Lotus Exige Cup 380

[PeterSweden]

2 minutes ago, Swiss380Cup said:

No it's mentioned in the text that they couldn't test the 380 Cup which was already on it's way home and the had to rely on the Sport 380 figures..... but it's in GERMAN 

By the way, at the entrance of the last straight under the Audi Banner, the new GT3 and Z06 are at around 235 kmh whereas the Exige 380 Cup is not at 210 kmh. Massive disadvantage there for the next 2 kms

Gantry. Yes. Must be due to the WING. Or heat soak.

Edited December 7, 2017 by PeterSweden

[Swiss380Cup]

1 minute ago, PeterSweden said:

Gantry. Yes. Must be due to the WING. Or heat soak.

Yes, I think the accumulation of gear ratios, heat soak, gearbox, experience with car, settings, etc... makes 10 s at least manageable somewhere....so it's not that desperate.... 7:38 would be a nice time..... Again I repeat myself, if this car is in the range of 996/7 GT3 times I'm quite happy with it. We cannot pretend 991 GT3, Z06, GTR and this sort of time. Until we have the charged cool car......

[Swiss380Cup]

Top speed 245 kmh was downhill in the first portion..... there's definitely something there with the heat I guess.... no wonder after all the complaints they've now switched to the Evora supercharger on the last Exige.

In the last straight the car has problems reaching 240, and we see the driver hesitating with 6th gear, he must feel that it's not pushing any more

[PeterSweden]

3 minutes ago, Swiss380Cup said:

Top speed 245 kmh was downhill in the first portion..... there's definitely something there with the heat I guess.... no wonder after all the complaints they've now switched to the Evora supercharger on the last Exige

Top speed on NS is always after the bridge in Döttinger Höhe, downhill. Same for all cars, including race cars.

[Swiss380Cup]

Yes but barely 240 in the last stretch is not a big achievement.. should be much better not 285 maybe but 265 at least.....

[PeterSweden]

Golf R with 300 hp did 237 if I remeber correctly

[Swiss380Cup]

Ok now I have to invest in the 430 Cup or the Ex 460 or SSC TVS 1900 charge cooled when it's out... and I'll be happy 

Quote

 

 

[PeterSweden]

5 minutes ago, Swiss380Cup said:

Ok now I have to invest in the 430 Cup or the Ex 460 or SSC TVS 1900 charge cooled when it's out... and I'll be happy 

 

???

[CRM82]

I did 248 km/h end of Monza straight with Cup 380. I believe if I get faster out of parabolica and do better change 3rd/4th I can get 254-256. True that 5th gear is too long...

[razad]

The actual temp in Nürburg on July 27 was 
THU 7/27
Actual Temp
19° /12°

I dont think heat soaking would be any problem in that temperature after half a lap or the car have major issues.

[chumaxa]

Well, that is a very bad time, seriously .. Nothing to blame about the driving, he is on it, indeed looks like the usual sport auto guy, so he knows the place. On the other side, I know it is just a simulation, but on asseto corsa, the time diff between v6s vs cup 360 is already that gap, so not sure the 380 is any better ... and that gearbox, you can see him being pissed about it .. So the Exige with proper tyres / suspension is only about that pace, huge disappointment, I know it is a crazy good car to drive, but the performance way below what it is supposed to be ..

 

Compare to the civic the speed in corners of the exige is equal or slower, the exige pass the bridge at 238 kph, and the civic at 258 kph, so a lot of down-force to not be quicker than a heavy hatchback in corners, and slow in straights , hum. 

[CRM82]

At the end of the day, grip is given by type of tyres, area of contact, and pressure on the ground. Exige is lighter than many cars, and downforce compensate a bit for that (but only at good speed). Thus I am not surprised about corner speed. What is strange is peak speed: too low compared to my car, and in general I would also expect a bit more speed considering power/weight ratio.

But anyway a great car to drive!

[CRM82]

By the way: at 3:08 and at 5:16 and 7:30 (the three big compressions) something is "touching". Do you think is the tyre in the front wheel arch, or is the front splitter? I would be annoyed to completely scratch it driving there (the front visible part - below I don't care until I don't damage)

 

[The Pits]

 

[NW76]

1 hour ago, Cristiano said:

By the way: at 3:08 and at 5:16 and 7:30 (the three big compressions) something is "touching". Do you think is the tyre in the front wheel arch, or is the front splitter? I would be annoyed to completely scratch it driving there (the front visible part - below I don't care until I don't damage)

 

Christiano: I guess its the tires in the front wheel arch not the splitter ... exactly what happens to my car at 1:26 here:

The splitter is only in danger at the carousel ...

[vd9]

1 hour ago, Cristiano said:

At the end of the day, grip is given by type of tyres, area of contact, and pressure on the ground.

I'd rather say that this is largely dependent on the untis that you're measuring this elusive grip in. In case those happened to be g's, then pressure on the ground will be a function of weight, suspension stiffness and geometry,  aedorynamics of the car. Weight is going to be both positive (putting more vertical forces due to gravity) and negative (putting more horisontal forces due to centrifugal forces), but other things being equal I'd argue that less weight is better than more in this respect. General motorsports develoments tend to support this view, I believe. Perhaps there is people here who actually know about physics to correct the above considerations. 

[Nightfire]

Can you sue Lotus for failing to fulfill a contract? Measured 343 HP is not what they promise.

Edited December 8, 2017 by Nightfire

[CRM82]

7 hours ago, vd9 said:

I'd rather say that this is largely dependent on the untis that you're measuring this elusive grip in. In case those happened to be g's, then pressure on the ground will be a function of weight, suspension stiffness and geometry,  aedorynamics of the car. Weight is going to be both positive (putting more vertical forces due to gravity) and negative (putting more horisontal forces due to centrifugal forces), but other things being equal I'd argue that less weight is better than more in this respect. General motorsports develoments tend to support this view, I believe. Perhaps there is people here who actually know about physics to correct the above considerations. 

Maybe I wasn't that clear on what I wanted to say. Of course you have more variables, like you say suspension or camber etc.. but all those are indirectly affecting it (e.g. camber affect surface area and contact region of tyres). So if you take a flat surface and you drive on an infinite turn (that do not exist of course) such that you have no dinamics, then you can study the problem in a stationary state and you go back to the few things I mentioned. Lateral force was missing in my list, that's correct.

Since Nürburgring and real world are not flat, you clearly get more variables in the picture but not a drammatic change. At least this is my expectation.. somehow confirmed by times of other cars.

[NW76]

58 minutes ago, Nightfire said:

Can you sue Lotus for failing to fulfill a contract? Measured 343 HP is not what they promise.

I think in Germany as long as your car is within 10% of what they claim you do not really have a good case. The above is at -9.7% of what is claimed. What really would frustrate me is the torque curve... maxes out at 4900 rpm... looks like the 380 engines all need at least a remap ....

[Swiss380Cup]

Well the only answer I can provide to that is the KT Dyno of my 380 Cup 10 days ago. According to KT some of the 380 they dynoed had soft bugs which could be easily fixed, and before I let them my car they were already quite confident the car would do the 380. The answer again is that if we cannot look into more details in it we'll never know. 

[NW76]

Yours looks good ... looks like the test with the 380 Cup was done in July maybe one of the first with issues?!? ...

I wonder if this was an official press car from Lotus?!? Does anybody know who that car belongs to?

[Swiss380Cup]

Yes, mine was perfect, I have at least 2 runs, and they're spot on ... in the article it says that they collected the car in Germany I believe and had to give it back before the Hockenheim test since it was already sold. Maybe Lotus am Ring (KT) ??? They might know

But KT mentioned that a lot of 380 they had in their workshop didn't have the 380, at least at the beginning. But that they could fix the soft themselves. What I've been told when I discussed that with them.

[Swiss380Cup]

Well at least we all know after having discussed that thoroughly what the weak points are (gearbox, gear ratios, heat soak). That's about it, and an easy fix IMHO.... but coming back to the NOS lap time, I've looked again and compared with GT3s. And the top speeds are far apart in the fast portions, between 30-40 kmh disadvantage for the Exige. Add that to the gearbox issues, the gear ratios too long, the PDK, and you have 30 s. Maybe the fact that the car didn't have the cavalry is an explanation. Since it was sold to a client it might have been pretty new also. Not runned in ??? The problem with these articles is that we just have statements and no explanations. It's like having a trial without lawyers for the defendant .........Lotus has room for improvement in the PR department...that's for sure. The chinese are very very very VERY proud,....., they cannot loose face, so  they won't like it so this will be fixed in the near future I'm pretty confident about that.

Next year the magazine willl test the 430 Cup and we will all be very happy with the results I'm sure.

[550superfast]

IF the 380 Cup here only made 343 PS (or 338bhp) then the Ring time is no real surprise is it? Just a bit quicker than a V6 due to it's lighter weight and better aero.

And IF it only made 343PS then Lotus should not really be letting it leave the factory like that, especially IF there is a known software issue/update available.

Not sure why they bothered with the 380 (particularly in Cup guise) at all the more I think about it - over priced compared with a 350 Sport and made redundant by the 430 Cup.

[alias23]

4 minutes ago, 550superfast said:

IF the 380 Cup here only made 343 PS (or 338bhp) then the Ring time is no real surprise is it? Just a bit quicker than a V6 due to it's lighter weight and better aero.

And IF it only made 343PS then Lotus should not really be letting it leave the factory like that, especially IF there is a known software issue/update available.

Not sure why they bothered with the 380 (particularly in Cup guise) at all the more I think about it - over priced compared with a 350 Sport and made redundant by the 430 Cup.

Probably needed to hit a quarterly target and they got some aero parts cheap that they needed to get rid off - Hence limited edition lol