steveoexige

At first glance I thought you were recommending heroin for a Sat night in! Liking your work - the red R is a nice touch.

Interesting to hear that a KT mapped can runs a little rough until warm - I'm told it's the same with an RRR mapped car too. Nothing major, just not as sweet as OEM until warmed up. Apparently RRR will be doing the mapping for KT and SSC at some point in the future. Due to the geographical constraints I'll hazard a guess that means its RRR's Master Black ECU setup. It would be good for us customers if there was a well supported, well invested after market ECU system available that can be mapped by different suppliers and work with different hardware configurations (TVS1900 for example). It'll make it cheaper for us all as we continue to mod our cars

I think it really suits your cars as is - as Lotus (or Prodrive) intended, in beautifully formed Carbon Fibre. Problem is the slippery "carbon panels everywhere" route starts ......and it gets v expensive, v quickly.

OK - final update. The SSC map has now been uploaded to the car, I had to do a hard reset on the handheld device and some fettling but it worked in the end. When the key goes in the ignition the dash shows a code to confirm its running a custom map (other TVS Exige owners take note - if your dash doesn't show a numeric code when you put the key in, its running the OEM ECU map). Having gone for a blast I would say the car is quicker - not night and day different but a good 25% quicker. The pull in 1st and 2nd is ridiculous and the torque in general makes the engine feel like a small block V8 and if I'm honest, a bit out of place with what I've come to know as normal in other so called track type cars. Bear in mind that my previous 2 Exiges were both tuned, inline 4 screamers....this new world of silly torque and lower revs squeezed into a mid engined lightweight will take some getting used to especially in the wet. My reaction times better improve...... I've already enquired with SSC about a slightly smaller pulley and to the only exhaust guy worth his salt, Jim about a better flowing manifold back system. Once the hardware is in place I'll be speaking to RRR about a custom map. I know form experience that running a map that was programmed on a different car can show fairly significant differences to a custom, live dyno map. 450bhp and a mountain of torque at reasonable boost pressures (under 9psi) is definitely achievable. With every conceivable OEM Lotus carbon panel, Lithium battery and forged wheels I certainly cant make the car any lighter so it should make for a decent power to weight ratio.

Just don't buy an battery called an Evo Ballistic....one of the lightest batteries known to man provided you're ok with the free fire they throw in after a few weeks of usage. I had a heavily modified GT86 with one of these and it literally nearly burnt my car down.....

Stop it ! the suspense to get it running the right map is killing me I've hit a brick wall getting the map loaded into the ECU from the handheld device SSC provided with the kit so am speaking to their techs in Oz about a work around. Something tells me I'll have to wait for them to ship me a new unit over....gggggrrrrrrr.

Quick update....I had a reply from Nick Ray at SSC in Oz: At least I have confirmation that the reason it's not performing as it should is because it's running the OEM map. I'm surprised Nick states that the car should still meet the performance of a standard 380 Sport even with their supercharger kit in combination with the OEM map........... Aside from SSC I also spoke to the previous owner today and he said he'd forgot to include the handheld reflash device that comes with the SSC kit when he sold the car (!) He's posting it to me over the weekend so I can install the custom SSC map. Maybe, just maybe, I can get the car running as it should..............

Lotus will still provide their warranty for the little things I'm already having fixed (tpms and an O ring on the gearbox oil cooler). I paid Sytners for a 2 year dealer warranty that had no cap on the repair cost. I got them to list the mods on the car as it was when I bought it from them and provide a warranty for the lot. Fingers crossed I won't need it!

Yes I hear you. Maybe it's just me but I feel I should make the most of the previous owners hard earned spend and get it running as it should be via the original SSC route first. More than anything else I'm desperate to know if the OEM map that's its currently running (if that's indeed what it is) has damaged the engine. It's going into Hoffman's next week for a couple of small warranty claims plus obviously some further investigation into this ECU map issue. Chris has suggested that's whilst it's there they do a quick compression test. Worse case scenario it will be handed back to Sytners for a refund or if it's not totally fecked at least a warranty claim to put any mechanical damage right. RRR / ECU Master Black will definitely be an option further down the line though.

Spoke to Ben at Silverstone (good guy, really helpful) and he says that when the car came into them it wasn't running right and they spent ages going back and forth with SSC in Oz for get an updated ECU map which they unfortunately couldn't install..... hence why I think my car has been left with the OEM Exige 380 map. Don't suppose anyone knows if the "Calibration ID" when the ECU is read by Lotus dealers software is a giveaway to show if it's a std or custom map? I'm sure I read someone that Komotech change the Calibration ID to show it's their map but I don't know if SSC do they same??

Yes it went into limp mode on Friday so I pulled over and turned the engine off. When I restarted it all seemed fine again. Even though it's running ok'ish again now its definitely not 100% right or what it should be considering the mods. Do you have his surname too? Thanks in advance

Ok - well the plot thickens (understatement of the year).... After some serious ringing around I've found out that when the kit was supplied and fitted by Murray Lotus from new the owner wanted more power than the standard TVS kit could deliver. As SSC hadn't developed the chargecooled kit at that time he was left with tweaking the non chargecooled kit and money seemingly being no object he worked with Murray and SSC to also fit uprated fuel injectors, custom decat manifolds and a custom bespoke map made for the car instead of the out of the box SSC map created for the TVS (requiring the ECU to be removed and sent to Oz to be fitted to an SSC car with the same mods and then customer mapped). I have receipts to show he spent an extra £8k on top of the standard TVS kit to do this(!) The head technician at Murray (Ian Campbell) has told me it was, at that time the fastest car he had ever driven and would spit flames all the time Anyway...after 18 months the owner wanted to sell the car and gave Murray the chance to sell it Sale or Return. As the asking price was so high they had no luck and after a few months it was transported down to Lotus Silverstone to see if they could sell it...and here's where the story goes sour. Apparently the car would show a permanent engine check light due to the decat and someone at Lotus Silverstone decided they would not be able to sell the car like that so they reflashed the ECU with what I presume, the OEM Exige 380 map. The car was eventually transported from them to Sytners, the asking price lowered to a point where I am now the owner. This explains why the car is quick but if I'm honest not as quick as I thought it would be and why the car isn't showing any SSC calibration code on the dash. A helpful guy by the name of Robert at Silverstone Lotus is looking into trying to find if they have the cars custom map on file somewhere (or better still the handheld MyGenius device that comes with the kit and has the custom and original cars map on it). If anyone knows the name of a tech at Lotus Silverstone pls let me know so I can get the car running full power.

Ok I've spoken with Chris at Hoffman's and he's been really helpful. He thinks he remembers the car and that they supplied the kit to Murray Lotus back in 2017. It was the 1st ever 380 sport with the kit. As for the ECU map - Chris tells me that an Exige with the SSC kit will ALWAYS show a code on the LCD dash at startup which indicates it's running the SSC map......and mine doesnt. Worryingly when I rang the previous owner this morning he also confirmed that he'd never ever seen a code on the dash at startup. Who knows, maybe the car has never actually had the SSC map??? Tim - just so I have a 2nd opinion - can u confirm that your TVS equipped car shows a code on the lcd dash on startup?? Either way my car will be going into Hoffman's for some investigation.

Hi Matt - curious to hear how your RRR mapping went? Any increase in engine numbers? I'm curious as to the results as I'm not convinced by the SSC map. I'm getting conflicting advice from Hoffman's - they said last week that the SSC map that comes with the TVS kit sets the rev limit at 7k rpm however after a spirited drive today I can confirm my 380 hits the limit at 6800 as per the OEM map. I rang Hoffman's again and now they're saying that their SSC map doesn't change the rev limit from the factory OEM limit. This doesn't make any sense as the 380 is exactly the same as the 350 apart from a smaller supercharger pulley which in turn meant lotus set a lower rev limit for the 380. With the SSC kit providing an entirely new supercharger it would make sense for the 350/380/whatever to all have the same rev limit. You would think Hoffman's would know the answer considering they are the UK seller for it........ Without knowing whether the SSC map does or doesn't alter the rev limit I'm left wondering if my car is somehow running the OEM Lotus 380 Sport map?? If it is I'd have thought the ECU would be throwing up all sorts of dashboard warning lights. I'm hoping Chris from Hoffman's can provide a definitive answer otherwise I'll be off to RRR and to hell with the SSC map (if that's what I have).