Nick Adams

Hi All, two comments here, firstly sorry Jo if you're feeing pressured, that was never the intention, I hope you know us better than that . As you know I have chuff all funds for promotion/adverts, so we need to get the word out on new bits and bobs by whatever crafty means we can. I am convinced that the 260 upgrade is well worthwhile, much more so than the absolute numbers would imply, but the question was how to get the message out. I thought that if we popped an early adopter discount on it and got a few out to real customers they would do the selling for us, and that's exactly what has happened. The discount had to have a time limit on it for it to work and the business case couldn't survive all of them going out at the discounted price, hence the deadline. We made a lot of noise about the deadline to be nice and give people the chance to get the discount rather than miss it by a few days and feel even more cheated, not to pressurise you! Second comment, if you think getting in the car and forgetting the starter button is embarrassing, try doing it in front of the senior journalist you are about to take out for a few demo laps. Even worse, then imagine calling over the workshop supervisor and telling him that the ignition switch is obviously faulty in front of the journalist. Finish the awful saga off with the supervisor leaning in the car, pressing the starter button and walking off without a backwards glance but with a visible heat haze of pleasure floating off from around his shoulders. Then go out and do the demo drive trying not to imagine the headlines..... Nick

The very first production cars went to Switzerland, so I suspect CN's car is a very early example. The first 30 or so cars were fitted with the optional stage 1 silencer as a "free upgrade" because we had issues with the early supply of the larger standard unit which is closely based on the Exige S silencer. The stage 1 silencer barely meets noise restrictions for many UK and Europe circuits, which is why we had to make the standard silencer quieter. Not much point in having a track car if you can't drive it on track. Perversely the track restrictions over here are so stringent that many road legal cars are too noisy to be driven on track. I keep wondering about a louder stage 2 system to complement the stage 1, but there are several non-Lotus systems out there already so I'm not sure we can make a positive business case with such a small volume of cars out there (boring I know, but that's why I'm at Lotus.... ). Go on, persuade me..... Nick

Hi Everyone, sorry for the lack of response after my first post, but got engrossed in the workshop and forgot to get too cold and go indoors.... Thanks for all the welcome notes, it's nice to be back on the web and I will try my hardest to give to straight answers to technical questions. As Ads says, although I am always interested to hear of issues and will try to help where I can, I cannot get directly involved in warranty disputes or the like as this upsets my esteemed colleagues enormously and will lead to this service being withdrawn by the powers above. Similarly it is very difficult for me to get involved in discussions on non-Lotus approved parts or suppliers/dealers for obvious reasons. As Bibs has suggested, it's probably best if I just pop in and offer my thoughts on matters as and when they appear rather than have a direct "ask Nick" thread, apart from anything else I do have a home to go to! I will try to have a look on here every day, so hopefully I will not miss too many hot topics. Did you see the review of the warmed up X-Bow in last weeks Autocar? KTM must be starting to hate us..... Nick

No promises but I'll have a grub around in the glory hole out the back of our workshop and see what I can find for you. Nick

Hi Everyone, we are looking at dates to run a 2-Eleven day and wanted to see how you would feel about a Friday in March? The reason for a Friday is we are booked solid for weekend track events and a 2-Eleven day without the track sounds a bit like a horse with three legs. The other good thing about a Friday is the factory is open so we could include a look around in there if that appealed. I like the idea of a video for all you poor folks who can't live in Blighty with it's oppressive tax regimes and appalling weather ; we'll see what we can do. Let me know if a Friday would suit or whether we have to schedule for a weekend later in the year. Nick

I Love it. I'm still waiting for my piece to come in the post though.... Happy Birthday Jack, Nick

Horrid, horrid, horrid! Nick (The photoshopped car, not Scotty's windshield....)

We were involved in the early stages of the process, providing data and the like, but the credit for this piece of work should go to Arthur Schneider of Lotus West who methodically worked his way through the minefield. To be honest I am not fully aware of what he had to do in total, but I do remember the list of tasks was daunting. Congratulations and I hope the car lives up to your expectations! Nick

Hello, nice to be here! As Bibs says I will try to pop on the forum once in a while as and when I can find the time for the next couple of weeks. Right now I'm back home, the workshop is slightly above freezing and the 23 is calling so I'll pop out there for a while and then come back in when hypothermia is imminent and have look at whats' going on. With regard to the fuel surge, a small number (by no means a majority) of cars were affected with a quality issue which we have since resolved, no recent cars are affected and I am trying to sort out what we can do about older cars that are affected. I can't promise anything, but I will try! Right, I'm off outside for a bit, speak later. Nick