2007 Lotus 2-Eleven
Discussion
Yazza54 said:
The trick to craners is often keeping it pinned, the absolute worst thing to do is lift as you start to drop into it.. Most cars will go down there flat in my experience but it's a confidence thing.
Agreed. 2-Eleven would almost certainly go in flat but it would not be without excitement. I imagine it would be the thick end of 125mph if you tried it.The Turn itself is a bit of a pussycat, but that little camber transition you have to do at turn-in is just really, really unnerving. I Can see why it spits so many cars into the gravel, but as you say - I'd bet these are mostly panic lifts rather than the car just leaping off the track.
I lied a bit when I said the car would just get cleaned before Anglesey, and found a couple of jobs to tick off.
First off, an aim to stop running GoPros flat.
A 12v - 5v step down thing which I can hard wire in at the battery (via an ignition live relay) and then directly connect two GoPros at once. Whenever the car is running, they'll be charging.
My battery box is starting to hide an ever increasing nest of accessory wiring, something I need to neaten up - but it's all fused and safe, so happy with it for now.
One USB will go straight up to the normal GoPro on the rollover bar, along with the external mic wire:
All sort of hidden away
The other USB will go through the engine bay, up through a panel gap (thanks Lotus) and to a rear mounted GoPro which hasn't left my camera bag for about 12 trackdays now. Just need to figure out where to mount it.
Next up I turned my attention to harnesses. I noticed a few weeks ago that my driver harness was missing the anti-submarining (ASM) yellow patch on the inside shoulder.
Not sure why, maybe it predates ASM, but I think more likely these shoulder straps were potentially from a previous 6 point installation, where of course the ASM attributes are much less important.
I'd planned to address this with a full harness swap, probably to 6point but I got a good inexpensive interim solution when some ASM shoulder straps came up for sale on their own.
All in, a bit safer. Still will try not to crash.
Next, the new rear wing got some attention. When assembling it I noted that the end plates would not be particularly watertight.
Washing the car and/or driving in bad weather would probably end up in some moveable ballast collecting inside the wing - so got to work on a solution.
Neoprene
All done
Final job, brake pads. I noticed they were getting close at Donny.
That finishes off the various part worn Pagid pads that I had in my collection, so time to stick some fresh stuff in for the first time. I'd been a bit of a Carbotech convert on my Exige, they have an initial bite which I find reassuring but we'll have to see if that translates to something a bit too harsh in the 2-Eleven which already feels like it will stand up on its nose if it slows any harder.
They're the XP8 from their range.
Pad swap is the work of a moment nowadays, almost feels like I'm getting good at something.
I followed the bedding in instructions on a quick road test, first three stops were very lethargic and then like someone has flicked a switch, they activate and sent me hurtling into my new shoulder straps. Really good first impression in the 2-Eleven.
I'd wager that they have similar outright performance to the Pagid RS14 but the early phase bite they have gives the illusion of a much more effective pad when not using the full force of the middle pedal.
They are expensive, though
That's about it. I did wash the car, I'll hoover the dead Donny bees out of the footwell and that should about do it for next week. Getting excited.
Fonzey said:
Agreed. 2-Eleven would almost certainly go in flat but it would not be without excitement. I imagine it would be the thick end of 125mph if you tried it.
The Turn itself is a bit of a pussycat, but that little camber transition you have to do at turn-in is just really, really unnerving. I Can see why it spits so many cars into the gravel, but as you say - I'd bet these are mostly panic lifts rather than the car just leaping off the track.
Yup. My spire will go down there 124-125 and 128 before needing to brake, often it's hesitation that'll make things go wrong quickly. Different when you're racing though and kinda have to do it. The Turn itself is a bit of a pussycat, but that little camber transition you have to do at turn-in is just really, really unnerving. I Can see why it spits so many cars into the gravel, but as you say - I'd bet these are mostly panic lifts rather than the car just leaping off the track.
Car is looking good anyway and good to see it getting plenty of love but also used as intended.
Anglesey Update!
You can probably copy and paste the opening paragraph of this from the last four years. Anglesey has asserted itself as my favourite fixture on the calendar, despite the fact we've had monsoon conditions every time we've been.
There's something about Anglesey, driving over the M62 and out of the dull/flat of central Yorkshire where I live, and slowly seeing the glorious Snowdonia national park unfold out infront of me as I toddle along with my trailer. The 4 hour drive was broken up by a meet and catchup with @MrP80 at Chester Services, and an appreciated stay with another friend who resides in what must be one of the most beautiful parts of a beautiful Country.
This friend has recently equipped himself with a sequential Caterham R500 and would be joining in for the day, recreating 2/3rds of an old track test that Harris, Jethro and Dickie did at this very circuit back when these cars were new. Potato Video here if you're interested:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT2W1cpxqX4. It 's a sickening reminder that I paid more than RRP for a 16 year old car though
The forecast was lots of rain in the AM, with maybe a less wet afternoon. Again this is a repeat of every single Anglesey I've done.
I was secretly looking forward to the wet, I had a really good time here last October time in similar conditions and the variable TC on the 2-Eleven was providing loads of fun, and allowing me to push my luck considerably. This year I'd be here with a similar variable TC, but one I had tuned/programmed myself - so I was expecting some work on it, but excited at the prospect of testing it properly.
You'd think I'd be good at packing for trackdays by now, but I forgot a couple of items which made the day slightly less pleasant.
1. Clear visor for my helmet
2. The remote I'd just bought and tested for my GoPro to prevent those "is it or isn't it recording right now" moments in the pit lane queue
3. My waterproof romper suit...
We drove to the circuit in the rain, and got the cars tucked up in the garage ASAP to keep as dry as possible, for as long as possible.
It was raining steadily for the sighting laps, I pulled out of the garage into the queue to find that the laps would be done in two groups, and group 1 had just set off... so there I sat for 8 or 9 mins in the rain, stationary in the pits. Not a great start!
Sighting laps done, I'd stayed surprisingly dry once I got moving and it was soon onto the first session. Shod with AD08R tyres as my 'all weather' option, I set off with my TC mode set to 'fully intrusive' at 10 on the dial.
My strategy for the TC tuning was to preset a wide range of config before I left home, and try to find two settings throughout the day:
1. A nanny mode that would allow almost no slip, and could be used as my maximum setting.
2. A Playful mode that would allow me to slide the car, and deploy enough torque to keep the rears spinning enough to sustain a bit of a slide
As the car is still with an open differential, I configure the TC to bias the slip measurement from the slowest of the driven wheels. This means it doesn't start going mental when the inside rear flares up, and it pays closer attention to the outside wheel instead.
I have 10 settings to play with, setting #1 being "off", so 9 levels of granularity.
Across the settings I can change four parameters:
1. Slip target (difference between driven and undriven axle)
2. Torque Reduction modifier
The PID controller in the ECU would measure slip against slip target, then come up with a "torque reduction" value. It is then on me as the tuner to say what happens at any given level of torque reduction. Here we dovetail in the following two parameters:
1. Ignition retard
2. Fuel Cut events
Obviously a well setup system will slowly ramp in ignition retard to dull the power without that 'papapapapap' of the more intrusive cut events, but then as the torque reduction demand increases, the papapapap is gradually feathered in.
My settings looked something like this:
So if the ECU was demanding a 22% decrease in torque, I would get 7 degrees of ignition timing reduced, and 9% of my ignition events would be cut (via fuel cut). The ignition retard then flatlines at 12degrees from 44% and above because I don't want to melt any valves from a sustained period of intervention - and fuel cut ramps up.
When switching my knob, a multiplier is applied to the torque reduction output:
So at Pos 5, if the ECU returns a 20% reduction in torque, then 20% is what I get.
At Pos10, if the ECU returns the same 20% reduction in torque, I actually get 28%
At Pos1, if the ECU returns the same 20% reduction in torque, I actually get 14%
etc etc.
This was setup to give me a wide range to play with, and I could try a different setting on every corner rather than getting the laptop out between sessions.
What I ended up figuring out quite quickly is that anything from setting 10-5 was pretty intrusive and didn't allow much in the way of fun. Setting 4 allowed a bit of slip, but very quickly got things back in line. It also didn't let me sustain a slide because it dulled the power too much. Setting 3 was my sweetspot, where I'd stay for the rest of the day.
As I don't have any stability management, you can definitely still spin the car on any setting. Getting a Lotus to slide is primarily about being too fast on entry, and pivoting round - rather than using power to break traction. They're generally over gripped and under powered, outside of the more extreme variations.
Anyway, back to the day - the first session lasted exactly one outlap, then I got black flagged. I'd done a little bit of a skid on the hairpin just as part of my aforementioned TC exploring, but surely not a flaggable offense?!
I got in to be told my new GoPro setup was not allowed. I could not have any cameras 'outside the silhouette of the car', which in a 2-Eleven is quite difficult... I was also told that my rear facing camera was not allowed, even though it sat within the silhouette of the rear wing - there's apparently a flat out ban now on external cameras which is a shame, but rules are rules.
After reshuffling my cameras, it was back out and I steadily lapped the morning sessions in varying degrees of rainfall. Got very wet, but had a blast.
The Caterham looked like an absolute murderer in the wet. Using the sequential box at part throttle with the engine a little 'rough' when also at part load (a property of the TBs apparently) made it a bit of a handful, with the car happily spinning up the wheels in a straight line during most gear changes. Pretty terrifying, but Paul was handling it brilliantly.
A little spin on entry to the hairpin was the worst the morning had to offer after a sequential downshift locked up the rears. Definitely a steep learning curve from the sequential box.
The rain worsened over lunch, so we kept our heads down and tried to dry out socks/shoes/etc the best we could.
Right on schedule, the rain drifted away and after a couple of post-lunch damp sessions, dry lines started to appear. We went out for a fairly long session as the track was drying and the AD08R went from 'entertaining' to 'frustrating' quite quickly as I was trying to put together sensible laps, it was just sliding all over the place. Couple of examples here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6hH3y5RgY
At this point Paul and his R500 was a distant spec on the horizon (actually, I think he was behind me - but no question I was holding him up big time) so I came in, and decided to stick the AR1 on.
In the half hour or so it took me to get swapped over, the track had completely dried. It clearly wasn't as grippy as it would be on a warm/dry day - but the AR1 instantly switched on. Within the second corner of the outlap I could feel a totally different car under me. Brakes felt assertive, turn in sharp, bags of traction.
Reviewing video afterwards, my 'quickest' lap on the overheating AD08 was a 1.57. My very first hotlap on the AR1 while the tyres were still cold etc was a 1.47, and by the end of the session they were almost an additional 7 seconds quicker. The difference was mind blowing, and it was a lot of fun.
This video is a back to back comparison of a rainy morning session, vs the first AR1 session in the afternoon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkb5aZ_Zos
The Pos3 on the TC was a little limiting here, where I could enter the hairpin fast enough to rotate the rears around, I couldn't quite get enough power down to sustain it. I think this is a combination of being one gear higher, and also the TC not allowing enough slip at that speed. I think in hindsight I should have gone down one more setting to prove the theory.
Inevitably, this happened. Maybe more than once...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMXgwZE1N1U
We wrapped up a successful day, on the AR1s the 2-Eleven was once again able to keep touch with the R500 and despite very different approaches to performance, they were both very similar over a lap. The Caterham smashing me in a straight line, but a little exposed under braking. Both very similar in the slow corners.
Towed home without drama, and the sun came out the following day to allow me to start drying everything out...
My plan for the TC now is to adjust all of the scaling and make the previous Pos3 my new Pos5. Pos10 will remain my road setting, Pos5 will become my wet trackday setting and I think somewhere between Pos3 and Pos1(off) will be used in the dry.
You can probably copy and paste the opening paragraph of this from the last four years. Anglesey has asserted itself as my favourite fixture on the calendar, despite the fact we've had monsoon conditions every time we've been.
There's something about Anglesey, driving over the M62 and out of the dull/flat of central Yorkshire where I live, and slowly seeing the glorious Snowdonia national park unfold out infront of me as I toddle along with my trailer. The 4 hour drive was broken up by a meet and catchup with @MrP80 at Chester Services, and an appreciated stay with another friend who resides in what must be one of the most beautiful parts of a beautiful Country.
This friend has recently equipped himself with a sequential Caterham R500 and would be joining in for the day, recreating 2/3rds of an old track test that Harris, Jethro and Dickie did at this very circuit back when these cars were new. Potato Video here if you're interested:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT2W1cpxqX4. It 's a sickening reminder that I paid more than RRP for a 16 year old car though
The forecast was lots of rain in the AM, with maybe a less wet afternoon. Again this is a repeat of every single Anglesey I've done.
I was secretly looking forward to the wet, I had a really good time here last October time in similar conditions and the variable TC on the 2-Eleven was providing loads of fun, and allowing me to push my luck considerably. This year I'd be here with a similar variable TC, but one I had tuned/programmed myself - so I was expecting some work on it, but excited at the prospect of testing it properly.
You'd think I'd be good at packing for trackdays by now, but I forgot a couple of items which made the day slightly less pleasant.
1. Clear visor for my helmet
2. The remote I'd just bought and tested for my GoPro to prevent those "is it or isn't it recording right now" moments in the pit lane queue
3. My waterproof romper suit...
We drove to the circuit in the rain, and got the cars tucked up in the garage ASAP to keep as dry as possible, for as long as possible.
It was raining steadily for the sighting laps, I pulled out of the garage into the queue to find that the laps would be done in two groups, and group 1 had just set off... so there I sat for 8 or 9 mins in the rain, stationary in the pits. Not a great start!
Sighting laps done, I'd stayed surprisingly dry once I got moving and it was soon onto the first session. Shod with AD08R tyres as my 'all weather' option, I set off with my TC mode set to 'fully intrusive' at 10 on the dial.
My strategy for the TC tuning was to preset a wide range of config before I left home, and try to find two settings throughout the day:
1. A nanny mode that would allow almost no slip, and could be used as my maximum setting.
2. A Playful mode that would allow me to slide the car, and deploy enough torque to keep the rears spinning enough to sustain a bit of a slide
As the car is still with an open differential, I configure the TC to bias the slip measurement from the slowest of the driven wheels. This means it doesn't start going mental when the inside rear flares up, and it pays closer attention to the outside wheel instead.
I have 10 settings to play with, setting #1 being "off", so 9 levels of granularity.
Across the settings I can change four parameters:
1. Slip target (difference between driven and undriven axle)
2. Torque Reduction modifier
The PID controller in the ECU would measure slip against slip target, then come up with a "torque reduction" value. It is then on me as the tuner to say what happens at any given level of torque reduction. Here we dovetail in the following two parameters:
1. Ignition retard
2. Fuel Cut events
Obviously a well setup system will slowly ramp in ignition retard to dull the power without that 'papapapapap' of the more intrusive cut events, but then as the torque reduction demand increases, the papapapap is gradually feathered in.
My settings looked something like this:
So if the ECU was demanding a 22% decrease in torque, I would get 7 degrees of ignition timing reduced, and 9% of my ignition events would be cut (via fuel cut). The ignition retard then flatlines at 12degrees from 44% and above because I don't want to melt any valves from a sustained period of intervention - and fuel cut ramps up.
When switching my knob, a multiplier is applied to the torque reduction output:
So at Pos 5, if the ECU returns a 20% reduction in torque, then 20% is what I get.
At Pos10, if the ECU returns the same 20% reduction in torque, I actually get 28%
At Pos1, if the ECU returns the same 20% reduction in torque, I actually get 14%
etc etc.
This was setup to give me a wide range to play with, and I could try a different setting on every corner rather than getting the laptop out between sessions.
What I ended up figuring out quite quickly is that anything from setting 10-5 was pretty intrusive and didn't allow much in the way of fun. Setting 4 allowed a bit of slip, but very quickly got things back in line. It also didn't let me sustain a slide because it dulled the power too much. Setting 3 was my sweetspot, where I'd stay for the rest of the day.
As I don't have any stability management, you can definitely still spin the car on any setting. Getting a Lotus to slide is primarily about being too fast on entry, and pivoting round - rather than using power to break traction. They're generally over gripped and under powered, outside of the more extreme variations.
Anyway, back to the day - the first session lasted exactly one outlap, then I got black flagged. I'd done a little bit of a skid on the hairpin just as part of my aforementioned TC exploring, but surely not a flaggable offense?!
I got in to be told my new GoPro setup was not allowed. I could not have any cameras 'outside the silhouette of the car', which in a 2-Eleven is quite difficult... I was also told that my rear facing camera was not allowed, even though it sat within the silhouette of the rear wing - there's apparently a flat out ban now on external cameras which is a shame, but rules are rules.
After reshuffling my cameras, it was back out and I steadily lapped the morning sessions in varying degrees of rainfall. Got very wet, but had a blast.
The Caterham looked like an absolute murderer in the wet. Using the sequential box at part throttle with the engine a little 'rough' when also at part load (a property of the TBs apparently) made it a bit of a handful, with the car happily spinning up the wheels in a straight line during most gear changes. Pretty terrifying, but Paul was handling it brilliantly.
A little spin on entry to the hairpin was the worst the morning had to offer after a sequential downshift locked up the rears. Definitely a steep learning curve from the sequential box.
The rain worsened over lunch, so we kept our heads down and tried to dry out socks/shoes/etc the best we could.
Right on schedule, the rain drifted away and after a couple of post-lunch damp sessions, dry lines started to appear. We went out for a fairly long session as the track was drying and the AD08R went from 'entertaining' to 'frustrating' quite quickly as I was trying to put together sensible laps, it was just sliding all over the place. Couple of examples here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6hH3y5RgY
At this point Paul and his R500 was a distant spec on the horizon (actually, I think he was behind me - but no question I was holding him up big time) so I came in, and decided to stick the AR1 on.
In the half hour or so it took me to get swapped over, the track had completely dried. It clearly wasn't as grippy as it would be on a warm/dry day - but the AR1 instantly switched on. Within the second corner of the outlap I could feel a totally different car under me. Brakes felt assertive, turn in sharp, bags of traction.
Reviewing video afterwards, my 'quickest' lap on the overheating AD08 was a 1.57. My very first hotlap on the AR1 while the tyres were still cold etc was a 1.47, and by the end of the session they were almost an additional 7 seconds quicker. The difference was mind blowing, and it was a lot of fun.
This video is a back to back comparison of a rainy morning session, vs the first AR1 session in the afternoon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkb5aZ_Zos
The Pos3 on the TC was a little limiting here, where I could enter the hairpin fast enough to rotate the rears around, I couldn't quite get enough power down to sustain it. I think this is a combination of being one gear higher, and also the TC not allowing enough slip at that speed. I think in hindsight I should have gone down one more setting to prove the theory.
Inevitably, this happened. Maybe more than once...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMXgwZE1N1U
We wrapped up a successful day, on the AR1s the 2-Eleven was once again able to keep touch with the R500 and despite very different approaches to performance, they were both very similar over a lap. The Caterham smashing me in a straight line, but a little exposed under braking. Both very similar in the slow corners.
Towed home without drama, and the sun came out the following day to allow me to start drying everything out...
My plan for the TC now is to adjust all of the scaling and make the previous Pos3 my new Pos5. Pos10 will remain my road setting, Pos5 will become my wet trackday setting and I think somewhere between Pos3 and Pos1(off) will be used in the dry.
Cheers Gents, yeah was lots of fun.
Something I forgot to mention, in the preflight checks before my trackday I found the Accusump wasn't working again.
When clicking the key to power on the car, as there's no oil pressure in the engine - a pressure switch should fire, open the accusump valve and let it discharge into the engine preoiling it before cranking. This wasn't happening, which also meant the AS wouldn't release oil under an oil surge event on track either.
I wasn't too concerned, it happened before (it was dead when I bought the car) and a new sensor is inexpensive. I proved it was the sensor by bridging the wires, which caused it to discharge. I also had a baffled sump, so I was doubling up on protection anyway.
I asked around on a 2-Eleven group to be almost unanimously told to rip the accusump out. They're prone to failure, not just the pressure switch but also prone to leaking, sometimes catestrophically.
I'm torn, I love the fact it has an Accusump because it's a bit of a Lotus Motorsport stamp, and some geeky bragging rights in my own little world... but it's a heavy bit of kit, doubles the cost of my oil changes and I've had it fail twice in a year... so hardly reliable.
Still deciding what to do here...
Something I forgot to mention, in the preflight checks before my trackday I found the Accusump wasn't working again.
When clicking the key to power on the car, as there's no oil pressure in the engine - a pressure switch should fire, open the accusump valve and let it discharge into the engine preoiling it before cranking. This wasn't happening, which also meant the AS wouldn't release oil under an oil surge event on track either.
I wasn't too concerned, it happened before (it was dead when I bought the car) and a new sensor is inexpensive. I proved it was the sensor by bridging the wires, which caused it to discharge. I also had a baffled sump, so I was doubling up on protection anyway.
I asked around on a 2-Eleven group to be almost unanimously told to rip the accusump out. They're prone to failure, not just the pressure switch but also prone to leaking, sometimes catestrophically.
I'm torn, I love the fact it has an Accusump because it's a bit of a Lotus Motorsport stamp, and some geeky bragging rights in my own little world... but it's a heavy bit of kit, doubles the cost of my oil changes and I've had it fail twice in a year... so hardly reliable.
Still deciding what to do here...
Fonzey said:
I asked around on a 2-Eleven group to be almost unanimously told to rip the accusump out. They're prone to failure, not just the pressure switch but also prone to leaking, sometimes catestrophically.
I'm torn, I love the fact it has an Accusump because it's a bit of a Lotus Motorsport stamp, and some geeky bragging rights in my own little world... but it's a heavy bit of kit, doubles the cost of my oil changes and I've had it fail twice in a year... so hardly reliable.
Still deciding what to do here...
Is there a dry sump option that you could look at installing as the ultimate upgrade?I'm torn, I love the fact it has an Accusump because it's a bit of a Lotus Motorsport stamp, and some geeky bragging rights in my own little world... but it's a heavy bit of kit, doubles the cost of my oil changes and I've had it fail twice in a year... so hardly reliable.
Still deciding what to do here...
jeremyc said:
s there a dry sump option that you could look at installing as the ultimate upgrade?
Yep dry sump kits are available but $$$$$ (Cost of 2 or 3 engines). Worthwhile protecting the investment of an expensive build, but a bit overkill for a standard engine.I'm really happy with my Seriously Lotus baffled sump, data logs prove that it's working better than any sump I've had on my other Lotus cars. Accusump is just for cool points really
Yazza54 said:
Do you have adjustable bars and dampers? She looks a bit snap oversteery.
Yeah Front ARB and independent comp/rebound on dampers.I'm not too fussed about making setup changes for the wet, the laps/clips I uploaded are not necessarily a fair representation of the car, the wet lap was extremely wet and it was more just an excercise of seeing the traffic through the spray and logging as much slip as I could for the TC tinkering. Was very slow on entry and overly ambitious on exit to exaggerate that a bit.
When trying to string together a vaguely smooth lap in the wet, the car felt pretty good. Loads of understeer on entry but can alter the angle of the car dead easily with throttle. The first banked hairpin was fantastic for this, understeered all the way round so it looks total crap on camera, but in the car I was constantly tweaking the actual trajectory with the throttle, constantly hovering between under and over steer. I'm a long way from knowing what I'm talking about, but I imagine a proper driver could extract a hell of a lot of speed out of this car in the wet.
Fonzey said:
Yazza54 said:
Do you have adjustable bars and dampers? She looks a bit snap oversteery.
Yeah Front ARB and independent comp/rebound on dampers.I'm not too fussed about making setup changes for the wet, the laps/clips I uploaded are not necessarily a fair representation of the car, the wet lap was extremely wet and it was more just an excercise of seeing the traffic through the spray and logging as much slip as I could for the TC tinkering. Was very slow on entry and overly ambitious on exit to exaggerate that a bit.
When trying to string together a vaguely smooth lap in the wet, the car felt pretty good. Loads of understeer on entry but can alter the angle of the car dead easily with throttle. The first banked hairpin was fantastic for this, understeered all the way round so it looks total crap on camera, but in the car I was constantly tweaking the actual trajectory with the throttle, constantly hovering between under and over steer. I'm a long way from knowing what I'm talking about, but I imagine a proper driver could extract a hell of a lot of speed out of this car in the wet.
A-ha I follow you now.
It may be a technique thing but I've always felt like all my Lotus cars have been weakest when turning in. I most likely need to work on my trailbraking a bit to transition off the brakes a bit smoother.
In terms of the setup of the car, its probably something I should look at eventually. So far all I've done is stuck the car in the 'track mode' according to the Lotus Motorsports manual, and tried to keep variables as few as possible. At Anglesey the grip was drastically different from lap to lap, so was hard to be particularly consistent or scientific. Got some trackdays coming up though at familiar tracks which will hopefully be very dry and very boring, so I can start digging into it a bit.
It may be a technique thing but I've always felt like all my Lotus cars have been weakest when turning in. I most likely need to work on my trailbraking a bit to transition off the brakes a bit smoother.
In terms of the setup of the car, its probably something I should look at eventually. So far all I've done is stuck the car in the 'track mode' according to the Lotus Motorsports manual, and tried to keep variables as few as possible. At Anglesey the grip was drastically different from lap to lap, so was hard to be particularly consistent or scientific. Got some trackdays coming up though at familiar tracks which will hopefully be very dry and very boring, so I can start digging into it a bit.
car looks a lot of fun in any case mate MJK 24 said:
I don’t usually bother with any of the Elise based threads but this has been a fantastic read! Really enjoyed it and will continue to follow.
Thank you, on behalf of the Elise based community 
Seamus54 said:
I have only just come across this thread and I have found it fascinating. I also have a 2-Eleven with some of the same mods such as a GT4 wing, baffled sump and Pro Alloy charge cooler.
Keep up the good work!
Great stuff, I was surprised to find how few 2-Eleven cars have gone for a chargecooler. Keep up the good work!
I'd let my MOT lapse as I just didn't get time to sort prior to Anglesey, but today was the big day.
I don't plan on using the car too much on the road*, but it's nice to have the option.
To my local test centre, good bunch of lads and I only ever use them for MOT's but I have confidence that they do test my stuff properly knowing that I'm a fan of taking my cars to bits regularly.
The Emissions were the only area of concern, with the EMU Black and 2bular sports cat combo I'd had a rocky history, my Exige initially needing a map tweak to get through and then the following year not going through at all due to a fluctuating idle messing up the lambda readings.
This year I'd done my driveway testing, was confident that my lambda was at least in order - so it would be up to the catalyst to see if the other stuff fell into place.
Oh, I'd also had to buy yet another rear plate!
As expected, car flew through all the usual tests after a giggle about ingress/egress and finding the start button. All too soon it was time to get the emissions rig out.
I've talked about this before, but both tuners I've used have pretty much neglected the MOT testing conditions on the two cars I've had mapped, and I've seen many others in the community that are the same. MOT's test emissions under "fast idle" conditions which is at 2500rpm with no load on the engine, which puts the fuel table into an area that just wouldn't be active under normal driving conditions, so you have to specifically map this area just for MOT purposes.
After learning all this a couple of MOT's ago, I spent some time driveway tuning it. I can't measure CO or HC at home, but I can peg the throttle electronically and hold 2500rpm and use my lambda sensor to keep it at 1.0 lambda (0.03 tolerance either way).
With this setup, I had to just hope the MOT sensor agreed with mine.... which it did!
Initially the Lambda and HC readings were bang on spec, CO needed the cat to warm up a little bit - but soon was right in the centre of it's tolerance. Happy days.
Tester was surprised, I was relieved, car had passed.
I took the back roads home, got my foot down a bit. *I mentioned earlier about not planning much road use but Christ this car is hilarious on a back road. Had my dampers in track settings, tyres a bit low on pressure but it was an absolute monster and had me giggling after just a couple of miles.... maybe I will use it a bit on the road.
Got the car home and safe, pinging away and proudly road legal again... plate only just survived the trip though
I don't plan on using the car too much on the road*, but it's nice to have the option.
To my local test centre, good bunch of lads and I only ever use them for MOT's but I have confidence that they do test my stuff properly knowing that I'm a fan of taking my cars to bits regularly.
The Emissions were the only area of concern, with the EMU Black and 2bular sports cat combo I'd had a rocky history, my Exige initially needing a map tweak to get through and then the following year not going through at all due to a fluctuating idle messing up the lambda readings.
This year I'd done my driveway testing, was confident that my lambda was at least in order - so it would be up to the catalyst to see if the other stuff fell into place.
Oh, I'd also had to buy yet another rear plate!
As expected, car flew through all the usual tests after a giggle about ingress/egress and finding the start button. All too soon it was time to get the emissions rig out.
I've talked about this before, but both tuners I've used have pretty much neglected the MOT testing conditions on the two cars I've had mapped, and I've seen many others in the community that are the same. MOT's test emissions under "fast idle" conditions which is at 2500rpm with no load on the engine, which puts the fuel table into an area that just wouldn't be active under normal driving conditions, so you have to specifically map this area just for MOT purposes.
After learning all this a couple of MOT's ago, I spent some time driveway tuning it. I can't measure CO or HC at home, but I can peg the throttle electronically and hold 2500rpm and use my lambda sensor to keep it at 1.0 lambda (0.03 tolerance either way).
With this setup, I had to just hope the MOT sensor agreed with mine.... which it did!
Initially the Lambda and HC readings were bang on spec, CO needed the cat to warm up a little bit - but soon was right in the centre of it's tolerance. Happy days.
Tester was surprised, I was relieved, car had passed.
I took the back roads home, got my foot down a bit. *I mentioned earlier about not planning much road use but Christ this car is hilarious on a back road. Had my dampers in track settings, tyres a bit low on pressure but it was an absolute monster and had me giggling after just a couple of miles.... maybe I will use it a bit on the road.
Got the car home and safe, pinging away and proudly road legal again... plate only just survived the trip though
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