Popular Post nw942 Posted October 11, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Took my cup to Anglesey this week for its first track outing. Initial impressions are: 1. Long journey there and back was more comfortable that I expected. Suspension/ride wasn't too harsh, steering nicely weighted when moving, lights were bright enough. Exhaust was a bit boomy at 2k revs. Seemed fairly economical too on the road. 2. Initial laps were taken quite easy to get a feel for the car and get some heat in the tyres. Went with 30F, 32R PSI for the day as I'd rather understeer than oversteer to begin with. 3. As above, the steering was nicely weighted and direct on-track, obviously requiring a bit more physical effort through the corners than my Cayman. Undulations in the track surface also passed back to you. Steering wheel nice and small. 4. Didn't feel that the Exige needed much more trail than the Cayman to get it into a corner, but then I am a long way from the car's limits. 5. With the car in Touring mode you could feel the anti-understeer subtly working when I was asking too much of the front tyres. 6. The amount of understeer you get when on the throttle during corner exit is more pronounced than the Cayman. Having said that I know that my lines weren't perfect into places like Banking, so that probably exacerbated the feeling. 7. The level of grip at the rear is much more than the Cayman. To the point where I was being quite aggressive through places like Church and it just stuck. In the slower corners a little bit of early throttle was mainly resulting in understeer. 8. Braking was almost on another level to the Cayman, and I thought that stopped well. Could brake very late into places like Banking and Rocket In. 9. Gears - shifting was nice and easy, with the flick of a wrist. Didn't really manage to heel and toe that well. The pedals seemed to placed correctly, but when I jabbed the throttle it didn't rev as freely/eagerly/quickly as the Cayman. 10. Tyre wear seemed quite minimal, although obviously I am not pushing the car hard. Not sure what the camber setting is as standard, but I had to max out the camber on the Cayman to stop the shoulders getting destroyed. 11. Storage was a little bit limited. A front boot would have been nice, but there's just enough room for the things you need. 12. Fuel tank is also a bit small and you do get through the tank quite quickly when pushing on. 13. Very minor gripe is that the cigarette lighter in the centre console seems to spit out the tyre inflator adapter and the charger for my GPS box. But my USB adaptor is fine! So all in all a very enjoyable experience. Still plenty to learn about the car and some areas to work on, in particular: 1. Need to get nearer the limit of the rears through corners. 2. Need to maximise the brakes on all corners rather than just a few as I'm doing now. 3. Need to dial out some understeer – I guess taking the rears down to 30 PSI would help, or I will have to start playing with the Nitrons. On a final note, every time I stopped at a fuel station it garnered a lot of positive attention 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rs200evo Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 (edited) Good read. I take badly to driving any car on track having had an Exige for a year. Going back to power assisted steering is night and day in terms of feeling the front end. The brakes coupled with the lack of mass just give you so much confidence on how late you can be. I jump into my sons track prepared M3, which is stripped, caged and on track suspension, and it still feels imprecise and lardy! It still handles well though . It's also a lot more effective at chewing through parts. Exige just feels bullet proof from track day to track day. Surprised at the understeer comments. I don't experience that (well, not in a 350). I run the same pressures as you too. Maybe a difference in the Corsa's to the Cup 2's. Edited October 11, 2017 by rs200evo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sieger Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Nice write up! Did you put the DPM into Sport or Race mode?...you'll find throttle response much more eager compared to Tour ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arun_D Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Glad to hear you had an enjoyable day. As above, I wouldn't even entertain Tour on track, the throttle map is simply too lazy for effective heel&toe, plus I find the understeer control disconcerting (just my opinion). I must get to Anglesey, it was on my list for this year, but alas I couldn't make it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias23 Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Confused what's touring? ? Nice write up and Anglesey does look a great track every time I've been it's been rained off which is a massive downer given the travel to get there! You ref Nitrons? Have you got those already? Which tyres are your running? Nitrons + Trofeo/Avons + Geo = Fun Times! Quote www.alias23.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw942 Posted October 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 In reply to some of your questions, I didn't put it into Sport or Race mode. It was on my plan for the day as I wanted to compare Tour v Sport, but I managed to get some unexpected tuition which ate up the time. I will certainly use it next time, especially as it will help with heel and toe. The car has two-way Nitrons and they seem to be around the mid-point on the fronts. It also has Corsa tyres on it - not Trofeo. What negative front camber do people run with? --- Anglesey is certainly a long-trek, but it only rained hard over lunch this time so we were quite lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Lockwood Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 Wow. I can't believe you ran Touring on track! It's so unresponsive and the traction control is almost "anti-track-driving". Plus you're limited to 6800 revs. I bet you have virtually no rear brake pads left either... Race mode all the way (still eats rear pads though). Never out of Sport on the road either. The throttle lag in Touring is so bad it hurts. I get that Lotus wanted a "safety first" setting, but it seems odd to me that they've got something as sophisticated as Race mode at the other end of the scale but couldn't engineer a safe zone without destroying the throttle response. I wonder if it's any different in later cars (mine is a 2013)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gashead1105 Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 I never drive it in Touring. It's for the rare occasions the wife is driving in my view! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickEng Posted October 14, 2017 Report Share Posted October 14, 2017 I had my first few track days in my new 350 not so long ago. I was on a 3 week road trip with my gf so we didn’t want to stick it in the gravel, or worse. Did a few laps accidentally in tour mode, the throttle is noticeably lazy and the traction control intervenes swiftly if you attack a chicane with any gusto. Sport mode helped me out a time or two when I was a bit keen on corner exit in the damp. It’s definitely used the rear pads a bit, but brake pads are cheaper than bodywork. Didn’t have any brake fade, but swapped to Castrol SRF for good measure. Looking forward to getting a proper feel for the car and turning everything off. The exige is so much more capable than my old caterham, plus I have a roof and cruise control Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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