Clubs and Revs

[burnsburnsburns]

Howdy,

I know very little about how cars work beyond the basics. With that in mind, could someone explain to me what makes my 111R take off like a jet fighter at around 6000RPM?

Also, there seems to be loads of clubs and groups for Lotus owners around the country, but a quick search on Google reveals nothing for Newcastle. Does anyone know of any? I'd like the opportunity to meet more knowledgeable people than myself so I can grill them face to face!

Burns

[kambites]

burnsburnsburns said:

I know very little about how cars work beyond the basics. With that in mind, could someone explain to me what makes my 111R take off like a jet fighter at around 6000RPM?

Because the car changes to a high lift cam which opens and closes the valves at different times to the "normal" cam. That allows the engine to breath (take in and exhaust air) more quickly. The power generated by an internal combustion engine is basically proportional to the amount of fresh air taken into the engine per unit time.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 2nd October 12:27

[whygee02]

Anthony - look in the North East section of this Gassing Station forum - not just Lotus, but quite a lot of em.

(I'm from Newcastle with an Elise)

[burnsburnsburns]

Thanks guys. I'll be able to sound like I know what I'm talking about when bragging to mates now.

[LivinLaVidaLotus]

Bit more info for you:

http://www.celicas.co.uk/Technology-Vvtli.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VVT-i - talks about 2ZZ-GE as well.

[Jonblue]

What would it be like if the second cam became permanently engaged?

[21TonyK]

Jonblue said:

What would it be like if the second cam became permanently engaged?

Fun?? I'd image you'd have to keep the idle at about 2000rpm to stop it stalling and it would be very patchy up to 4-5000rpm. Plus fuel economy would really go out of the window. Be an interesting experiment though.

[cej]

and you'd lose some power down low. It would be like a proper race car, in most series it's not allowed to have variable cam timing and stuff like that.

[Scuffers]

Jonblue said:

What would it be like if the second cam became permanently engaged?

a complete dog....

it would not idle, it would never come close to passing an emmissions test, it would lurch about like a b*stard etc etc etc...

[TIPPER]

Try Seloc which has a regional section for Northern Lotus enthusiasts. Also NORLOG (Northern Lotus Owners Group).
Sorry I haven't got links.