2007 Lotus 2-Eleven

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Discussion

MDifficult

2,019 posts

184 months

Monday 20th February 2023
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Another fantastic couple of updates - what a thing this is going to be when you're done!

EmBe

7,498 posts

268 months

Tuesday 21st February 2023
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Agreed. I don't comment as much as I probably should, but I'm thoroughly enjoying your updates, just as I did those on the Exige thread.
Just want to let you know your efforts in posting at the level of detail you do are appreciated.

shalmaneser

5,930 posts

194 months

Tuesday 21st February 2023
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As above, always an enjoyable read! This is going to be a wonderful example.

Fonzey

Original Poster:

2,056 posts

126 months

Thursday 23rd February 2023
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Thank you, kind comments. Glad people are enjoying, as I keep saying - I write the thread mainly for me, so anyone else enjoying it is a bonus.

Got a few more finishing touches done.

The worst of my splitter remake attempts got some paint. I'd spent ages sanding it to flatten the grain. but as soon as I painted it, the grain rose up again. Bit annoying, but need a better plan for next time.



The underside was barely sanded at all, as it'll get scuffed up within about a mile from my house. All my countersunk holes lined up nicely though.



I'm a bit harsh on this splitter, it's the worst of my efforts but still really happy with it. It'll probably stay on the car for the foreseeable but I can spend a bit of time on my next version to see if I can perfect some techniques.

Next up, and last job really was to sort out arch protection at the front. Lotus didn't fit arch liners cos' race car but most owners have figured something out to stop the front clam from being smashed to pieces from the inside.

Mine had previously been fitted with some dynamat foam, but despite still being in one piece it hadn't done the job. Couple of star cracks on the OS wing. I have made an effort to improve it by fitting some Bostik roof flashing tape. I had a roll left over from arch liner repairs on my Exige.



It's dead easy to work with, cut to shape and it's barely sticky at all in the cold garage temps so you can keep peeling it off and repositioning etc. Once happy with it, quick blast with a heatgun and it sticks like tar (which I think it might be!) and once cooled off goes rock hard.

I then sprayed with contact adhesive and replaced the dynamat stuff over the top, so I'm doubled up.

You can just see my carbon skinned/repaired arch "bucket" too in that shot peeking out. They never did get the final wet sand/polish that they deserved but they're fine for their purpose.



Had a quick test of my intercom system, works a treat.



Bolted the diffuser on, mounted front undertray (still needs replacing, it's a mess) and rolled it out of the garage fully clothed for the first time since November.



...then straight in the trailer and off to @seriouslylotus for spanner check and geo.

snotrag

14,446 posts

210 months

Thursday 23rd February 2023
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Yep, always enjoy reading this, as per the other posters. I keep missing the NYLOC meets so I've not had a chance for a nose round yet, I'm sure i'll get to see it soon I hope!

Fonzey said:
Rolled it out of the garage fully clothed
I'm not really sure that amount of 'bodywork' counts as fully clothed!

EmBe

7,498 posts

268 months

Thursday 23rd February 2023
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Fonzey said:
The worst of my splitter remake attempts got some paint. I'd spent ages sanding it to flatten the grain. but as soon as I painted it, the grain rose up again. Bit annoying, but need a better plan for next time.
Sanding sealer is what you need - https://www.toolstation.com/natural-pale-shellac-s... - apply, sand and then paint over and you won't get the raised grain.

Fonzey said:
Had a quick test of my intercom system, works a treat.

Your wife looks about as happy as mine at 'helping' in the garage biggrin

MTW

433 posts

39 months

Thursday 23rd February 2023
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Looking good, gives a new meaning to the phase “a bit of winter maintenance”. I can imagine it’s a great feeling rolling it out after all the work you have carried out. I look forward to seeing and hearing it back up and running.

C70R

17,596 posts

103 months

Thursday 23rd February 2023
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What a fantastic thread. Love the can-do attitude to fixing and improving things.

Fonzey

Original Poster:

2,056 posts

126 months

Monday 27th February 2023
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EmBe said:
Sanding sealer is what you need - https://www.toolstation.com/natural-pale-shellac-s... - apply, sand and then paint over and you won't get the raised grain.
Thank you! That sounds like just the ticket. Will give it a try on Splitter #2.

Dave and John spent a fair few hours over a couple of days checking out the car and making sure I hadn't made many stupid mistakes.



Was great to see the newly refurbished workshop in use, lots of hard work gone into it - few finishing touches still to come, but it's a proper job. Actually took my shoes off to come inside, will fetch my indoor Crocs next time.

John has a good eye for detail and noted a couple of snags, mainly incorrect fixing types in a couple of places. Easily sorted, and John also bled my brakes for me for hopefully the last time.

Generally though the car was all the right shape, so it was time to move onto rideheight and geo.

A big regret is not measuring the setup of the car before taking it apart. It drove really well, but it would have been nice to have had a reference point. The only thing we did still have a comparable datapoint for was rideheight, so that was adjusted first.

The spec for this car is 100mm front ground clearance (measured from front jacking points to floor) with a 10mm rake. This car was a fair bit lower than that, in the mid-high 80mm range. This was music to my ears, as it meant I'd been needlessly bouncing off the local roads. The single biggest killer for this car being a 'fun' road car was ground clearance.

Aesthetically though, the car suits the much lower ground clearance. The front arch gaps are massive to allow for clearance so it does look a bit goofy now that it's running the proper rideheight. Still, function over form n' that.

The car was setup with my body weight in the driver seat and we landed on:

100/110mm ride height
-1.7 front camber
-2.8 rear camber
Touch of toe-out at the front
Touch of toe-in at the rear
Shed loads of castor

Unlike the Exige, there's still loads of adjustability either way around these figures. Could add a fair whack more camber if I think it needs it.

Whilst John was setting up the car, Dave was swearing in the corner turning a sheet of aluminium into a couple of front undertrays for me.




He was critical of his work initially, but I think we all agreed he did a fab job. I now have unblemished splitter and undertray and it looks loads better for it.



John gave me a short list of hints and tips for fettling a few bits (strategic cable ties for arch liner support, etc) and I was on my way.



Weather even put on a show



Back home the went immediately onto the lift so I could finish a couple of bits off:



Oil coolers got some stonechip protection:



Mesh stonechips were touched in on the various grilles and vents:



...and the front undertray fixings were all swapped for the correct ones, as we had to cobble it on with whatever we could find lying around before. Uses countersunk cap head type bolts which seem to like chewing themselves apart.

Finally after months, I could wash the car! Woohoo.



We've been practising the two-bucket method on Mummy's car, so happy to let her loose on the proper stuff now.



The car looked sort of clean from a few feet away, but as soon as it got wet - there was jet black water running off it from all of the dust that had settled on the bodywork. The Yellow really is a good colour for hiding dirt.

I now had shakedown to think about. Blyton is booked for next Saturday, and I really wanted to get some miles on it (and get it out of first gear!) before loading it onto the trailer for that. With just two days left in February, it killed me to stick some tax on the car and take it out on Sunday.

However, it was lots of fun!

Conveniently it was the NYLOC monthly meet so that was my destination sorted, weather was forecast to be grey... but 0% of rain. That was a lie.



Good Yellow turnout though smile



And four Emira in attendance. Was good to get my first proper look of them, lovely things - Lotus are growing up!

I did about 50 miles in total, was damp and cold in the morning and couldn't get any power down on the AR1s so I just logged as many areas of the map I could under cruise and low speed conditions.

Coast down and return to idle stuff (historically a problem area on the Exige) was bang on. No stalls, threats to stall, nada.

If I had one minor complaint is that the car seems to generate enough torque at idle to keep it moving (fairly quickly!) in first gear, so driving slowly in a carpark is a little bit clumsy. I can fix that through mapping, but I think that's mainly a product of it being such a light car.

Had a bit of a near miss on the A1 for the short stint I needed to do. NS mirror flopped down a bit and I was completely blind and stuck in the middle lane. That was fun...

Got it dirty...



For the ride home, it had dried up and I was able to get the hammer down a bit to log some WOT pulls and make sure the map all checked out. In the 'road mode' map the car felt as expected, very similar to OE power levels. I was a bit concerned that capping my throttle at 60 odd percent would translate to a poor resolution of throttle actuation and lead to some drivability issues, but it didn't - it drove just like factory.

A winter away from the car plus cold roads on AR1's made the car feel all the more lairy, but it didn't half feel fast.

One roundabout away from home and it was time to put the bigboy pants on and try the uncapped throttle 'race mode'. Easing onto the throttle gently to avoid too much gearbox pain and the acceleration piled and piled. It felt very fast, and didn't blow up.

Pulled into the garage grinning ear to ear, nothing fell off, everything points in the right direction (after adjusting the mirror), brakes feel good (would probably benefit from a proper hammering just to clean the discs up a bit) and the mapping felt really good. I know it should do, it's been done by a professional on a dyno etc - but you never really know until you get it on the road, and with more time (not to mention bodywork!) any decent mapper would want to correlate dyno findings onto a road test for final tweaks.

It needs fuel, another clean - then into the trailer for Blyton. Exciting, more updates in a week or so.











Edited by Fonzey on Monday 27th February 09:28

Fonzey

Original Poster:

2,056 posts

126 months

Sunday 5th March 2023
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Blyton Park

Blyton is my regular season opener now. Close to home, usually pretty inexpensive so no real heartache if I have to call it a day early, and nice familiar place to benchmark upgrades and test reliability.



Was attending with Brother in Law (Clio) and a friend (MG Midget with A-Series Turbo) with a few tag alongers coming along to spectate, so would be a social one too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51II5tYmTho&ab...

The morning was fantastic, different passenger hopped in for each session and the car was very quickly feeling familiar (and fast!).

The first session was very slippy, bone dry but very cold and the tyres took AGES to get up to temp. Validated by my new TPMS sensors. Once they did and pressures stabilised, the car came to life. Even with passengers in the car it was feeling on its toes, and had bags of traction. Still braking far too early, though.

Between sessions I was hiding in the trailer, desperately trying to warm up and checking the logs for any mapping tweaks that I'd need.



The mapping seemed good, as expected. Probably a tiny bit on the rich side if chasing ultimate performance, but happy to have a safety margin.

I was seeing some knock events each time the VVTLI engaged or disengaged, so put that down to valvetrain noise. I had similar noise events on the Exige but I'd configured my thresholds to be a tiny bit above it, and on the 2-Eleven it's JUST breaching those thresholds, so slight difference of engine bay acoustics probably all it was. I can tweak the threshold to avoid this in future.

I went into it in detail on my Exige thread, but the 2ZZ in SC format is a bugger for phantom knock. It's very difficult to tune reliable thresholds for it because the engine is just naturally noisy on the knock frequency it would make noise on. I've not seen a single map from a professional tuner that has attempted to remedy this, and have just left knock control either disabled entirely - or setup with an incorrect frequency. Even Lotus struggled with it, and there's a Lotus document somewhere advising race teams to remove their knock sensor, wrap it in foam and tie it to the bulkhead somewhere...

Anyway, I've had a go - and I can sleep at night knowing I've got *some* knock detection/protection, but the downside is that I occasionally have to chase these phantoms.

Example here of two events, and two 'nearly' events.



Purple line is observed noise, green line is the threshold, brown line is VTEC engagement. You see it's JUST touching my threshold, so triggering the knock alarm, but not actually exceeding it enough to trigger the knock protection such as pulling timing or adding fuel.

Anyway, kept on lapping - kept on enjoying it and getting quicker throughout the morning.



My intercom was disappointing. It worked fine in the first session for passenger #1, but then the passenger #2 could no longer hear the audio from my mic. I could hear the audio from my mic (it plays back to you as you speak so you know it's working) and I could hear the audio from their mic, so it could just be a dodgy wire in their headset... or the intercom itself has broken already. Either way, annoying. Binned it off for the rest of the day.

Regular engine bay checks during the morning passed scrutiny, no leaks, weeps or any problems I could find.



Tyres started retaining a bit of temp between sessions, but had to keep the breaks short to avoid losing all my hard earned grip.



(thanks Simon for the photos)



I had an odd sudden power cut on a sharp left hander late morning. I suspected fuel surge, but I still had a decent amount of fuel left. Later found it was my DIY TC kicking in a bit too aggressively. I wound my knob back to the half way setting for the rest of the day and had no such issues.

Before we knew it, it was lunch time. Passengers all had lives to be getting on with so I looked forward to some solo laps after lunch, and really pushing on. Car felt like it had a PB lap in it, easily.

Losing the best part of 100kg is significant for any car, but in this it's mind bending. Immediately after going out the car felt totally different. Brakes felt better, turn in felt better, mid corner grip and traction felt better...everything, except... it was slower?

It was hard to pinpoint at first... the car didn't feel broken, wasn't lumpy or misfiring... but it just lacked some zing in the high RPM ranges. The little shift lights progressed through at their usual romp until the final three which seemed to take an age. Hmmm.

I finished the session and eagerly checked my logs. I had made a map tweak over lunch time, just tidying up a little bit of fuelling and a DBW voltage tweak.... but nothing that should have caused this.

Sure enough, I wasn't making the expected levels of boost.

Normally I have a fairly steady level of manifold pressure going up to the redline.



In my 'road mode' which I used exclusively at Blyton, this should be around 140kpa (40 + atmosphere) so around 6psi of boost.

This is what started happening over lunch:



Made 140kpa initially, then it just tapers right down to below 120kpa at the red line, so making half the boost it should be making.

I work in IT, rule number #1 is just to reverse the last thing you did... which was the map change I made over lunch, but I immediately found a problem in the engine bay and got fixated on that all day instead.



Under vacuum whilst idling I had an intercooler hose collapsing on itself. It should have had a metal sleeve inside it to prevent this, so I whipped it off and found the problem.



A-Ha, smoking gun. Sorted. This had rotated to cause the collapse at idle, and would have been restricting boost at WOT. Love an easy fix.

...except it didn't really fix anything. I could improve the collapsing hose but not perfect it. A bit more sleeving, or a solid 90 with straight joiners will both fix this in the long term, but the best I could do was just reduce the size of the dimple under idle.



It was a long way from blocking itself off (car would have stalled if it was) and under positive pressure it expanded back out absolutely fine... so this couldn't be the cause of my bleeding boost, could it?

I spent all afternoon faffing around with boost pipes, checking for leaks and restrictions... couldn't find anything amiss other than this joiner.

The car still drove pretty well, obviously it was slower- but it didn't feel broken. I weighed up the idea of just driving it anyway, but I'd never forgive myself if I went on to cause terminal damage by ignoring a clear issue, so I called it a day. I never did do a solo session at proper speed, but it was a shakedown run - so no need to sulk.

At time of typing I'm a little confused, but I have a couple of theories:

1. Perhaps my lunchtime map tweak did something unexpected. I've retrospectively looked at logs, and my throttle traces are all what I'd expect to see. I am however seeing some inconsistencies in throttle pedal sensor voltage. Sometimes 100% throttle is 3.5v, sometimes it's 3.7v. My tweak at lunch time was to change this so that I was always seeing 100% pedal, and the logs suggest I achieved that... but I shouldn't have needed to do it, and perhaps something else is going on.

2. There's a mechanical/physical restriction somewhere. I've had all the intake off and can't find anything amiss other than this collapsing elbow. I will of course fix/replace that, but as I said - I can't see how this is causing a restriction when the system is positively charged. Only other thing I can think of is an exhaust issue, maybe the cat has collapsed. I've known this once before on a friends Exige and it happened during a dyno session. Manifold pressure went down and power stopped climbing at around 6k RPM. I struggled to understand how a restriction in the exhaust side could reduce manifold pressure rather than increase it, and I still struggle with that now... but I've seen it happen, so I know it's possible.

3. SC belt slipping. Having an aftermarket pulley on a non-AC car means there aren't many documented sources for correct belt size. I made a best guess based on info I could find, and I went for the larger side of tolerance. Perhaps I should try the next size down.

My IT brain can't rule out #1. I've checked the logs, my very last WOT pull before lunch made full boost. I tweaked map over lunch. First WOT pull of the afternoon and it was losing boost. That's too black and white to ignore.

Really wish I reverted it in the afternoon, but discovering that boost pipe just distracted me. Oh, and I ran over my own USB cable so I couldn't upload a map tweak anyway rofl



Anyway, I didn't sulk too much. I'll fix the boost pipe elbow, probably take the cat off and give it a shake, and will revert my map tweak. Probably all one step at a time so I know what the fix was, if I fix it.

I do appreciate any suggestions though.

This ended up being my last few decent laps of the day, just before lunch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FaWPMGO9XM&ab...

Still need to work on external mic positioning, not happy with how much wind noise I'm picking up. Working on it!

Enjoyable day despite the afternoon. Brother in Law took me out in his Clio (one of the new ones with flappy paddles) and it was ace, really didn't expect it to do what it did. Very capable car, I've never tracked a FWD car myself but this made me want to.




Paul_M3

2,356 posts

184 months

Thursday 9th March 2023
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Fonzey said:
Still need to work on external mic positioning, not happy with how much wind noise I'm picking up. Working on it!
Where exactly do you have it now mate?

My rear camera is exactly where the number plate would sit, and here seems to be really good in terms of getting exhaust noise but little wind noise. I used to have an external microphone in that location as well, but when I upgraded my GoPro it didn't fit, and I didn't seem to need it anymore. Sound is ok.



This video gives a decent idea of how little wind noise there is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiLbicIOL90

I guess for you that may mean taping an extension wire along the top of the rear bodywork when you get to track, but might be worth it if you're really annoyed by the wind noise?

Feirny

2,500 posts

146 months

Thursday 9th March 2023
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Steve looks mega happy in that pic!

So good to see you back out on track with this mate.

Fonzey

Original Poster:

2,056 posts

126 months

Thursday 9th March 2023
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Paul_M3 said:
Where exactly do you have it now mate?

My rear camera is exactly where the number plate would sit, and here seems to be really good in terms of getting exhaust noise but little wind noise. I used to have an external microphone in that location as well, but when I upgraded my GoPro it didn't fit, and I didn't seem to need it anymore. Sound is ok.



This video gives a decent idea of how little wind noise there is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiLbicIOL90

I guess for you that may mean taping an extension wire along the top of the rear bodywork when you get to track, but might be worth it if you're really annoyed by the wind noise?
On my Exige I did very similar to you, stuck a GoPro Session4 on the rear numberplate and used the audio from that and it was fantastic. I did get annoyed having two sets of video to sort out, remembering to set both cameras recording, then syncing up the audio etc - so my hope for the 2-Eleven was to just run one camera, maybe another for some other arty farty angles when I find some.

The rear numberplate plinth seems to melt stuff on the 2-Eleven. Already lost two numberplates to it, so really don't fancy having a camera or microphone too close to that known-good location. Microphone on this occasion was clipped to one of the little grilles in the rear clam, I think with some of those wind muff things on it, it would have been much better - so will do some road testing.

Alternatively I can move it inside the clam a bit, strap it to a spoiler upright within the clam and it should be sheltered enough.

Anywhere in the cockpit just picks up the clonking of my feet on the pedals, plus the turbulent air in there gets pretty bad.

Feirny said:
Steve looks mega happy in that pic!

So good to see you back out on track with this mate.
Happiest I've seen him in years. Cheers, it was good to be back. Can't believe I've got to wait till' mid April now to go again!

Fonzey

Original Poster:

2,056 posts

126 months

Friday 10th March 2023
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Mini update

Took the catalyst off to see if anything was amiss in there, looks good to me.



Bit of a relieve, because these HJS cats are not cheap... especially when they've been ceramic coated three times over!

In the meantime Pro Alloy sent me some bits of pipe for me to play with.



Needed a bit of trimming, but I've now got hose joiners that are practically solid.



Done an idle test, and no more collapsing. I'd love to go do a road test to see if I'm now boosting properly, but .. well, snow.

I've got an 1873mm belt sat waiting to go, it's 7mm shorter than the current one but I'm reluctant to stick it up despite the downtime because I want to know what the specific issue is/was.

My test plan is to therefor take the car out as it is, do some pulls and see if I'm boosting properly again. If not, I'll have the laptop with me and can revert my ECU config whilst on the test run and try again. If that still doesn't work, I can come home and swap the belt.

If the belt swap doesn't sort it either... well, I've not thought that far ahead yet. One way or another, I will eventually swap the belts - because the current one seems on the slacker side of tolerance anyway.



Fonzey

Original Poster:

2,056 posts

126 months

Friday 17th March 2023
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Boost problem solved, it's both a relief and an annoyance to report that it was my lunch time map/DBW tweak that fecked something up.

I just took the car out, did some pulls and noted the exact same boost ramp down towards the limiter. Pulled over and reran the DBW wizard, this spends about 5 mins modulating the DBW automatically, measuring response times, voltages, etc - and then it sets all of your DBW parameters for you.

I went back out, and was hitting full boost every time.

I'm annoyed at myself for not reverting at Blyton, but I was so distracted by the boost hoses I left my logical troubleshooting at the door. I'm also annoyed that I cannot explain why the changes I made, caused a problem. I'm staring at the two pulls in the logs now and DBW activity is identical, so whatever I did - it's not something I can see in the logs.

Oh well, lesson learned. The DBW config created by the wizard is not perfect (I'm only getting 97-98% TPS when the throttle is pinned). This is what I tried to fix on the day, but I'll just live with that. My Dyno science showed that there's zero power loss by being a few % short of full throttle... it just annoys me when I look at graphs.

Think I'll still put the shorter SC belt on, this one is a bit on the slack side. But happy days, onto the next trackday with not much of a job list.

Mallone

204 posts

247 months

Friday 17th March 2023
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Big fan of both the approach you take to your cars and the way you do the write ups. Always pleased to see the thread get bumped.

Great work on sorting the car over winter, looking spot on and bet it drives fantastically clap

Fonzey

Original Poster:

2,056 posts

126 months

Tuesday 28th March 2023
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Hoping to get some road mileage in now that it's hopefully stopped snowing, so thought I'd retrieve my road wheels/tyres out of the trailer and get them cleaned up.



The Gtechniq C5 on the trackday wheels (shadow chrome ones) is still holding up brilliantly, they clean up a treat. The Satin black wheels which came on the 2-Eleven less so.

Got them best I could, then slapped some poorboys sealant on to give me half a chance for the rest of the year.



Track wheels can wait patiently for a few weeks...



Popped out for a chilly blast up to the North Yorks owners club meet, nothing too much to report - car did what it was supposed to do.



I did test a new external mic position though, and I think I've finally got something that will stop clipping and collecting wind noise on track.

Back in the lab, I finally figured out what my DBW mistake was at Blyton. As a reminder, I was seeing a max of 97% TPS in the logs from the morning session so I tweaked the voltage down a bit so that 100% throttle = the voltage I was seeing in the logs.

After that, the car was dropping boost at high RPM and was generally more sluggish. My mistake was that I changed the voltage for the TB opening potentiometer, not the pedal one... this explains why the pedal and TB were both still reporting 100% to the ECU, but I'd altered the definition of what 100% is. Idiot.

Oh well, glad I've fixed it - and it's allowed me to change the proper value and I'm now seeing 100% TPS in the logs again, so all has ended well.

Rodd Nock

2,068 posts

260 months

Wednesday 29th March 2023
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I'd been looking forward to seeing the write up of this year's first track session after all those mods, great to see that you've now got it running spot on.

Your threads are IMO some of the best content on PH: everything done right but without any tiresome humblebrag blank-cheque engineering, lots of detail but no waffle, and a great story of making a fabulous car even better with some really well chosen mods. Please keep it up!!

Fonzey

Original Poster:

2,056 posts

126 months

Thursday 30th March 2023
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Rodd Nock said:
I'd been looking forward to seeing the write up of this year's first track session after all those mods, great to see that you've now got it running spot on.

Your threads are IMO some of the best content on PH: everything done right but without any tiresome humblebrag blank-cheque engineering, lots of detail but no waffle, and a great story of making a fabulous car even better with some really well chosen mods. Please keep it up!!
Far too generous. Pressure is on now to not cock it up.

Nyloc20

552 posts

62 months

Thursday 30th March 2023
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Kyle, I’m having a sort out of all my Lotus stuff and found a launch leaflet for the 2-Eleven you can have if you haven’t got one. Are you at next Motorist or F&G meets?