with it on the roof. Little video here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5iVbFggj_D
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5iVbFggj_D
As I've owned the car 3 years now and done a lot of mods, it seemed a good time to make a video about the car and the journey.
Hope you guys enjoy!
https://youtu.be/ZYfvjhvtEE0
Hope you guys enjoy!
https://youtu.be/ZYfvjhvtEE0
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