redlancer

The Exige and Lotus in general we find are very comfy cars. We've had an Elise s2 and did 3000miles in 7 days and no issues around Europe. S2 Exige again was comfy but a lot more noisy on the motorway. V6 Exige is quieter and great on long journeys, lower revs than the s2 although we do miss the supercharge noise. Couple of LeMans classic trips with tents as well in the 350. As some one else said my kids & misses fall asleep on motorways its that comfy. We've just changed from a 350 to 410. We went and drove both 410 Exige and Evora around Hethel. Misses said no to Evora stating the Exige 410 or keep 350, its got that raw special feeling. 410 ride is great. From what you say I'd say Exige should be 1st thought. As for drive we have to reverse at an angle to avoid bottoming the front, yet looking at drive it looks flat, dip in wrong place. The 410 you can alter the height so may be an option. 410 seems better than the 350. Oakmere have a Purple 410 in stock good luck with search.

Picked up last week so far just the drive back from Central and quick ride out locally. So still in the running in period. As a passenger misses instantly goes this rides a lot nicer. Even at low revs and not pressing it feels it has more grunt. Like 6th becomes 5th. Looking forward to getting the running in done. Carbon seats are wider, clutch feels heavier in a nice way, got lots of thumbs up on the drive back. Central (Connor) sorted the exhaust switch on for me, swapped over tracker, put ceramic stuff on which now makes the indoor cover harder to put on (slippy) So far very happy. Love it. Never one for carbon fiber stuff and would never add it, but it does make a difference to the car. Feels the next level. One question - TPMS any way to get the actual readings? I have aftermarket ones but would be easier to use the ones already on? Piccies of old and new attached

just to go off topic to get back on topic Thanks for all response and IM's Was looking for any info to change my mind to do this, not the other way around and didn't get any Did consider other cars but misses put her foot down and said no. You only live once and in a lucky position to be able to get one. In the process of buying a 410, pick up early March, getting the exhaust button fitted. Out of interest - wasn't this when in race mode a way to keep the value closed untill around 4500 revs for noise checks

Just found the edition, i'd even read the piece - seems a few people have done this. Trip sounds great - we did over 3000 miles in an s2 Elise, 8 days, 11 countries for SSAFA,. Was brilliant. On my 350 the button is there now and i can overide - does the 410 not have this as standard?

cheers - I can see your story but no 410 as yet? Think you've confirmed my hopes - need to sort out a deal to match my man maths

Hi, Seeing if any one has gone from a 350 Sport to a 410 Sport and any real world differences on road or track. Any common issues with the 410's different to 350. Seen the odd report of noisy rear suspension. Test drives as I'm coming from a 350 may not be that usefull as newer car vs old car could be a difference hence after owners thoughts. My sport is coming up to 3 years old and owned from new with no mods. Driving will be mainly road use with the odd track day. I've driven a 410 around Hethel but as this was 20 minutes and no like for like comparison hard to fully appreciate. Thought behind the change is man maths, upgrade, you only live once and warranty etc. Thought about not changing is i know this car, nothing wrong and all paid for. Warranty about to run out and as clutch in 350 can be an issue and clutch in 410 is a different one this could be a £2-3k consideration and better future proof. Peace of mind and have seen aftermarket Lotus dealer ones for around £2k for 3years so there is always that option. Upgrade - on track i've never felt i need more power but better brakes yes, better ability defo and obviously any better handing. Never had noticable heat soak on supercharger but on a hot day did feel like gearbox needed a cool down a couple of times. On road - more power yes and no. I do charity events and taking people out extra power for low speed acceleration is nice for the experience. From what i've read nitron 3 ways look to improve road characteristics so this looks a viable option and better brakes is always good way to go. These are 2 mods i'd do or think about doing The carbon fiber stuff doesn't bother me. I can take it or leave it. Forged wheels, gearbox oil cooler, charge cooler, more power nice additions and possible future mods. You only live once - the only super car that I'd love is a Mclaren but couldn't afford one and the running costs and even if i could not sure as Exige and Arial Nomad sounds better:). Misses can't stand Porsche and loves the rawness of the Exige so much so she didn't like the Evora 410 either after driving it on track in a back to back drive with the Exige. So a 410 ticks the boxes on this aspect. Man Maths for arguments sake - 410 new £80k on 50/50 - if anyone knows of better deals ✍️ in 2/3 years time say worth £60k then that's a £20k loss thinking mine might drop 5K in that time. PX value now £45k So that's £15k difference in real world. For £15k i get Warranty/clutch 5k, nitrons 4k, gearbox cooler 1k, brakes £2k. 12k so far. Wheels, charge cooler, power increase and 3 year newer car for £3k Downside money in car not bank in 2 years time. Is car going to be that much different. What are Lotus likely to bring out soon. Although doubt there will be an Exige 420 any time soon cheers Graham

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Here’s some of my metallic orange. I am not allowed to get any other colour, even the other oranges, now as this has mainly become Tigger car. did have mine next to a signature and although I like both family said this one was right choice. i’m normally black for my cars but after having black s2 found it too invisible so was either this or Kawasaki type green.

I'm happy i did, the potential wet weather performance difference with this charity event coming up made my mind up. Although it was sunny and dry. These didn't lose traction all day. didn't fancy turning up and if there was a noticable in balance i'd be kicking myself.

updating in-case anyone else is coming up to changing p-zero on one axl only. Went for a full change out to PS4's (not PS4S). Don't like spliting tyre makes on my cars Did my 1st track day event on Donnington's old circuit yesterday. Last track day event was a couple of months back at Rockingham on p-zero's So although 2 different venues and not by an expert driver. Both days were dry and hot. And as we are doing PAX rides for charities i'd say we at 8 tenths Both events I start of with PSI at 30. When p-zero got upto 40psi due to heat rears felt slippy, like on ice and wasn't suprised to see the high PSi. When PS were are 40psi I could tell a slight change but was expecting just a slight increase in PSi but as not as high as the 40 showing. As said both events are 8/10ths due to passengers , but there are places at both you can push to to see, safely. Donnington has the melbourne hairpin corner which is a fast down hill with a lip at the top. Car felt so stable over the lip, braking down hill and then the hairpin even when i push to what should of been the limit just got a little tyre squeal and and over steer or understeer seem easily controlled. 1st lay-mans impressions miles better.

As per title My rears are shot after a couple of charity track days Fronts are fine. I mostly do road driving with the odd track day. Trawling through the forum I see the common thoughts are to put on PS4. As my fronts are ok what are the thoughts/experiences 1 - PS4 rear with existing Corsa's up front - I normally like to have same tyre on each corner so would probably be looking at full set. or as a cheaper option for now 2- P-Zero not Corsa on rear. I see there's a Rosso option for Porsche? Is that similar to Corsa? Evo magazine had the P-Zero beating the PS4 in a recent test. Yet everyone on here says avoid. Is that still the case for the latest p-zero, if they are different. Article seems to imply tyre manufacturers are constantly changing the tyres? cheers

Will be curious how you get on as yours will be under Oakmere's warranty. As for the car I know the previous owner, if its a yellow roadster originally from Silverstone, although haven't seen him for a while. The car will have wanted for nothing, he loved it that much he used it a lot more than expected. It was a PAX ride in his Elise that started my Lotus ownership and my daughter going out in this one that had her saying I have to get one

Hi, I had the clutch, flywheel and release bearing changed under warranty last year. At the time I got the impression this wasn’t a common issue as dealer hadn’t seen it before. The noise points to it being the release bearing. id say it was there from new, I noticed it whilst still running in the car. lotus themselves came out to listen thinking it was the known noise at idle, to only say this is different. the noise is still present, although it’s not as common or loud. It was ok for the 1st 500 miles after the new clutch. the new clutch is a lot better than the original. Feels more solid. The original fault could be heard in all gear change downs with 3rd to 2nd loudest. Now lotus state it’s a characteristic of the gearbox and not a fault. So what was a warranty change last year isn’t 3 months later. And if it’s a characteristic, why was this not known over the last 4-5 years. Sounds to me like a quality/tolerance issue somewhere. Mines an early 2017 with 7000 miles on it now. Would be interesting if the 410 or 430 exiges have this issue as they have a different clutch. I'm seeing if like the original it gets worse as I put more miles on the car before going back to Lotus. I would of thought they’d want to sort the problem, as I’m aware of people walking away from Lotus due to other gearbox woes. That has crossed my mind if it doesn’t have a satisfactory end. i was going to see if I could work out if it was a batch or cars or a potential batch of parts. Graham You say the noise has gone, how many miles have you done since?

HI Mark, cheers. My point re them changing the clutch already is the warranty work for this issue has been OK'd in the past but not now. I have had from Paul a new alternator that failed straight away, these thing can happen. The aggressive driving was in relation to hearing the noise. I'd never use the launch control and don't go over 3k revs until oil (not water) is up to temp, owning Cossies, K-series Elise drills home mechanical and heat sympathy. From mine and others its obvious cars are being driven normally. I also have a lot of time for Paul. Andy originally said he'd bring it up at a technical meeting and seems to have a great reputation, but i think someone else near us had a bad experience with a different gearbox issue. So far no one seems to of had a fix other than clutch change. The problem has reduced a lot but then it started off very intermittently from new to then be able to reproduce at will. So I have no confidence its gone long term Most people, from what i can tell get rid off their cars. Graham

Will see what their response is. They've already changed the clutch under warranty for this so what's different now? The aggressive driving comment is really bad IMO as they've never been in a car with me. I'm guessing I shouldn't off been passed that email as it was to the dealer.

Got a reply back from Lotus re the change down noise. In a nutshell its to be expected with aggressive driving and down changing at high revs so not covered by the warranty. So driving at 3000 revs approaching a roundabout or other road conditions that means you brake and change to 2nd is high revs and aggressive. The 3k and braking to 2nd is the example that highlights the problem the best and not the only way it occurs. As per mine (which lotus have) and Roj's video's these are at much lower revs and if that's aggressive driving Lotus are in the wrong business. I can see this car being the best worst car I've ever had. I love driving it but start to cringe every down shift expecting a noise. Did anyone one here with this problem get a fix? Mine appeared to be OK for nearly 800 miles after the clutch change, but a lot of that was motorway driving. I've asked if the release bearing was changed and still to hear back. I wasn't after a new cutch etc just a start in finding out what's causing this, as from what i can tell there's a good handfull doing this. I'd of thought Lotus would want to address these issues and find the root cause. After all they are not the only 2 seater sports car around. They've already change my clutch and flywheel under warrant for this issue.

I'll double check cheers, they did do clutch and flywheel, considering the labor i would of thought everything would off been done.

Hi Roger, That's the noise. Hot or cold for me. Before clutch change it was present in every change down with 3rd to 2nd loudest.. Post changeout only noticed in 3rd to 2nd and could get it 50% of the time from 3k revs braking and changing down. Revs did make a difference and if I press the clutch down and back up again all ok. Almost like the noise is something not releasing quick enough. Re the spirited driving after a charity track day it was still there and it appeared during my running in period. When Lotus came and we went out, he was dropping/sidestepping the clutch on change saying that's how this can manifest itself, but this made it ok. But there's no way i'd want to do that. exigenoise.MOV

Hi, Realize this is my 1st post on here so Hi all. Been a Lotus owner for a around 8 years now, Anyway have a 2017 Exige 350 and have the exact same issue as mentioned by a few on this thread so seeing if anything became of their problems Problem is most noticeable when changing from 3rd to 2nd get a chirping/ggggrrrrrrr sound some of the time. e.g. coming up to a round about doing about 3k in 3rd change to 2nd and hear chirp just as a I start to let the clutch out and not at the biting point. I could also hear it a little in other down changes but these are less frequent and quieter. If I blip the throttle before engaging the gear or waiting a little bit all is OK. Lotus looked at it and signed off a new clutch and flywheel. Pick car up in time for the trip to 70th from Chester. All OK for about 500 miles. Then went to NEC to do charity rides and that's when i heard the noise again coming up to a round about after doing the route 6 times. Again 3rd to 2nd Then almost 50% of the time I could get noise 3rd to 2nd when 3rd was about 3k in revs. Previously even changing at low speeds would give the noise so this is a slight bit better at the moment. Took car to garage and they've bleed the clutch and although its just a 15 mile drive seems OK, although I didn't have much chance to do many 3rd to 2nd tests as needed to get back to work and traffic was bad. So could a clutch bleed be the issue? Did anyone else get the issue fixed. Seems odd that it would be the cause twice and sure they bleed the clutch last time before putting in new clutch. Or could 2 different issues cause the same problem? The new clutch does feel miles better than the old one, but the old one wasn't bad.