OV9

Car has had a thorough service care of @seriouslylotus

I have on back order a new tensioner for my supercharger to have fitted yet

I also treated the car to some goodies-
1) gearbox cooler
2) new removable steering wheel so I can get in and out of my car easier with these seats!

These will be fitted and mapped in , in 2 weeks.

Komotec sports cat and 4-1 supercharger manifold.

HOLD MY BEER / WATCH THIS
@RSTuning


[img]https://i.imgur.com/yAcs620.jpg[/img]

Failed today. Fuel pump failed on dyno. FML.

Must clarify that I am not jumping the gun here ; It could be the wiring to the pump and not actually the pump. This will be cleared up in due course. All I can say at the mo is the pump isnt working.

We appear to be back in the game.

The MRFU was causing funnies. Specky @RStuning was looking at fuel pump voltages and it was " all over " and then sometimes not enough to even switch the relay on for the fuel pump.

Some brief investigation followed and we worked out its the MRFU thats at fault. Look at the symptoms ;

Fuel pump mostly failing
Lambda sensor not reporting correctly

Two of the three things the MRFU is responsible for ..

Investigation has led to corrosion and decidedly second hand wiring in that neck of the woods and its been tidied up ( for now ) to get it running, mapped , circuit ready for BH Monday @ Anglesey. Ill do the usual throw some cash at the issue over winter to properly inspect everything.

I also suspect as the fuel pump voltage was all over it might explain the drop in power initially.

Roll on the mapping!

Big thanks to Spitfire ( Gaz ) for being super fast at replying and offering to swap my pump out whenever needed.

Car is back home.



Nothing at all really to report power wise after the parts were fitted. Power was roughly the same ( taking in atmospherics / temps etc ) and its gone from narrowband to wideband.



My arse dyno cannot tell the difference other than the car appears to be smoother. This could of course be down to a questionable connection to the MFRU.

An anticipation of the weather at Anglesey over the BH I requested to have a periscope fitted.

This was unfortunately denied

I am just back from a rather exhausting trackday at Anglesey.



I set off Sunday afternoon on a 180mi pilgrimage and stopped over at a travelodge that appeared to have a rhino pacing the floor above me for half the night. The weather was fine going down , and traffic free flowing.



I met up with a friendly bunch of lotus enthusiasts for a bit to eat and some banter on the Sunday evening. I am not sure they are of this parish though



Early ( for me ) alarm was set and flung open the curtains at room 10 to be greeted by the predicted rain.



I arrived at circuit having already done the covid briefing online. The wind was picking up at this point.



Then it started raining heavily. Then the wind hit an indicated 45mph.



First session out on track at 0930 was a 3 lap sighting lap followed by a return into the pit lane and a 30 minute sessions. There were two groups to keep covid compliant to 30mins per hour. Perfect.



The rain had now really saturated the circuit and the wind was buffeting the car around.



I loved it. Every last minute. I learn so much about the platform, and its characteristics. I did 86mi on track or 43laps in 1.5h. The circuit shut for 2 hours due to the rain and wind and I called it a day then. I had already gotten out of the day what I wanted and I didnt want one last run. At this point I had spun once into the infield fortunately not damaging anything so I didnt want to push my luck.



Only one thing broke - the horn. It no longer honks. Investigations shall need to work out if its the button, the actual honker or something inbetween.



Some images of mine and the good ones arent taken by me.

I have fixed the horn! I have honks!

Big thanks to Dave @seriouslylotus for the pointers.

I have done a post track inspection and there was negligible oil use , tyres are still there and pads are sound.

Roll on 11 MAY at Blyton where sunny intervals in the AM and light rain in the PM is predicted!

Another week another trackday. Nightmare right?

This time at Blyton with a very nice man called Paul, who owns Diamond-Performance.co.uk

The weather was fantastic , maybe 15 or 16 degrees. Enough to gently burn this northern head that is somewhat devoid of a covering.

The car went well, really well. I do not know how to go faster now so I need some tuition. The car felt so right @ Blyton in the dry.

The typical 3 laps sighting occurred then some photos were taken

Fat lad needs to get in a small car


Tyre checking. Yep its there


Prayer to the reliability gods.


An idea of the other metal that was there ..






end of Part1

Some track action shots now of an exige , in silver. I am sure you have never seen a silver exige before ..

IACV gasket acquired. I’ll see if I can find an hour or so over the weekend to clean the IACV.

I must look into getting the MFRU sorted as well

Another trip back to Blyton with my good friends over at https://diamond-performance.co.uk/. I dont tire of this track as its quite technical and a good benchmarking track.

Today I had full confidence that my car would start after a trip to see SeriouslyLotus the day prior and John worked his magic on my electrics which have been causing me a headache for a while now.

I also changed the front damper to taking nan to physio spec ( C ) Fonzey where I am now running 10 clicks from hard both on front and rear. Once the fronts were upto temp I was amazed how much better it was turning in. More playing of settings ahoy I feel.

Some images of the day :

Just got back from a very enjoyable evening trackday sesh.



one 30min session and 3 lots of 20 minute sessions.



TBH in todays heat it was plenty! I tweaked my setting on the suspension slightly and found myself with a better setup than session 1. I had a mild spin ( 90 deg off forward ) and then adjusted the settings. It was like night and day. The mid corner bounce was gone and when I was trying to exit too fast all I got was slip. Keep the toe in and powerslid out.



I felt like Clarkson every time I did it. Even did a thumbs up for a photographer on a hairpin. It appears you dont need >500hp to drift when you want have have to have the letter C and 63 ..



This setup will try and kill me at Blyton I feel.



For my records :



Blyton F10 R10

Donington F10 R14

A couple of pictures whilst I wait for the pros to upload.

A hardboiled egg wearing glasses :



Two warm tyres.

It appears I got the brakes warm enough to melt the glue that holds the lotus badge on the center cap.

A few pics from the Donington event. These were taken by the MSVT photographer

Le Mans 2021 : The year we went in the Lotus

Trip in stats :

Number plates lost : 1
Fuel stops : 6
Litres of SUL : 170.13
Miles : 1025.4
Average MPG : 27.40

I travel with a friend when going to LM, so if you see someone who doesn't look like me its not a thief.

The outbound journey.

We break this up into two runs or legs
1) Doncaster --> Dover
Overnight stay
2) Dover --> Le Mans

Doing some rough maths we brimmed the tank at Shell Retford and drove the 211mi to Dover and filled with 27.07l. This gave us a ~33mpg average. The route was fairly clear and we cruised around 75-80mph.

Obviously the car was cleaned before we left



Two pictures on route




Onward after 5.5h sleep in a travelodge to the port. It was pretty quiet with 4 lanes being occupied in the holding/loading queue. At this point I noted I had lost the front plate. It was lost at the travelodge Dover as part of a particularly nasty speedbump. Its also taken part of my splitter with it but Ill GRP repair that. At this point I had cleared customs so there wasnt a lot I could do and no point in flapping. The P&O staff were superb with getting me on the ferry directing me sideways and then onto the truck deck.



Not a lot to report on the French leg ( ~240mi ) of rather dull motorway and peage points. Car ran well, albeit slightly thirsty due to the 130kmh limits. This equates to around 4600rpm in 6th, just on the noisy part of the supercharger whine. We made good time and arrived to setup base camp. Fortunately a good friend took all the camping gear for us.






After a poor nights sleep I awoke to beads of water on the car due to condensation ..


We had to stay at Blu Nord this year. I normally frequent Beau Se Jour and TBH much prefer BSJ. Its just closer to the track and I find it a nicer place to be. However, as we had come all this way best make the most of it and visit the track. If the pictures make it look quiet its because it was. 50k reportedly however I don't believe there were that many from the normal 250k.









The night part of the race is my favourite. Everything about the cars seems that little bit better. The noise travels , the lights look amazing and the flames exiting the exhaust from every change are awesome to watch









During the night part my friend and I stumbled apon an Alpine display












Someone eventually won the race and I find the afternoon session quite tiring. Everything it turned down from performance setting 11 to setting 2 ( quite rightly ) and the cars seem almost processional. I appreciate there was a close race in the GT2 category though.






Part 2 ; The museum, return journey and overall to follow

I still think it’s such a pretty car. When I stop looking back at a car I know it’s time to sell.

Not a great deal to report here.
The very helpful chaps over at SeriouslyLotus changed over my moroso sump to a pro alloy one. I am feeling I perhaps should have tried to buy pro alloy rather than buy all the parts as it might have been cheaper in the long run. However the weeping has stopped as Dave spotted a snapped sump stud in the block and John taught me some new swear words when he rectified the situation. These chaps really are mustard at sorting out difficult rectification tasks.

I think my AD08R are ready for replacement. Last trackday I noted a distinct lack of grip ( not due to heat ) and on the road I have squirm all the time. I think Ill talk to Dave and get some 052s on in the new year.

I have also noted that the rattling baffles in the exhaust are really starting to zing. I must change this in the new year. There appears to be a dearth of data though for decent backboxes in the exige world. Only anicdotal info.

The car hasnt been out for a few weeks, so went into the garage tonight for a bit of quick detailer love and check the thing was still there.

I have completed my last trackday of '21 at Bedford autodrome.

Compulsory stopped for fuel before trackday picture :



The weather forcast didnt look upto much, and sadly it was right. Single digit figures and a slightly damp track initially followed by rain led to a circuit with about as much grip as teflon. You could tell which parts of the circuit were not used much as the grip really disappeared.

0830 weather :




I enjoyed the full GT circuit. All 4.2mi of it. Its a good range of slow and quick, twists and straights. I felt I got a lot from the conditions such as learning the cars behaviour when low speed provoking the back end ( once too far and did a 180, dipped the clutch and didnt stall. ). I also learnt that accelerating hard to reach a vmax on a damp then wet circuit is quite nerve racking. The car is happy to wiggle hard under load. I suspect some of this was due to an aging set of AD08R. Ill refresh in the new year.

Was delighted that another chap and friend was attending so @Fonzey and myself mused about multiple 2zz conundrums, limits and future plans. Always good to bounce technical ideas off people based on fact.

Garage friends :



The rain situation :



To summarise ; '21 has been a year of discovery on track for me. I have been learning about the suspension setup, the damping settings, the tyre pressures and tweaking those resulting in what I think I want from a car. I havent done many mods , namely the seats and the wheel. In '22 Ill change the induction and the exhaust ( the rear box I think is failing and blocking ) and then get more trackdays booked!