Pauls Exige 410 Sport

[Paul_D]

Just in case anyone is interested, my new coolant tank (revision D) arrived today and it is different to the one which was fitted to my car. 
 

The fixing area is now much more like a big smooth encapsulated lump. Looks far far less likely to fail. 
 

 

[cuprapw]

On 19/08/2022 at 19:30, Paul_D said:

Just in case anyone is interested, my new coolant tank (revision D) arrived today and it is different to the one which was fitted to my car. 
 

The fixing area is now much more like a big smooth encapsulated lump. Looks far far less likely to fail. 
 

 

What was the specific failure in the old one ? My car is 11/2020 not sure what version I've got, but I never had a problem during track days (regardless of high ambient temperatures)

[Paul_D]

@cuprapw If you look at the picture in my previous post, you can that the where the fixing points are the plastic had cracked inside.

[Jcx]

So I assume the metal captive nuts got too hot and expanded and cracked the plastic tank at the point where the metal nuts were fixed. 

[Paul_D]

@JcxHi Joe

I'm not 100% sure to be honest, but it definitely could be that. 

Now I just need to wait and see if my problem goes away, or whether it was just a coincidental fault I've discovered. 

[Yannie]

On 23/01/2022 at 15:56, Paul_D said:

Then it was just a case of swapping the head units over. In theory this should have been simple. I didn't even need to change any wiring as the same connector is used on the old and new units. The problem was simply space. The AVH-Z7000 has a separate box for the aerial connections. I also had the Carlinkit dongle. Trying to get all of this shoved in behind the head unit was awkward, but I got there in the end with some 'persuasion'. I'm not sure what state everything is in behind there, but it's all working.

I think I'm going to go ahead and get one of these. Can I double check - did you need to do anything to the wiring, or need any tools? If not this is a no brainer for me!

[Paul_D]

@Yannie

I think the only special tool needed was the 'keys' to release the old stereo unit. 

If you're fitting the same flip out screen you will to get a DIN spacer (10mm I think) to move the unit towards you.

Other then that, as I was going from Pioneer to Pioneer, the electrical connector was exactly the same. 

[Paul_D]

I haven't updated this for a while, as not too much of interest has been going on. 

I did a track day at Cadwell Park which was great with no issues at all. 

After Cadwell I just had one more track day booked, and that was in November. Although my rear tyres still had a little bit of life left, I thought I'd play it safe and replace them. The risk of heavy rain and just over 2mm of tread on CUP2's was the deciding factor. 
It was nice to see how evenly the tyres had worn though, suggesting that my geo settings are working well.

Last week was my final track day of the year, and my first time at the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit. I'd had this booked for ages, and I'd always wanted to do Silverstone. I took the risk of booking a November date as it was half the price of a summer date. Luckily the weather was cloudy, dry and about 13 degrees. in other words, the best I could have hoped for.

In actual fact, I've been hugely lucky with the weather all year. I think every track day I've done has been fully dry or partially dry. No fully wet days.

Lots of lovely cars there, and my mate brought his fairly rare Evora GT430 along. Was also nice to meet Eddie Cain and see his Exige back to its former glory.

I loved the circuit, and as the day went on I managed to build my speed up to a fairly respectable level. 

This was a fun session before lunch with me, my mate, and Charles in his Exige 420 Final Edition.

It got a bit quieter towards the end of the day as usual, and I managed to get a nice clear lap in. 

The was no static noise testing, and amazingly I went all day without needing to fit my additional silencer. (The same couldn't be said for the Evora, which has a Komotec kit fitted)

And so that's it for this year. I've done 9 track days in total, which is more than I've ever done in a year before. The car has been basically faultless with the exception of the coolant reservoir and I still struggle to imagine a car which would be better for what I want. Drive to a circuit in relative comfort, leave the car parked outside a hotel if needed, have loads of fast fun on track, and then drive home again with the air con on and Apple Carplay running.

The Pagid RS29 pads I fitted at the start of the year are still in the car, so they've lasted 9 days and still have some material left. I'm not sure if they'll do a 10th day as I haven't looked closely yet. They have also been kind to the discs, which show no obvious wear and no cracks.

The only thing I still want to do now is give it a good clean and spray a load of ACF50 anti corrosion around the suspension. 

Oh, and I'm also toying with the idea of removing the headlight surround decals, as I'm starting to think that cars look better without them...

[Yannie]

Does your car sit in the rain? Mine is just on a drive and worried about the winter but don't want to spend track money on storage (or miss out on the odd drive). It looks very steamy in the cabin sometimes though and some wheel nuts already look oxidised. 😐

[Paul_D]

@Yannie Yep, mine just lives outside on the drive all year. Some bits will corrode, but I'll just try and keep it as clean and protected as I can.

[Yannie]

That's good to hear. I might try some of the anti corrosion sprays...

[chumaxa]

I am no Alain Prost let's say, but why do you place your hands so high on the steering ? That would give you a pretty bad position to start from if the car was to go a bit 'too' sideways.. 

[Paul_D]

@chumaxa

I honestly don’t know. I often think exactly the same when I look at my videos. It’s not a deliberate decision. There must be something about the overall driving position that makes it feel more ‘natural’ to me. 

Looking back at old videos, I didn’t hold the wheel like that in my M3’s, Cayman, R8, or 911, yet I did in my Elise. Strange. 

I agree it’s not optimal, but I can still apply over 180 degrees of steering lock instantly. Any more than that and you’ll probably be taking your hands off the wheel and flailing away like a lunatic anyway. (Like in this old video I found 😂)

[Jcx]

Super quick catch tho Paul! 

[stephenwhyte]

23 hours ago, chumaxa said:

I am no Alain Prost let's say, but why do you place your hands so high on the steering ? That would give you a pretty bad position to start from if the car was to go a bit 'too' sideways.. 

High hands on a steering wheel……..never held Jean Alesi back!😉

 

[Paul_D]

It's like we were separated at birth! 😆

[Paul_D]

1 hour ago, Jcx said:

Super quick catch tho Paul! 

By sheer luck, a friend happened to be stood at the corner taking photos of me when that happened:

 

[Yannie]

On 13/11/2022 at 19:51, Paul_D said:

@Yannie Yep, mine just lives outside on the drive all year. Some bits will corrode, but I'll just try and keep it as clean and protected as I can.

Do you get condensation in the cabin? I've taken it out for hours with air con but I think moisturise makes it into the cabin. On cold mornings it's on the back of windscreen.

[Paul_D]

@Yannie

Yeah, I do. There was some when I used the car last week. It took a little while for the screen to dry out using the heater.

It's not the first car I've owned that does that. As part of my winter prep I'll lubricate the door seals and may place some silica gel bags in the car that I've previously used.

[Yannie]

ok thanks Paul!

[Bibs]

4 hours ago, Paul_D said:

may place some silica gel bags in the car that I've previously used.

You can buy 5kgs of silica cat litter for next to nothing and fill up an old sock of pair of tights. 

[Paul_D]

@Bibs

That's a top tip! 

[Rambo]

It might keep the moisture out but you might find the footwells are full of cat shit 🤣

[Paul_D]

Did a little bit of work on the car last weekend.

First job was brake pads. The old ones had done 9 track days and were starting to get a bit low:

Now in reality I probably could have done one more track day with these, and certainly with the rear ones. But at this point I decided to just go ahead and replace them anyway.

I decided to stick with the Pagid RS29s as I've been more than happy with them. Good performance (including from cold), No noise, and seem to be relatively kind to discs. In terms of wear rates, averaged out, the front pads had worn at a rate of 0.92mm per track day, and the rears were 0.83mm per track day. 

New ones ready to go on. To try and reduce noise as much as possible I always chamfer the edges, fit 3M anti-squeal rubber shims and use Ceratec brake grease.

Next job was one I'd been looking forward to doing, fitting some side skirts. I'd seen a few cars with skirts fitted and I am a big fan of the look.

Got the car up on the Race Ramps and then used my jack to position the skirts in place whilst marking the holes. Fitment then involved drilling some holes and fitting rivnuts. I did have a bit of a panic when I though I'd drilled into a coolant pipe, but it must have been rain water which had somehow entered the sill and got trapped.

Skirts are held in place with M6 bolts and large washers. When people fit these they go for different levels of 'aggressive' in terms of how far they stick out. I spent a while messing around with this before deciding on the final position, and I'm really pleased with the outcome. I think it compliments the front splitter nicely.

 

Now I'm just waiting to do my first track day of the year, which will be at Snetterton on March 12th. 

[Techyd]

Nice bit of skirt that