Your fleet running reports

[GG.]

Definitely not the Trout - the car park for that is on the opposite side of the road.

Although they do have good burgundies.

Yep, not the Trout. Was a little further out west of Oxford - a place that has just opened up called the Double Red Duke (in Clanfield near Bampton about a half an hour drive). Would highly recommend it - we had sharing rib steak, chicken with madeira gravy, scallops and pork rib - all of which were excellent.

Write up in the Telegraph today. Sitwell seemed to like it. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-dr ... nt-review/

Weirdly I took a guess at the cost of the refurb at £5m whilst I was there - clearly it had been done with no expense spared. The article says it was rumoured to have cost £6.5m so my guess wasn't far off. Pricey business setting up a boutique hotel and pub - takes some balls to do it in the middle of a pandemic as well.

[dan]

Took delivery of the crank for my elise today, almost 2 years in the making...its a work of art.

Now I can build the engine.

[mik]

Took delivery of the crank for my elise today, almost 2 years in the making...its a work of art.

Please remind me if it’s specialness?

[dan]

For starters, an oem K20 crank, flywheel, clutch and crank damper weighs 30 kilos. My crank, flywheel clutch and damper weighs 15 kilos.

The crank is 11 kilos vs 18 for a standard crank. The centre of mass is an order of magnitude better than oem meaning the smaller counterweights are more effective despite being 40% lighter. Its billet EN40b so the only constraint is your imagination and machining ability, hence the wasted main bearing journals and smaller than standard big end bearings, which in turn means the rods are even lighter.

Its quite special

[Broccers]

Will it be quite fast,like?


Just smoked a 911 c4s around a roundabout and through traffic. I also had the shittest Porsche in m&s car park

[dan]

Will it be quite fast,like?

Fucking better be.

[jamcg]

For starters, an oem K20 crank, flywheel, clutch and crank damper weighs 30 kilos. My crank, flywheel clutch and damper weighs 15 kilos.

The crank is 11 kilos vs 18 for a standard crank. The centre of mass is an order of magnitude better than oem meaning the smaller counterweights are more effective despite being 40% lighter. Its billet EN40b so the only constraint is your imagination and machining ability, hence the wasted main bearing journals and smaller than standard big end bearings, which in turn means the rods are even lighter.

Its quite special

Any chance of a pic of it next to an oem one for us heathens?

[dan]

Standard k20 crank:

[jamcg]

Christ that has been on a diet!

[mik]

Yarp that looks pretty trim by comparison

[Jobbo]

That is utterly beautiful Dan. The way the counterweights widen further out so the balancing weight is where it has most effect is lovely.

Do other people make cranks this nice? And did you design it yourself?

[V8Granite]

I thought the main bearings looked oddly big and then realised it’s just the counter weights being tiny

That’s looks beautifully made.

Dave!

[IanF]

Lovely work of art Dan!

Seems like my cars are having a strop because I’m thinking about selling them! M4 M-diff, audio and parking sensors have all just gone haywire. Need to book it in to be checked, but it seems like over exuberant car cleaning can dislodge an abs sensor and it’s just been cleaned.. plus water ingress would create the other issues. If this is the case, it’ll be an expensive car wash (but still cheaper than Perfection Valet) Windscreen cracked aswell..

[Sundayjumper]

I was supposed to be finishing off the Cayenne suspension today - track rods & alignment - but it’s raining and I CBA.

[jamcg]

Lovely work of art Dan!

Seems like my cars are having a strop because I’m thinking about selling them! M4 M-diff, audio and parking sensors have all just gone haywire. Need to book it in to be checked, but it seems like over exuberant car cleaning can dislodge an abs sensor and it’s just been cleaned.. plus water ingress would create the other issues. If this is the case, it’ll be an expensive car wash (but still cheaper than Perfection Valet) Windscreen cracked aswell..

How’s the battery voltage? Worth checking as so many modern cars throw a wobbly when it even gets slightly low

[Broccers]

Lovely work of art Dan!

Seems like my cars are having a strop because I’m thinking about selling them! M4 M-diff, audio and parking sensors have all just gone haywire. Need to book it in to be checked, but it seems like over exuberant car cleaning can dislodge an abs sensor and it’s just been cleaned.. plus water ingress would create the other issues. If this is the case, it’ll be an expensive car wash (but still cheaper than Perfection Valet) Windscreen cracked aswell..

How’s the battery voltage? Worth checking as so many modern cars throw a wobbly when it even gets slightly low

I agree. Most things do. Mate's new Ducati wouldn't work due to low battery the other day.

[dan]

That is utterly beautiful Dan. The way the counterweights widen further out so the balancing weight is where it has most effect is lovely.

Do other people make cranks this nice? And did you design it yourself?

Not many companies are making aftermarket cranks that look this nice, for a few reasons, the most obvious being cost. The usual suspects, Arrow, Farndon etc all make pretty standard looking offerings and don’t push the design side because if it ain’t broke….

This was made a friend of mine that owns a large engineering firm, has been an engine builder for nearly 40 years and has decided to get into crank manufacturing in a big way. He’s employed an ex cosworrh F1 / ex major oem crank designer and between them they’re really pushing the boundaries. There’s no way I have even a tenth of the knowledge required to design something like this….especially when he starts explaining primary and secondary balance, dynamic couple, centre of mass blah blah blah….it’s fascinating stuff though.

Given this engine is likely to make peak power at over 9000 revs it needs to be properly sorted.

[mik]

So it is 4yrs and 3months since I suffered a high-speed tyre failure on a driver training day (airfield).





New tyre destroyed (although - after sending it back for analysis, Michelin did refund me 90% of the price I paid). I still had to buy a new wheel though.

As you can see in the above pic - the tyre must have smacked off the rear bumper when flailing around, punching the bumper out of alignment.

The Lotus dealership told me there was nothing they could do with it - no more adjustment in the fitting. Balls.

But today I decided to take a look. It’s good to tackle these things early and not let them fester .

Mr D.Remel amended the fitting to provide a little more adjustment. Unfortunately I had to pull the whole bumper down a little to gain access, and it wouldn’t go back in. After some moments of panic, I found and loosened two more fittings in the boot… which allowed it to return. Phew!

It’s not perfect but it is better. Car still needs a parafin bath though - tar spots this year (on mine and Mrs mik’s) are rondinculous!

Before



And after

[V8Granite]

What was their reason for the refund.

Dave!

[mik]

They didn’t reveal the results of their investigation and didn’t admit any manufacturing issue - it was proposed as a gesture of good will. I could possibly have pursued it further, but didn’t have any evidence to the contrary.