Back in a Lotus - 2006 Exige S
Discussion
Paul_M3 said:
If you're the sort of person who messes with brakes and pads relatively regularly, I'd highly recommend something like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-Tools-708247-P...
I've got a wide one that works in 4/6 piston calipers and pushes them all back simultaneously. It's one of those tools that you don't use that often, but when you do it really makes life easy.
Good idea, I'll add one to the basket.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-Tools-708247-P...
I've got a wide one that works in 4/6 piston calipers and pushes them all back simultaneously. It's one of those tools that you don't use that often, but when you do it really makes life easy.
Maybe one little job before Anglesey...
I started the car up tonight to move some things around and had the new 'rattle at idle' soundtrack that I'd attributed to the AC compressor... but my AC wasn't running. I had a poke around, felt fairly sure it was coming from the pulley area and the tensioner pulley had a bit of a shimmy to it whilst spinning. I took the aux belt off and there's definite play in the pulley, so I've whipped that off and got a new one ordered. Luckily the pulley is a pretty standard part and dead easy to swap, but the postman only has till' Thursday night to fetch me one... so for a backup plan I've popped the dust cover off the bearing and packed it with a bit of grease.
It's certainly quietened it down and taken the slop out of the bearing, but ideally I'll be fitting the new one before I depart on Friday.
Anglesey update incoming... but to complete the pulley tale:
New one arrived before I set off for Wales, so got it swapped out. Rattle still occurred at idle.... hmmm, more on this later - but I couldn't do anything about it now.
Set off for Wales on Friday night, in convoy with my Wife and daughter in the family car. Plan was for a weekend seeing the sights, then checking out Monday morning whilst I head to Anglesey circuit and the missus treks home.
Weather was of course glorious Sat/Sun, but the ever looming Monday forecast looked more formidable each time I dared check it.
Trackday was to be sessioned to help the circuit manage Covid limits etc, "my" team would go out second. We watched the first group tip toe around in what could only be described as monsoon conditions, and all too quickly it was our turn
I'd made an assertive decision to enjoy the day no matter what, typically I allow a bit of rain to spoil my fun before I even get on track. The fairly worn ZZR tyres I have were a bit of a concern, so the plan for the day was to chill out on the faster bits, and just have some fun in the corners instead.
That plan worked, and I did have fun in the opening session. I was expecting to keep my sessions short but before I knew it the chequered flag was flapping (probably not even voluntarily based on the windspeed!).
Second session under way, a little damper and the wind was getting silly. You could see marshals physically struggling to stay up right, the pitboard which signalled the end of session very nearly blew away each time I saw the poor bugger trying to pick it up, but still - the track felt fun, surprisingly grippy and felt like I had to provoke the car to get it moving around a bit. Then reality had a bit of a bite, I rounded the final turn to see a good friend of mine stranded in the middle of the track with some rather damaged bodywork. Our first red flag of the day, no injuries and a positive attitude - but a pretty bruised up Lotus limped back to the pits
I missed the next session just because I wasn't quite ready for one yet... so we used the time for a damage check on our fallen comrade (it later limped home, so nothing too bad structurally) but then running was pretty much halted completely. The marshals literally could not function, couldn't hear each other on the radios, couldn't wave flags - one poor chap apparently stuck in his cabin and could barely open the door! The weather really was that bad, people started leaving the track at a fairly regular rate from this point on but I decided to stick around as I wanted a break in the weather to drive home in if nothing else.
After a couple of false starts (sighting laps under safety car bailed out a couple of times I think), we finally got under way and the track was converted to open pit lane due to the lower numbers. I did a couple of laps but had issues with the car fogging up and had to creep back in, harnesses really can be difficult when you can't reach the vents and/or blower controls! I pretty much decided to pack up at this point, but just as I headed for the circuit exit - the wind stopped, the silence was suddenly deafening and the sun came out!
Car promptly unloaded and we had a final 30-40mins of pretty nice conditions.
Car felt great, I was still very nervous of the tyres so I pootled along the long bendy straight - but felt like I could lean on the car a fair bit in the slower corners. The LSD felt brilliant here, really pushing me through corners, setting up with a bit of mid corner understeer but easily controlling the attitude of the car with the throttle - loads of fun, I actually can't wait for my next wet trackday with some slightly calmer conditions so I can hone this further.
Pictures are fantastic, what a backdrop. Big Kudos to https://www.jamesrobertsphoto.com/ for sticking it out for that final 40mins.
Plus some more taken by friends:
Throughout the whole day I didn't really "play with" the car setup at all. Soft damper sessions and cold "road" pressure in the tyres. It had a good dose of understeer in the wet conditions but I could work with that, it felt 'safe' and encouraged a bit of pushing on in the corners. I really need to pull my finger out and get some decent all weather tyres on my spare wheels, I think I'd have enjoyed it even more, plus it would be considerably safer for the drive to/from track too.
LSD certainly earned its keep here, I have driven the car in the wet before, but it was very difficult to push the car through on balanced throttle without either spinning up the inside wheel or quick snaps of oversteer. Some corners I could pretty much steer through with no steering lock at all, it felt great.
I headed home feeling pretty happy, it wasn't the Anglesey day I'd hoped for - but it was definitely enjoyable.
Until.... 5 mins down the road from the circuit, the car conked out.
12 hours later (04:30 arrival back home) I'd been relayed back by my breakdown cover. Looking like a dead alternator/flat battery.... but more on that later, still ongoing.
New one arrived before I set off for Wales, so got it swapped out. Rattle still occurred at idle.... hmmm, more on this later - but I couldn't do anything about it now.
Set off for Wales on Friday night, in convoy with my Wife and daughter in the family car. Plan was for a weekend seeing the sights, then checking out Monday morning whilst I head to Anglesey circuit and the missus treks home.
Weather was of course glorious Sat/Sun, but the ever looming Monday forecast looked more formidable each time I dared check it.
Trackday was to be sessioned to help the circuit manage Covid limits etc, "my" team would go out second. We watched the first group tip toe around in what could only be described as monsoon conditions, and all too quickly it was our turn
I'd made an assertive decision to enjoy the day no matter what, typically I allow a bit of rain to spoil my fun before I even get on track. The fairly worn ZZR tyres I have were a bit of a concern, so the plan for the day was to chill out on the faster bits, and just have some fun in the corners instead.
That plan worked, and I did have fun in the opening session. I was expecting to keep my sessions short but before I knew it the chequered flag was flapping (probably not even voluntarily based on the windspeed!).
Second session under way, a little damper and the wind was getting silly. You could see marshals physically struggling to stay up right, the pitboard which signalled the end of session very nearly blew away each time I saw the poor bugger trying to pick it up, but still - the track felt fun, surprisingly grippy and felt like I had to provoke the car to get it moving around a bit. Then reality had a bit of a bite, I rounded the final turn to see a good friend of mine stranded in the middle of the track with some rather damaged bodywork. Our first red flag of the day, no injuries and a positive attitude - but a pretty bruised up Lotus limped back to the pits
I missed the next session just because I wasn't quite ready for one yet... so we used the time for a damage check on our fallen comrade (it later limped home, so nothing too bad structurally) but then running was pretty much halted completely. The marshals literally could not function, couldn't hear each other on the radios, couldn't wave flags - one poor chap apparently stuck in his cabin and could barely open the door! The weather really was that bad, people started leaving the track at a fairly regular rate from this point on but I decided to stick around as I wanted a break in the weather to drive home in if nothing else.
After a couple of false starts (sighting laps under safety car bailed out a couple of times I think), we finally got under way and the track was converted to open pit lane due to the lower numbers. I did a couple of laps but had issues with the car fogging up and had to creep back in, harnesses really can be difficult when you can't reach the vents and/or blower controls! I pretty much decided to pack up at this point, but just as I headed for the circuit exit - the wind stopped, the silence was suddenly deafening and the sun came out!
Car promptly unloaded and we had a final 30-40mins of pretty nice conditions.
Car felt great, I was still very nervous of the tyres so I pootled along the long bendy straight - but felt like I could lean on the car a fair bit in the slower corners. The LSD felt brilliant here, really pushing me through corners, setting up with a bit of mid corner understeer but easily controlling the attitude of the car with the throttle - loads of fun, I actually can't wait for my next wet trackday with some slightly calmer conditions so I can hone this further.
Pictures are fantastic, what a backdrop. Big Kudos to https://www.jamesrobertsphoto.com/ for sticking it out for that final 40mins.
Plus some more taken by friends:
Throughout the whole day I didn't really "play with" the car setup at all. Soft damper sessions and cold "road" pressure in the tyres. It had a good dose of understeer in the wet conditions but I could work with that, it felt 'safe' and encouraged a bit of pushing on in the corners. I really need to pull my finger out and get some decent all weather tyres on my spare wheels, I think I'd have enjoyed it even more, plus it would be considerably safer for the drive to/from track too.
LSD certainly earned its keep here, I have driven the car in the wet before, but it was very difficult to push the car through on balanced throttle without either spinning up the inside wheel or quick snaps of oversteer. Some corners I could pretty much steer through with no steering lock at all, it felt great.
I headed home feeling pretty happy, it wasn't the Anglesey day I'd hoped for - but it was definitely enjoyable.
Until.... 5 mins down the road from the circuit, the car conked out.
12 hours later (04:30 arrival back home) I'd been relayed back by my breakdown cover. Looking like a dead alternator/flat battery.... but more on that later, still ongoing.
Breakdown update....
A few miles from the circuit the car started popping and banging a bit more than usual, very burbly and then my dash lights started twinkling a bit. 50 metres before joining the A55 I felt a big loss in power so I dived off down a side road and found a layby, where the car would sit for the best part of 6 hours :|
Trying to restart it just gave a click, luckily I was travelling in convoy with some friends so they came with a rescue attempt. Multimeter showed battery was on its arse, so started suspecting alternator. Rewind a couple of days and my failed attempt to fix my 'idle rattle' with a new tensioner? Perhaps it was actually the alternator on its last legs, all I know is removing the aux belt stops the rattle.
I called it in to my breakdown cover (AutoAid), they don't have a fleet as such - but will ring around and get you recovered by local companies, for this distance it was always going to be a relay. Their communication was great though, and considering the late hour on a BH weekend I think they did pretty well. Whilst waiting, a DAF mobile mechanic stopped to try and help, he had a jump pack - car started on the button with that, but shuddered to a stop as soon as it was removed. This also confirmed the alternator was outputting no charge.
We had a layby dinner, then my friends made their way home. Nothing they could do now, top gear rules, etc etc.
It ended up being 3 legs home, one to Chester, another to Leeds and then finally home. It almost went smoothly, but my final recovery got delayed which meant it was 04:30 before I got home.
Following day after a pretty good nap, I got the car on the ramp for a nosey at the alternator and found what I thought to be a smoking gun pretty quickly:
The top of the alternator is supposed to be bolted to the SC nose bracket, but that bolt had sheared. Long time thread readers might recognise this, as my car (as far as I could tell) had always been missing a bolt here and the alternator had been sat on the wonk for potentially years. Clearly the belt tensioner did its job and held tension, but still - it had failed again and I guessed that this plus wet belt meant it had been spinning and not generating?
Getting the alternator out is a massive pig, but luckily drilling out the bolt remains was easy. For the first time ever, a left handed drill bit actually worked.
I had a trip to see Dave @ Seriously Lotus to pick up some supplies, ran my issues past him and got a recommendation for an alternator testing place on my way home. Based on how difficult it was to remove, I wanted to make sure it was OK. 20mins later, I had a report of a dead alternator! Glad I got it checked.
So I'm now wondering if the broken bolt is effect rather than cause? Failing alternator causing excessive vibrations maybe? Either way, they're hoping to have it repaired for me for the weekend... so fingers crossed. It does seem coincidental that a bolt that was previously missing has broken so soon, but as Dave pointed out - I bodged it with a nylon spacer that "just about fit" and a random bolt from my bolt box... so this time I'll put a known good 8,8 grade in, with a proper machined 13.5mm spacer to rule that out.
A few miles from the circuit the car started popping and banging a bit more than usual, very burbly and then my dash lights started twinkling a bit. 50 metres before joining the A55 I felt a big loss in power so I dived off down a side road and found a layby, where the car would sit for the best part of 6 hours :|
Trying to restart it just gave a click, luckily I was travelling in convoy with some friends so they came with a rescue attempt. Multimeter showed battery was on its arse, so started suspecting alternator. Rewind a couple of days and my failed attempt to fix my 'idle rattle' with a new tensioner? Perhaps it was actually the alternator on its last legs, all I know is removing the aux belt stops the rattle.
I called it in to my breakdown cover (AutoAid), they don't have a fleet as such - but will ring around and get you recovered by local companies, for this distance it was always going to be a relay. Their communication was great though, and considering the late hour on a BH weekend I think they did pretty well. Whilst waiting, a DAF mobile mechanic stopped to try and help, he had a jump pack - car started on the button with that, but shuddered to a stop as soon as it was removed. This also confirmed the alternator was outputting no charge.
We had a layby dinner, then my friends made their way home. Nothing they could do now, top gear rules, etc etc.
It ended up being 3 legs home, one to Chester, another to Leeds and then finally home. It almost went smoothly, but my final recovery got delayed which meant it was 04:30 before I got home.
Following day after a pretty good nap, I got the car on the ramp for a nosey at the alternator and found what I thought to be a smoking gun pretty quickly:
The top of the alternator is supposed to be bolted to the SC nose bracket, but that bolt had sheared. Long time thread readers might recognise this, as my car (as far as I could tell) had always been missing a bolt here and the alternator had been sat on the wonk for potentially years. Clearly the belt tensioner did its job and held tension, but still - it had failed again and I guessed that this plus wet belt meant it had been spinning and not generating?
Getting the alternator out is a massive pig, but luckily drilling out the bolt remains was easy. For the first time ever, a left handed drill bit actually worked.
I had a trip to see Dave @ Seriously Lotus to pick up some supplies, ran my issues past him and got a recommendation for an alternator testing place on my way home. Based on how difficult it was to remove, I wanted to make sure it was OK. 20mins later, I had a report of a dead alternator! Glad I got it checked.
So I'm now wondering if the broken bolt is effect rather than cause? Failing alternator causing excessive vibrations maybe? Either way, they're hoping to have it repaired for me for the weekend... so fingers crossed. It does seem coincidental that a bolt that was previously missing has broken so soon, but as Dave pointed out - I bodged it with a nylon spacer that "just about fit" and a random bolt from my bolt box... so this time I'll put a known good 8,8 grade in, with a proper machined 13.5mm spacer to rule that out.
Fonzey said:
Breakdown update....
A few miles from the circuit the car started popping and banging a bit more than usual, very burbly and then my dash lights started twinkling a bit. 50 metres before joining the A55 I felt a big loss in power so I dived off down a side road and found a layby, where the car would sit for the best part of 6 hours :|
Trying to restart it just gave a click, luckily I was travelling in convoy with some friends so they came with a rescue attempt. Multimeter showed battery was on its arse, so started suspecting alternator. Rewind a couple of days and my failed attempt to fix my 'idle rattle' with a new tensioner? Perhaps it was actually the alternator on its last legs, all I know is removing the aux belt stops the rattle.
I called it in to my breakdown cover (AutoAid), they don't have a fleet as such - but will ring around and get you recovered by local companies, for this distance it was always going to be a relay. Their communication was great though, and considering the late hour on a BH weekend I think they did pretty well. Whilst waiting, a DAF mobile mechanic stopped to try and help, he had a jump pack - car started on the button with that, but shuddered to a stop as soon as it was removed. This also confirmed the alternator was outputting no charge.
We had a layby dinner, then my friends made their way home. Nothing they could do now, top gear rules, etc etc.
It ended up being 3 legs home, one to Chester, another to Leeds and then finally home. It almost went smoothly, but my final recovery got delayed which meant it was 04:30 before I got home.
Following day after a pretty good nap, I got the car on the ramp for a nosey at the alternator and found what I thought to be a smoking gun pretty quickly:
The top of the alternator is supposed to be bolted to the SC nose bracket, but that bolt had sheared. Long time thread readers might recognise this, as my car (as far as I could tell) had always been missing a bolt here and the alternator had been sat on the wonk for potentially years. Clearly the belt tensioner did its job and held tension, but still - it had failed again and I guessed that this plus wet belt meant it had been spinning and not generating?
Getting the alternator out is a massive pig, but luckily drilling out the bolt remains was easy. For the first time ever, a left handed drill bit actually worked.
I had a trip to see Dave @ Seriously Lotus to pick up some supplies, ran my issues past him and got a recommendation for an alternator testing place on my way home. Based on how difficult it was to remove, I wanted to make sure it was OK. 20mins later, I had a report of a dead alternator! Glad I got it checked.
So I'm now wondering if the broken bolt is effect rather than cause? Failing alternator causing excessive vibrations maybe? Either way, they're hoping to have it repaired for me for the weekend... so fingers crossed. It does seem coincidental that a bolt that was previously missing has broken so soon, but as Dave pointed out - I bodged it with a nylon spacer that "just about fit" and a random bolt from my bolt box... so this time I'll put a known good 8,8 grade in, with a proper machined 13.5mm spacer to rule that out.
Least its not too complex. Wales always seems to take no prisoners. Went with 6 friends on a driving weekend + trackday 3 yrs ago. 4 out of 7 of us left Wales on a recovery truck! Puncture, breakdown, crash then my Mustang blew up its oil cooler on track at Anglesey and I had the same 14hr recovery Relay home hahaha. A few miles from the circuit the car started popping and banging a bit more than usual, very burbly and then my dash lights started twinkling a bit. 50 metres before joining the A55 I felt a big loss in power so I dived off down a side road and found a layby, where the car would sit for the best part of 6 hours :|
Trying to restart it just gave a click, luckily I was travelling in convoy with some friends so they came with a rescue attempt. Multimeter showed battery was on its arse, so started suspecting alternator. Rewind a couple of days and my failed attempt to fix my 'idle rattle' with a new tensioner? Perhaps it was actually the alternator on its last legs, all I know is removing the aux belt stops the rattle.
I called it in to my breakdown cover (AutoAid), they don't have a fleet as such - but will ring around and get you recovered by local companies, for this distance it was always going to be a relay. Their communication was great though, and considering the late hour on a BH weekend I think they did pretty well. Whilst waiting, a DAF mobile mechanic stopped to try and help, he had a jump pack - car started on the button with that, but shuddered to a stop as soon as it was removed. This also confirmed the alternator was outputting no charge.
We had a layby dinner, then my friends made their way home. Nothing they could do now, top gear rules, etc etc.
It ended up being 3 legs home, one to Chester, another to Leeds and then finally home. It almost went smoothly, but my final recovery got delayed which meant it was 04:30 before I got home.
Following day after a pretty good nap, I got the car on the ramp for a nosey at the alternator and found what I thought to be a smoking gun pretty quickly:
The top of the alternator is supposed to be bolted to the SC nose bracket, but that bolt had sheared. Long time thread readers might recognise this, as my car (as far as I could tell) had always been missing a bolt here and the alternator had been sat on the wonk for potentially years. Clearly the belt tensioner did its job and held tension, but still - it had failed again and I guessed that this plus wet belt meant it had been spinning and not generating?
Getting the alternator out is a massive pig, but luckily drilling out the bolt remains was easy. For the first time ever, a left handed drill bit actually worked.
I had a trip to see Dave @ Seriously Lotus to pick up some supplies, ran my issues past him and got a recommendation for an alternator testing place on my way home. Based on how difficult it was to remove, I wanted to make sure it was OK. 20mins later, I had a report of a dead alternator! Glad I got it checked.
So I'm now wondering if the broken bolt is effect rather than cause? Failing alternator causing excessive vibrations maybe? Either way, they're hoping to have it repaired for me for the weekend... so fingers crossed. It does seem coincidental that a bolt that was previously missing has broken so soon, but as Dave pointed out - I bodged it with a nylon spacer that "just about fit" and a random bolt from my bolt box... so this time I'll put a known good 8,8 grade in, with a proper machined 13.5mm spacer to rule that out.
jonny_frs said:
Gutting to see you needed recovery but pleased the issue isn’t too serious. Keep up the good work - love this car and your thread updates.
On another note - I’ve been considering signing up to Auto Aid. Would you recommend them after your recent experience?
On balance I can't really complain about AutoAid - my only previous experience with breakdown cover was on two occasions:On another note - I’ve been considering signing up to Auto Aid. Would you recommend them after your recent experience?
- AA guy did a temporary tyre repair for me in the Blyton Park paddock. I was worries about him fobbing me off as I was at a trackday, but he said it's within my policy and no drama - but he knows of some drivers who won't do it ??? Seems inconsistent at best and not something I'd want to rely on.
- RAC were supposed to recover my wife from a bypass 7 miles from home. Injector had died on her 182, she pulled over with her lights on as for all she knew, the car was about to explode... then battery died. It took them 6 hours (I'd long since collected her and gone home to wait) and eventually we gave up, paid £50 for a local guy to pick her up.
I went with AutoAid because part of their 'cover' is that you can arrange your own recovery and claim it back afterwards and I figured this was my most reliable bet for a potential trackday breakdown. On this occasion I let them sort it all out, their communication was fantastic and all relay pickups were arranged before my arrival. The final one got delayed, but that wasn't AutoAid's fault - it was a mechanical issue on the truck I believe.
So yes, pretty happy - I've only relied on them once so far and they got me home on a BH weekend, late at night and across the full width of the UK.
I collected my repaired alternator on Friday afternoon, it had a regulator swap - the other one looked fried. Possible water ingress??
Friday night I got to swapping it out, it took AGES. I probably removed a few too many things for access but it was still very awkward, lots of it blind and by feel but eventually it was in.
Fired the car up, it started on the button (battery had been on trickle all week) but multimeter and ECU logs were only showing 11.7V whilst the car was running. No charge from the alternator, bugger.
I tried three different batteries, quadruple checked everything but I couldn't get a bean out of it. Went to bed pretty pissed off.
This morning I took the alternator out, and back to the shop. They retested it and agreed it was dead - but said it was definitely tested OK before it left. Sometimes new parts just go wrong I guess, but I did have a niggling worry that something about the car had caused the new regulator to fail. He swapped it out there and then, and tested it in front of me - 14+ V clear as day on his rig.
On to tonight.... what a way to spend your weekend evenings.
Got Alternator back in within record time (30mins ish), started the car up with multimeter on the battery..... nada. Car fired fine, but voltage dropped to 11.7 and the battery warning light was constant on the dash.
I was properly gutted, but the previous night I tried a few different batteries and I still had a temporary battery installed, so out of desperation I swapped back to a different battery.
Restarted the car.....
Wooooo!
I tried three different batteries last night, but it seems like 1 of them was duff anyway. Even though it had enough juice to start and run a car, it wouldn't charge? Eh well, won't lose sleep over that.
For reference, my new spacer:
All fitted up with a correct grade (8.8) bolt. It should be a flange headed bolt though... so I'll swap that out when I find one.
Left car running for a bit, no dash light, a nice constant 14.40v on the meter (and logged to the ECU). I think we're in the clear.
As an added bonus, my accessory rattle at idle is gone - and also, the AC no longer rattles. Looks like the alternator (or at least, it's wonky mounting) was the cause for those all along.
Fingers crossed that's it for a while now and I can crack on with more exciting stuff.
Friday night I got to swapping it out, it took AGES. I probably removed a few too many things for access but it was still very awkward, lots of it blind and by feel but eventually it was in.
Fired the car up, it started on the button (battery had been on trickle all week) but multimeter and ECU logs were only showing 11.7V whilst the car was running. No charge from the alternator, bugger.
I tried three different batteries, quadruple checked everything but I couldn't get a bean out of it. Went to bed pretty pissed off.
This morning I took the alternator out, and back to the shop. They retested it and agreed it was dead - but said it was definitely tested OK before it left. Sometimes new parts just go wrong I guess, but I did have a niggling worry that something about the car had caused the new regulator to fail. He swapped it out there and then, and tested it in front of me - 14+ V clear as day on his rig.
On to tonight.... what a way to spend your weekend evenings.
Got Alternator back in within record time (30mins ish), started the car up with multimeter on the battery..... nada. Car fired fine, but voltage dropped to 11.7 and the battery warning light was constant on the dash.
I was properly gutted, but the previous night I tried a few different batteries and I still had a temporary battery installed, so out of desperation I swapped back to a different battery.Restarted the car.....
Wooooo!
I tried three different batteries last night, but it seems like 1 of them was duff anyway. Even though it had enough juice to start and run a car, it wouldn't charge? Eh well, won't lose sleep over that.
For reference, my new spacer:
All fitted up with a correct grade (8.8) bolt. It should be a flange headed bolt though... so I'll swap that out when I find one.
Left car running for a bit, no dash light, a nice constant 14.40v on the meter (and logged to the ECU). I think we're in the clear.
As an added bonus, my accessory rattle at idle is gone - and also, the AC no longer rattles. Looks like the alternator (or at least, it's wonky mounting) was the cause for those all along.
Fingers crossed that's it for a while now and I can crack on with more exciting stuff.
Well done the repair! Anglesey is a great track I’ve really enjoyed it when I’ve been there. Funnily enough past two track days I’ve had rain in my Integra and I’ve still really
Enjoyed it. I used to be the same when we raced 944 S2. Hated the rain due to the RWD. But the Integra feels far safer! Agree on the wind there too, but it couldn’t be much closer to the sea!
Enjoyed it. I used to be the same when we raced 944 S2. Hated the rain due to the RWD. But the Integra feels far safer! Agree on the wind there too, but it couldn’t be much closer to the sea!
Rob-c33sg said:
Well done the repair! Anglesey is a great track I’ve really enjoyed it when I’ve been there. Funnily enough past two track days I’ve had rain in my Integra and I’ve still really
Enjoyed it. I used to be the same when we raced 944 S2. Hated the rain due to the RWD. But the Integra feels far safer! Agree on the wind there too, but it couldn’t be much closer to the sea!
I think Anglesey is way up there, still a few more tracks to tick off before I can say I've done all of the 'main' ones in the UK but I think Anglesey must be top 2 at the worst!Enjoyed it. I used to be the same when we raced 944 S2. Hated the rain due to the RWD. But the Integra feels far safer! Agree on the wind there too, but it couldn’t be much closer to the sea!
A big issue with not enjoying rain in the Lotus is just poor tyre choice I think. I've seen/heard how quickly the ZZRs can bail out on you at speed so I've set myself a pretty modest ceiling for pushing on in the faster stuff as soon as there is a bit of rain. I'll pull my finger out and get my spare wheels shod in something more all-purpose*, I'm quite looking forward to a wet day at a track closer to home now.
- Something I'm getting a bit bitter about is the lack of good/modern options on the S2 wheels sizes. I know the V6 Exige owners get access to the new Michelin stuff which just seems to do everything, well. Wet or dry - they have tyres that just do it all and as a result you see very few V6 platform cars feeling the need to run something as focussed as a ZZR or R888. When the rain comes out, they don't seem to care!
Fonzey said:
so for a backup plan I've popped the dust cover off the bearing and packed it with a bit of grease.
It's certainly quietened it down and taken the slop out of the bearing, but ideally I'll be fitting the new one before I depart on Friday.
Please enlighten me, how on earth did you pop the cover off that!?It's certainly quietened it down and taken the slop out of the bearing, but ideally I'll be fitting the new one before I depart on Friday.
I've tried with these pulleys before and have had no success at all!
Fonzey said:
jonny_frs said:
Gutting to see you needed recovery but pleased the issue isn’t too serious. Keep up the good work - love this car and your thread updates.
On another note - I’ve been considering signing up to Auto Aid. Would you recommend them after your recent experience?
On balance I can't really complain about AutoAid - my only previous experience with breakdown cover was on two occasions:On another note - I’ve been considering signing up to Auto Aid. Would you recommend them after your recent experience?
- AA guy did a temporary tyre repair for me in the Blyton Park paddock. I was worries about him fobbing me off as I was at a trackday, but he said it's within my policy and no drama - but he knows of some drivers who won't do it ??? Seems inconsistent at best and not something I'd want to rely on.
- RAC were supposed to recover my wife from a bypass 7 miles from home. Injector had died on her 182, she pulled over with her lights on as for all she knew, the car was about to explode... then battery died. It took them 6 hours (I'd long since collected her and gone home to wait) and eventually we gave up, paid £50 for a local guy to pick her up.
I went with AutoAid because part of their 'cover' is that you can arrange your own recovery and claim it back afterwards and I figured this was my most reliable bet for a potential trackday breakdown. On this occasion I let them sort it all out, their communication was fantastic and all relay pickups were arranged before my arrival. The final one got delayed, but that wasn't AutoAid's fault - it was a mechanical issue on the truck I believe.
So yes, pretty happy - I've only relied on them once so far and they got me home on a BH weekend, late at night and across the full width of the UK.
Cheers - shall sign up now!
jonny_frs said:
Thanks for that, good to see that you’ve had a positive experience. Have been considering signing up with a recovery service since laying under the car trying to diagnose an issue after SCITP show a few years ago. In the end I nursed the car back home but it did get me thinking “what if”!
Cheers - shall sign up now!
Not to Hijack the thread but I would go with AutoAid or the AA, The RAC dont have enough recovery trucks so contract it out anyway, if AutoAid do this but also let you ring a recovery company and they cover the costs then its like the RAC just better. The AA are the only recovery trucks i see on the road out of them and the RAC. Cheers - shall sign up now!
The RAC have left me stranded twice in one year for over 8 hours, there compensation packages basically paid for me years membership
tommobot said:
Please enlighten me, how on earth did you pop the cover off that!?
I've tried with these pulleys before and have had no success at all!
Just popped out with a flat blade screwdriver, barely held in at all though - didn't require any force I've tried with these pulleys before and have had no success at all!
Small update, finally pulled my finger out and bought some tyres for my spare wheels.
Went for AD08RS. I've been paralysed by indecision for ages now, looking for a unicorn tyre - but this is as close as I'll get in S2 sizes I think. I've gone for a slightly experimental size setup too, fronts are 205 wide and rears are 235 wide (ZZRs are 195 and 225). Lotus fitted this wider size to later S3 Elise Cup cars (or at least, they did on the 260) which I didn't realise, and I stumbled across a couple of people running them on S2's too so we'll see how that works.
The ZZRs were a pleasant surprise at Anglesey in the downpour, but they still have that cloud of uncertainty over them as soon as the water starts pooling up. I feel particularly irresponsible driving them on wet motorways too, especially because the M62 drainage seems to get worse every time I'm on there... so this now gives me an option to fit some wheels more weather appropriate, but hopefully still stand up to the abuse of a dry day if the weather makes a miracle turnaround.
It's been a busy few weeks on the car... just not for me for once!
I took the car back down to RRR Engineering after I fixed the alternator for them to look at 'completing' the ECU install. I say 'complete' because it was always the intention to add a few more sensors and more importantly, the ADU digital dashboard. We couldn't do it last year as there just wasn't a shroud solution I was happy with, but RRR have figured something out and used my car as a bit of a model/template for future shrouds - so I hopefully there will be some "Lotus-ready" plug and play options available in the near future.
More on the dash later, but I had one complication first... an evening trackday popped up that I'd half-forgotten I'd booked and collection day for the car ended up being on the same day. Luckily the trackday was an evening session, but it meant setting off for the train station with all my trackday gear in tow
(yes that oil did leak and ruin that suitcase)
I have to admit I was a little nervous about seeing the dash install in the car. RRR prep a lot of race cars, and do a good job of it - but the fit/finish that I was hoping for is probably something that a racing application simply wouldn't care about. Probably a bit harsh/unfair to assume they wouldn't do a good job of it, but I was expecting it to be something that I'd maybe need to tweak or rework myself in future perhaps with some trimming etc. As it came out, I'm chuffed to bits with it.
Terrible picture, sun was everywhere - but it's the only one I currently have of the screen powered off:
As for the dash itself, the last few years have been pretty big for Lotus fitment digidashes. I loved the idea of the GARW project and tried to buy into that a few times, but due to stock and lack of comms it never really happened. Then the AIM stuff landed which is bloody brilliant and stepped the game up again but for me it was always going to me the ECUMaster ADU once I'd bought into that ecosystem because it adds a fair bit of functionality to my ECU and it's 100% customisable. Whether or not I'll ever use that functionality is an argument for another day
The headline and main benefit is that it adds a tonne of extra inputs/outputs that the Lotus loom doesn't have capacity for at the ECU end. Because my ECU is a 2zz PnP one, it is a one-to-one match to the wiring harness, which means you can only add sensors on pins that Lotus/Toyota left free in the standard loom... which wasn't much. My gearbox oil cooler pretty much maxed it out which is why I had the separate SPA Design oil temp/pressure gauge rather than having it logging to the ECU.
With the extra inputs granted by the ADU, I've added the following:
- Oil Temp
- Oil Pressure
(SPA gauge is now retired and I have a face vent back, wooo!)
- 4x Wheel Speed signals piggy backed from the ABS system
- GPS position/speed/gyro/etc
These can all terminate to the ADU, and then the ADU sends then as CANbus messages back to the ECU and it all works a treat, so now I can look back at my trackday logs and see how oil temps/pressures were at various places on track. The track day analysis stuff is something that I plan to have a LOT of fun with.
Obviously it also does lap timing, if I participated in track events where this was legal it's something I'd probably enjoy, but I don't, so I won't. IF I did though, it has the popular tracks pre-set into the device and will automatically detect them when you cross the start/finish line and automatically start timing with predictive times/deltas etc. If it's an unknown track, you can either upload the coordinates of the start line in the ADU software or use a dash button as you cross the line on your sighting laps.
The individual wheel speed sensors gives me the option to use proper traction control, the previous strategy was RPM based and would just look for unusual spikes in RPM and frankly it sucked. No way could you rely on it to drive hard in any kind of dodgy conditions. Now I can set proper slip targets and combined with a 10-way adjustment knob I can have varying levels of aggression for it. It's definitely something I'll need to tweak and play with on a wet track and unlikely to factor in on a 'normal' day as the car still feels over gripped in most circumstances.
The last core feature is the fact it's completely configurable in terms of the dash layouts, pretty much whatever you can think of you can setup with a bit of imagination. It's very flexible and has some good logic built in for configuring alarms and stuff like that (such as oil pressure warnings if RPM exceeds a certain level, AFR warnings at 100% TPS, etc etc). RRR configured the dash with a generic 'race mode' one which I think is fairly standard across the range, and their interpretation of a Lotus OEM-style one which I really like for road use. I have tweaked both though, decluttered on some information I didn't need/want and added some that I did, knocked some of the ECUMaster branding off of it and tweaked some behaviour like the shift lights etc to be a bit more wannabe F1 driver.
These are the screens I currently have setup:
Road:
Race: (since debranded the ECUmaster background)
Diagnostics: (since swapped fuel pressure (not monitored on 2zz) with gearbox oil temp)
I'll probably add another screen in the near future for 'tuning'. RPM, Speed, Knock Sensor and AFR Sensor readings etc.
The out of box dashes were pretty good, and really quite usable - but half the reason I bought this was to have something else to mess about with. The only issue with the out of box screens was that the 'race mode' RPM bar only went up to 8k, but the shift lights were set correctly for a 2ZZ limiter so it wasn't a major problem.
In terms of physical inputs it uses the pre-existing button for resetting the trip computer for swapping pages (press), identifying a start line of an unknown track (hold) and acknowledging alarms (press). RRR added a rotary switch for the TC adjust, and also there's a USB port mounted away for the data logging.
Back to the story, I collected the car from RRR and after a quick training course set off for Cadwell. I was booked on for track time starting at 17:30.
Trackday went well and the new dash didn't throw any niggles.... apart from one very minor one when I filled up with fuel, the fuel bar went to empty rather than full, but over the first mile of driving it filled itself back up again. No doubt some 'noise filtering' going on and something I can tweak out, but other than that the fuel gauge behaved impeccably all night.
I've not been to Cadwell in an age, and never in this car - so unfortunately I didn't really get up to speed properly but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I screwed up the schedule a bit and thought the trackday ended at 20:30, so I went out for my final session at 19:55 just in time to see the 20:00 chequered flag :lol: That was a bit gutting as I'd had an extended break leading up to that to let everything cool down properly for one last go.
It was bloody hot though, I think I took 12psi out of my tyres after the first session and my GoPro was really struggling. Dismounted it to charge it between sessions and it was unbearably hot to the touch and I later found that it was only recording the first few minutes of a session which was a bit annoying. Starting to fall out with GoPro a bit now tbh, done three trackdays this year so far and haven't had smooth sailing on any of them yet with regards to footage.
Photographer did a decent job though
Oh, and I melted/lost another two centre caps.
I took the car back down to RRR Engineering after I fixed the alternator for them to look at 'completing' the ECU install. I say 'complete' because it was always the intention to add a few more sensors and more importantly, the ADU digital dashboard. We couldn't do it last year as there just wasn't a shroud solution I was happy with, but RRR have figured something out and used my car as a bit of a model/template for future shrouds - so I hopefully there will be some "Lotus-ready" plug and play options available in the near future.
More on the dash later, but I had one complication first... an evening trackday popped up that I'd half-forgotten I'd booked and collection day for the car ended up being on the same day. Luckily the trackday was an evening session, but it meant setting off for the train station with all my trackday gear in tow
(yes that oil did leak and ruin that suitcase)
I have to admit I was a little nervous about seeing the dash install in the car. RRR prep a lot of race cars, and do a good job of it - but the fit/finish that I was hoping for is probably something that a racing application simply wouldn't care about. Probably a bit harsh/unfair to assume they wouldn't do a good job of it, but I was expecting it to be something that I'd maybe need to tweak or rework myself in future perhaps with some trimming etc. As it came out, I'm chuffed to bits with it.
Terrible picture, sun was everywhere - but it's the only one I currently have of the screen powered off:
As for the dash itself, the last few years have been pretty big for Lotus fitment digidashes. I loved the idea of the GARW project and tried to buy into that a few times, but due to stock and lack of comms it never really happened. Then the AIM stuff landed which is bloody brilliant and stepped the game up again but for me it was always going to me the ECUMaster ADU once I'd bought into that ecosystem because it adds a fair bit of functionality to my ECU and it's 100% customisable. Whether or not I'll ever use that functionality is an argument for another day
The headline and main benefit is that it adds a tonne of extra inputs/outputs that the Lotus loom doesn't have capacity for at the ECU end. Because my ECU is a 2zz PnP one, it is a one-to-one match to the wiring harness, which means you can only add sensors on pins that Lotus/Toyota left free in the standard loom... which wasn't much. My gearbox oil cooler pretty much maxed it out which is why I had the separate SPA Design oil temp/pressure gauge rather than having it logging to the ECU.
With the extra inputs granted by the ADU, I've added the following:
- Oil Temp
- Oil Pressure
(SPA gauge is now retired and I have a face vent back, wooo!)
- 4x Wheel Speed signals piggy backed from the ABS system
- GPS position/speed/gyro/etc
These can all terminate to the ADU, and then the ADU sends then as CANbus messages back to the ECU and it all works a treat, so now I can look back at my trackday logs and see how oil temps/pressures were at various places on track. The track day analysis stuff is something that I plan to have a LOT of fun with.
Obviously it also does lap timing, if I participated in track events where this was legal it's something I'd probably enjoy, but I don't, so I won't. IF I did though, it has the popular tracks pre-set into the device and will automatically detect them when you cross the start/finish line and automatically start timing with predictive times/deltas etc. If it's an unknown track, you can either upload the coordinates of the start line in the ADU software or use a dash button as you cross the line on your sighting laps.
The individual wheel speed sensors gives me the option to use proper traction control, the previous strategy was RPM based and would just look for unusual spikes in RPM and frankly it sucked. No way could you rely on it to drive hard in any kind of dodgy conditions. Now I can set proper slip targets and combined with a 10-way adjustment knob I can have varying levels of aggression for it. It's definitely something I'll need to tweak and play with on a wet track and unlikely to factor in on a 'normal' day as the car still feels over gripped in most circumstances.
The last core feature is the fact it's completely configurable in terms of the dash layouts, pretty much whatever you can think of you can setup with a bit of imagination. It's very flexible and has some good logic built in for configuring alarms and stuff like that (such as oil pressure warnings if RPM exceeds a certain level, AFR warnings at 100% TPS, etc etc). RRR configured the dash with a generic 'race mode' one which I think is fairly standard across the range, and their interpretation of a Lotus OEM-style one which I really like for road use. I have tweaked both though, decluttered on some information I didn't need/want and added some that I did, knocked some of the ECUMaster branding off of it and tweaked some behaviour like the shift lights etc to be a bit more wannabe F1 driver.
These are the screens I currently have setup:
Road:
Race: (since debranded the ECUmaster background)
Diagnostics: (since swapped fuel pressure (not monitored on 2zz) with gearbox oil temp)
I'll probably add another screen in the near future for 'tuning'. RPM, Speed, Knock Sensor and AFR Sensor readings etc.
The out of box dashes were pretty good, and really quite usable - but half the reason I bought this was to have something else to mess about with. The only issue with the out of box screens was that the 'race mode' RPM bar only went up to 8k, but the shift lights were set correctly for a 2ZZ limiter so it wasn't a major problem.
In terms of physical inputs it uses the pre-existing button for resetting the trip computer for swapping pages (press), identifying a start line of an unknown track (hold) and acknowledging alarms (press). RRR added a rotary switch for the TC adjust, and also there's a USB port mounted away for the data logging.
Back to the story, I collected the car from RRR and after a quick training course set off for Cadwell. I was booked on for track time starting at 17:30.
Trackday went well and the new dash didn't throw any niggles.... apart from one very minor one when I filled up with fuel, the fuel bar went to empty rather than full, but over the first mile of driving it filled itself back up again. No doubt some 'noise filtering' going on and something I can tweak out, but other than that the fuel gauge behaved impeccably all night.
I've not been to Cadwell in an age, and never in this car - so unfortunately I didn't really get up to speed properly but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I screwed up the schedule a bit and thought the trackday ended at 20:30, so I went out for my final session at 19:55 just in time to see the 20:00 chequered flag :lol: That was a bit gutting as I'd had an extended break leading up to that to let everything cool down properly for one last go.
It was bloody hot though, I think I took 12psi out of my tyres after the first session and my GoPro was really struggling. Dismounted it to charge it between sessions and it was unbearably hot to the touch and I later found that it was only recording the first few minutes of a session which was a bit annoying. Starting to fall out with GoPro a bit now tbh, done three trackdays this year so far and haven't had smooth sailing on any of them yet with regards to footage.
Photographer did a decent job though
Oh, and I melted/lost another two centre caps.
I've pretty much settled on a dash config that I'm happy with for now, no doubt it'll change again after a few trackdays.
The aesthetic is largely the same, knocked off the ECUMaster branding and changed a few yellows to blues. Reconfigured the shift lights to be wannabe Lewis Hamilton (GGG, RRR, BBB rather than the default GGG, AAA, RRR) and decluttered some stuff that I didn't need.
In addition to that I've set some alarms/functions up:
- Gearbox oil exceeding 105deg C
- Lambda exceeding 1.0 whilst TPS is above 95% (mainly to warn me about sensor failure)
- Coolant above 105deg C
- Oil Temp above 100deg C
...and then I've got a wee blue light on the dash to tell me the engine is 'cold' if either coolant or engine oil are sub 60 deg.
Had a bit of a play with CANbus streams too, impressive how much data I can retrieve so there's still some room for learning/tinkering to come.
Final thing, I've been keeping an eye on my logs for TC activity just so I know what to look out for if/when I ever start using it in anger (wet trackday maybe?). In its most aggressive setting on the road it is kicking in a fair bit but it's very, very subtle. It just trims a little bit of ignition advance which is barely perceptible in the car (if at all) which gives it a lot more potential than the agricultural fuel cut of the previous setup (though it will implement fuel cut at higher levels of slip). Considering slip events on the road last fractions of a second, it's amazing to see how quickly it responds, matches the slip target and then gets you on your way. My current slip targets based on the 10-way rotary generally go from 5% at 10, to around 11% at position '1', but gear, TPS and vehicle speed all factor in with their own multipliers too so it will slip more or less depending on those. I'd like to know how some other TC systems are configured out of the box though on other platforms, as I have no idea what is considered a 'good' amount of slip!
I took the car over to a local 'cars and coffee' type event at the Motorist Hub halfway between York and Leeds. It's really gained popularity since opening a few years ago and now has massive attendances most nights.
A fellow owner got a couple of snaps for me as I was too busy eating.
Good turnout, some nice cars to look at but a gaggle of TVRs turning up really did turn my head and made me wonder for a brief 10mins what I'm doing messing around with 4bangers all the time...
The aesthetic is largely the same, knocked off the ECUMaster branding and changed a few yellows to blues. Reconfigured the shift lights to be wannabe Lewis Hamilton (GGG, RRR, BBB rather than the default GGG, AAA, RRR) and decluttered some stuff that I didn't need.
In addition to that I've set some alarms/functions up:
- Gearbox oil exceeding 105deg C
- Lambda exceeding 1.0 whilst TPS is above 95% (mainly to warn me about sensor failure)
- Coolant above 105deg C
- Oil Temp above 100deg C
...and then I've got a wee blue light on the dash to tell me the engine is 'cold' if either coolant or engine oil are sub 60 deg.
Had a bit of a play with CANbus streams too, impressive how much data I can retrieve so there's still some room for learning/tinkering to come.
Final thing, I've been keeping an eye on my logs for TC activity just so I know what to look out for if/when I ever start using it in anger (wet trackday maybe?). In its most aggressive setting on the road it is kicking in a fair bit but it's very, very subtle. It just trims a little bit of ignition advance which is barely perceptible in the car (if at all) which gives it a lot more potential than the agricultural fuel cut of the previous setup (though it will implement fuel cut at higher levels of slip). Considering slip events on the road last fractions of a second, it's amazing to see how quickly it responds, matches the slip target and then gets you on your way. My current slip targets based on the 10-way rotary generally go from 5% at 10, to around 11% at position '1', but gear, TPS and vehicle speed all factor in with their own multipliers too so it will slip more or less depending on those. I'd like to know how some other TC systems are configured out of the box though on other platforms, as I have no idea what is considered a 'good' amount of slip!
I took the car over to a local 'cars and coffee' type event at the Motorist Hub halfway between York and Leeds. It's really gained popularity since opening a few years ago and now has massive attendances most nights.
A fellow owner got a couple of snaps for me as I was too busy eating.
Good turnout, some nice cars to look at but a gaggle of TVRs turning up really did turn my head and made me wonder for a brief 10mins what I'm doing messing around with 4bangers all the time...
Yes Definitely, I was (still am) a big fan of the GARW project but it's just not carried momentum forward, stuff like GPS logging was due years ago now.
For polish I still don't think you can quite beat the AIM for an OEM install experience, but the ECUMaster is only really an adapter loom and shroud away from matching that, so watch this space.
For polish I still don't think you can quite beat the AIM for an OEM install experience, but the ECUMaster is only really an adapter loom and shroud away from matching that, so watch this space.
Couple of updates for the car, just recovered from an exhausting day at Croft - so time for an update.
One of the changes I meant to, but neglected to make to my car during the winter rebuild was machining down the steering arms a bit to give me some more negative camber at the front. Not sure why, I've always felt the geometry of the car has been acceptable but when people tell you 'its better', curiosity kicks in I guess. I kept putting it off, but with Croft looming I really wanted to try it to see if a stronger front end at speed would give me more confidence into the Jim Clark Esses to take them closer to the 'flat out' the car is probably capable of. (spoiler alert: it didn't).
In the week before Croft, I made the call to buy some aftermarket steering arms instead. They're nothing fancy, and are known for not offering the -1deg extra camber advertised but still it was better than nothing as I'd run out of time to take my steering arms somewhere.
By keeping my camber shims as-is (just the ABS bracket on the OS and ABS bracket+1mm NS) I gained approx -0.6. If I remove the ABS shims too, then I get closer to -1.0 (0.9ish) but I need to cable tie the ABS sensor wiring to something. I opted to go with the intermediate setting for now, bringing my negative front camber to 1.3 from the 0.7 it had on the standard arms.
The next challenge was toe, if the arms are kept the same and just the shims are modified you can get away without a tracking tweak because the steering geometry remains the same, but these aftermarket arms had a different relative location for the pivot point so my front track was way out. Once again, with no time left I couldn't go get it properly setup so I got the string out and did by best... thinking it was pretty close (spoiler alert: it wasn't)
The road test of the new camber setup felt a bit odd, assumed it was my dodgy toe angle so took it to a local tyre fitting place who have some laser gear. They don't take bookings and for lunch money they'll at least make sure the car is roughly lined up, they corrected my settings to what I hoped was something like neutral toe at the front (spoiler alert: they didn't).
Got the car home, it still felt a bit wonky... about ready to throw the towel in and just track it as it was - I found this in a rear tyre.
Bugger...
Luckily I had a pile of spare ZZRs waiting to go, so back to the tyre shop one more time. Car now felt 'acceptable', but still a bit vague just off-centre if I was being picky. Despite that though I was pretty convinced the car felt good when heavily loaded up, better than before.
Quick pre-trackday wash and it was time for the big day, the LoT Croft day probably the one I look forward to the most.
I was joined by my neighbour Geoff for the first spectator-legal trackday I'd done since Covid arrived, it was nice to have some of the social aspect back... plus he bought his converted T5 camper which was amazing for pitlane hospitality.
Car honestly felt 'fine' all day, nothing amazing but it didn't feel dangerous or wayward at all. The confidence I was hoping for in the faster stuff just didn't come, and I was actually a fair bit slower through there than I was last year - so either I'd just not taken enough brave pills that day, or the steering alignment was playing on my mind subconsciously - either way, missed opportunity I think but I didn't end up in the field, so there is that.
Had a good day despite the lacklustre performance on the quicker stuff, the differential felt great through the complex, fairly confident I'm much quicker through there now. Car tended to understeer through the hairpin rather than spinning up the inside rear as it used to do - but with a bit of practise I could drive around that, turn in on the brakes a bit and get the back rotating - then there was bags of grip to fire me out. Had a few comments from other cars that I was pretty quick out of there in comparison - so seal of approval all round.
Geoff caught some driveby clips, love the sound of this car from the outside... shame I never get to hear it :lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EV7o1cIbbA&ab...
And I got some, but not much footage from the gopro too. I've had issues all year with my gopros, I think it's overheating - so I limited its use this time to try and save it. Got a couple of sessions, but missed my last one which had the typically clear and quick laps - but still down on my previous visits, so nothing amazing was missed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VILxZdNNQl4&ab...
Really good day despite the niggles, the ECUMaster dash was flawless all day. If you watch the video you may notice a 'gearbox oil warning' come up on the dash towards the end of a session, I arbitrarily set the threshold fairly low (though I've got no idea where it should really be set??) to make sure alarms were working ok. I'll raise it for the next trackday. The logs did show that gearbox oil temp steadily rises through the sessions with no sign of stabilising (in fact, it starts to speed up) so I'm pretty sure a cooler is on the cards if I did want to push for longer sessions. We'll see.
Croft was also the first trackday that I'd datalogged properly with the dash, and that's been a lot of fun playing with. You can select two laps to compare, choosing whatever metrics I want from the dash or ECU and then when I hover the mouse over a particular point on the graphs, it shows on the track map where the two laps are (represented by the blue and red dots).
In a competitive context the advantage of this sort of stuff is pretty obvious, but for me just geeking around it's a great window into what the car is doing on circuit and how certain safety/reliability features are performing. You can see the dips in oil pressure for example during the >1G turns, dropping as low as 2.6bar in the Hawthorne chicane. Still within spec for the engine, but still shows a slight weakness in the sump/pickup and you can see how bigger problems could emerge from a longer/sweeping application of >1G.
As for traction control, I didn't make use of it all day - car had a couple of slippy moments in the hairpin but really gripped up nicely all day. Probably will be a wet day before I get to play with that properly.
Over the weekend I had a coffee morning arranged with some Lotus friends at a local workshop that happened to have laser alignment gear on hand, so thought it would be rude not to stick it on and see how the car was sat...
Toe NSF: +0'15'
Toe OSF: +0'01'
It was supposed to be just on the negative side of neutral, something like -0'01'
:|
Donington Evening next in a couple of weeks, I'll try not to feck around with the car too much before then. Maybe Craners will be my first proper test of a higher camber setup.
One of the changes I meant to, but neglected to make to my car during the winter rebuild was machining down the steering arms a bit to give me some more negative camber at the front. Not sure why, I've always felt the geometry of the car has been acceptable but when people tell you 'its better', curiosity kicks in I guess. I kept putting it off, but with Croft looming I really wanted to try it to see if a stronger front end at speed would give me more confidence into the Jim Clark Esses to take them closer to the 'flat out' the car is probably capable of. (spoiler alert: it didn't).
In the week before Croft, I made the call to buy some aftermarket steering arms instead. They're nothing fancy, and are known for not offering the -1deg extra camber advertised but still it was better than nothing as I'd run out of time to take my steering arms somewhere.
By keeping my camber shims as-is (just the ABS bracket on the OS and ABS bracket+1mm NS) I gained approx -0.6. If I remove the ABS shims too, then I get closer to -1.0 (0.9ish) but I need to cable tie the ABS sensor wiring to something. I opted to go with the intermediate setting for now, bringing my negative front camber to 1.3 from the 0.7 it had on the standard arms.
The next challenge was toe, if the arms are kept the same and just the shims are modified you can get away without a tracking tweak because the steering geometry remains the same, but these aftermarket arms had a different relative location for the pivot point so my front track was way out. Once again, with no time left I couldn't go get it properly setup so I got the string out and did by best... thinking it was pretty close (spoiler alert: it wasn't)
The road test of the new camber setup felt a bit odd, assumed it was my dodgy toe angle so took it to a local tyre fitting place who have some laser gear. They don't take bookings and for lunch money they'll at least make sure the car is roughly lined up, they corrected my settings to what I hoped was something like neutral toe at the front (spoiler alert: they didn't).
Got the car home, it still felt a bit wonky... about ready to throw the towel in and just track it as it was - I found this in a rear tyre.
Bugger...
Luckily I had a pile of spare ZZRs waiting to go, so back to the tyre shop one more time. Car now felt 'acceptable', but still a bit vague just off-centre if I was being picky. Despite that though I was pretty convinced the car felt good when heavily loaded up, better than before.
Quick pre-trackday wash and it was time for the big day, the LoT Croft day probably the one I look forward to the most.
I was joined by my neighbour Geoff for the first spectator-legal trackday I'd done since Covid arrived, it was nice to have some of the social aspect back... plus he bought his converted T5 camper which was amazing for pitlane hospitality.
Car honestly felt 'fine' all day, nothing amazing but it didn't feel dangerous or wayward at all. The confidence I was hoping for in the faster stuff just didn't come, and I was actually a fair bit slower through there than I was last year - so either I'd just not taken enough brave pills that day, or the steering alignment was playing on my mind subconsciously - either way, missed opportunity I think but I didn't end up in the field, so there is that.
Had a good day despite the lacklustre performance on the quicker stuff, the differential felt great through the complex, fairly confident I'm much quicker through there now. Car tended to understeer through the hairpin rather than spinning up the inside rear as it used to do - but with a bit of practise I could drive around that, turn in on the brakes a bit and get the back rotating - then there was bags of grip to fire me out. Had a few comments from other cars that I was pretty quick out of there in comparison - so seal of approval all round.
Geoff caught some driveby clips, love the sound of this car from the outside... shame I never get to hear it :lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EV7o1cIbbA&ab...
And I got some, but not much footage from the gopro too. I've had issues all year with my gopros, I think it's overheating - so I limited its use this time to try and save it. Got a couple of sessions, but missed my last one which had the typically clear and quick laps - but still down on my previous visits, so nothing amazing was missed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VILxZdNNQl4&ab...
Really good day despite the niggles, the ECUMaster dash was flawless all day. If you watch the video you may notice a 'gearbox oil warning' come up on the dash towards the end of a session, I arbitrarily set the threshold fairly low (though I've got no idea where it should really be set??) to make sure alarms were working ok. I'll raise it for the next trackday. The logs did show that gearbox oil temp steadily rises through the sessions with no sign of stabilising (in fact, it starts to speed up) so I'm pretty sure a cooler is on the cards if I did want to push for longer sessions. We'll see.
Croft was also the first trackday that I'd datalogged properly with the dash, and that's been a lot of fun playing with. You can select two laps to compare, choosing whatever metrics I want from the dash or ECU and then when I hover the mouse over a particular point on the graphs, it shows on the track map where the two laps are (represented by the blue and red dots).
In a competitive context the advantage of this sort of stuff is pretty obvious, but for me just geeking around it's a great window into what the car is doing on circuit and how certain safety/reliability features are performing. You can see the dips in oil pressure for example during the >1G turns, dropping as low as 2.6bar in the Hawthorne chicane. Still within spec for the engine, but still shows a slight weakness in the sump/pickup and you can see how bigger problems could emerge from a longer/sweeping application of >1G.
As for traction control, I didn't make use of it all day - car had a couple of slippy moments in the hairpin but really gripped up nicely all day. Probably will be a wet day before I get to play with that properly.
Over the weekend I had a coffee morning arranged with some Lotus friends at a local workshop that happened to have laser alignment gear on hand, so thought it would be rude not to stick it on and see how the car was sat...
Toe NSF: +0'15'
Toe OSF: +0'01'
It was supposed to be just on the negative side of neutral, something like -0'01'
:|
Donington Evening next in a couple of weeks, I'll try not to feck around with the car too much before then. Maybe Craners will be my first proper test of a higher camber setup.
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