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New 410 musings - Ex Cayman


jonnyboy

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I got my 410Sport out at the weekend @jonnyboy and I have to say I fell in love with it all over again and was relieved that I could still get in and out of it and those carbon seats given I am now a whole year older and the over feeding that long, dark, winter nights bring.

I was a bit wary on the Cup2's as the road was still cold and damp and to be honest, I am always a real wimp and do not take chances until the road is well dry. I'm looking for a few wet days for tuition this year to really build my confidence but when on a public road the last thing i wanna do is crash into anything or anyone.

Leven have a Lotus, Aston, Caterham track day coming up and I'm thinking that will be the time for me to put the 410Sport on the track and have some fun with it.

The Evora really does get attention where ever it goes - drove past a senior school at 1515 on a Friday and the shouts of "wow, it's a Lotus" where great to hear, a whole new generation who know what Lotus is....

I do fear my 410Sport is going to be a keeper so she is being well looked after.

Dropped my pother baby, my Type 116, off at Craig Moncreiff's this morning to get fettled and generally spoilt before the new track season starts - new Spitfire braces and steering quick rack, probably a new set of nitrons, new hub career bolts, a Saab 9-5 airbox to try to quieten it down for the National, full service and oil/brake fluid change, and general look over to make sure everything is as it should be. Cat't wait for Knockhill end of March and Blyton.

Can't help but think how lucky I am to have two wonderful Hethel made machines to play with! :)

 

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I came into this world screaming and covered in someone elses blood. I'll probably leave it in the same way. 

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33 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

I got my 410Sport out at the weekend @jonnyboy and I have to say I fell in love with it all over again and was relieved that I could still get in and out of it and those carbon seats given I am now a whole year older and the over feeding that long, dark, winter nights bring.

I was a bit wary on the Cup2's as the road was still cold and damp and to be honest, I am always a real wimp and do not take chances until the road is well dry. I'm looking for a few wet days for tuition this year to really build my confidence but when on a public road the last thing i wanna do is crash into anything or anyone.

Leven have a Lotus, Aston, Caterham track day coming up and I'm thinking that will be the time for me to put the 410Sport on the track and have some fun with it.

The Evora really does get attention where ever it goes - drove past a senior school at 1515 on a Friday and the shouts of "wow, it's a Lotus" where great to hear, a whole new generation who know what Lotus is....

I do fear my 410Sport is going to be a keeper so she is being well looked after.

Dropped my pother baby, my Type 116, off at Craig Moncreiff's this morning to get fettled and generally spoilt before the new track season starts - new Spitfire braces and steering quick rack, probably a new set of nitrons, new hub career bolts, a Saab 9-5 airbox to try to quieten it down for the National, full service and oil/brake fluid change, and general look over to make sure everything is as it should be. Cat't wait for Knockhill end of March and Blyton.

Can't help but think how lucky I am to have two wonderful Hethel made machines to play with! :)

 

great combination of cars.. of memory serves your 220  is turbo'd too which must be........er ...   dangerously fun :)

 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, andyj007 said:

great combination of cars.. of memory serves your 220  is turbo'd too which must be........er ...   dangerously fun :)

Supercharged but not fully mapped, so around 235bhp but hopefully around 260bhp in the very near future after an ECU mapping session.  It's a real hoot on the track. It's not the fastest but then neither am I, but as i get better the car will give me significant time improvements for some time to come.  I could chase more powaa in the form of an Exige 350+ but to be honest the driver needs a thorough upgrade first :)

My VX is being looked after and modded for reliability/longevity and safety, rather than to be the fastest out there. She can run around all the track all day at the moment very happily, very few cars outside of a Lotus/Caterham can actually do that.

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I came into this world screaming and covered in someone elses blood. I'll probably leave it in the same way. 

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4 hours ago, mik said:

Not sure if you are aware, but several GT4 have suffered failure of the offside front suspension turret.

I know Pete who owns this car - not pretty.

Wow, I had heard of problems with the turret failures, but sounds like gears, gearboxes and other stuff too.  Sort of puts a different perspective on things when people talk about the Evora, build issues and Lotus v Porsche. I guess that car is just a lemon (sic)

I came into this world screaming and covered in someone elses blood. I'll probably leave it in the same way. 

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On 25/02/2019 at 14:36, C8RKH said:

Wow, I had heard of problems with the turret failures, but sounds like gears, gearboxes and other stuff too.  Sort of puts a different perspective on things when people talk about the Evora, build issues and Lotus v Porsche. I guess that car is just a lemon (sic)

Sorry to hijack your thread Jonny, but to keep this in one place.... updated vid.

In summary - Porsche wont fix this under warranty. They see it as impact damage from a pothole. The comments from the assessor are interesting - it has ripped as it is an alu tower as opposed to steel. It is a relatively easily replaced part, but circa £5.5k. (Plus a wheel & tyre and who knows what other damage to the strut or other suspension bits).

 

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I'm no metalurgist or chassis expert Bruss so i'm in no position to give any learned opinion. Feel sorry for Pete though - pretty 5hit situation. 

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40 minutes ago, mik said:

I'm no metalurgist or chassis expert Bruss so i'm in no position to give any learned opinion. Feel sorry for Pete though - pretty 5hit situation. 

I agree. He should have had some offer from Porsche imo. He hasn't helped himself with his video's but that's no excuse for Porsche to ignore the problem. Their attitude has put me off and I am currently looking at the possibility of buying the new 718 GT4 out here in France.

 

 

 

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The issue seems to be affecting GT4s and 991 GT3.

Porsche appear to be stonewalling it....

 

 

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People always seem to ask me why are so mad on Lotus’s when you can buy a Porsche for the same money and they never break down, most don’t no much about cars obviously , if this was happening to anything Lotus it would be all over social media with Chris Harris leading the way.

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The Porsche factory is very active to silence these problems normally and the Porsche fans help too.
They are clever people.
They protect their values and keep pricing and resales value up. Something we must learn from them. 

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for the update. I made the decision to stick with my 'old' Evora last year and not go for a 570, mainly due to running costs on track. I still hanker after one, but its nice to know someone else feels the love for the Evora. 

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I’m also with you the Evora is such an under rated car.

like others I do like McLaren and your insight into the 570 is interesting.

I just watched this video from Thorney Motor sport, 4 years of owning a McLaren https://youtu.be/2-JOcg0TXBY  

As hard as he tries, I ain’t buying one. 

Im keeping my 400, it’s fast enough to scare me, but the way it feels at any speed is magic.

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Well H111 are pricing up the go faster bits for the 410. The 570 certainly feels like more speed than you would ever realistically need. I can't begin to imagine what the 720 feels like or even if you'd be able to use it really. 570 was in the dry and there was no hint of it loosing traction but then it does have a pretty sophisticated TC system. My pal I think summed up the Mc Cars they are probably more for people that like to be flattered as a driver a bit like the new Porsche cars. The Evora although obviously a new car still is very analogue. That said I think it would warrant spending more time in. I did ask the local dealer if they ever did a 24 or 48 hour test driving thing. A big ask indeed but it's quite hard to make a proper decision of that magnitude from a 45 minute drive though it was very generous of them indeed. Much more than I would be able to do with my insurance! I have an impression that it might be one to have a play with the electronics to allow a bit of slippy slide. Maybe there is some detail in that steering but it's so so light. 

The perhaps unfortunate/fortunate thing depending how you look at it the way the used prices are going I reckon working a bit of my magic it's a 30/35k swap from the 410 into a decent 570. The numbers the dealers are offing on new are just crazy which in turn makes 115k used cars look silly. A bit like Lotus McLaren (to my surprise actually) are dumping overproduction onto dealers at a discount and this is where the real harm is getting done to their residuals. I would say they are doing it on a bigger scale than Lotus too. So figures my pal got were about 158k on a mid spec new 570s I saw a pre reg with 100 miles on the clock in almost identical spec...132k was the offer on that. that was without really expressing proper interest as well. 2 year old ones will be the smart buy but I think another year in the Evora beckons! 

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130k is possible on a new well specced 570s (discounted)  and yes they are a joy to drive. I did look at a 100 k 2k mileage dealer car and was sorely tempted.  As a road only car I would have bought it as I don't think the road running costs are particularly excessive while the car is in warranty.  The problem I have is wanting to use it as an occasional track car, probably with the possibility of satisfying my tinkeritis tendencies. Then the costs just become unavailable to me.  I would probably worry about out of warranty costs as well. Reliability still seems to be an issue, with small things taking the cars off the road for reportedly long periods.

 

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Yes there are a number of parallels within McLaren such as patchy dealership coverage/standards/parts availability etc. that make you feel quite at home as a Lotus owner.  Ditto huge off internet discounts and overproduction stock.  

The temptation is reversed for me as I don't track the 410 and much prefer to have an auto daily.  If they ever drop to 80/90 the temptation will be too great Im quite sure. I think they have stopped making the 570 now but if they introduce a slightly cheaper car now it will totally screw up the prices. Can't really see they would want to pursue a price point any lower though.  

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@jonnyboy

relating to 

"Could well have painted myself into a corner with the 410 it will make a future test drive of a GT3 even more interesting. Bearing in mind the price points of the GT4 have taken a bit of a tumble they are at the point where if you were so minded you could jump out of an Evora 410 into a GT4. I can safely say by some margin that for all it's annoyances this year the Evora towers over the GT4 where it matters and is in no danger of being replaced.  These Porsche guys dont know what they are missing. "

There is a shot of a test fleet of (991) 911Rs in which they have also a Lotus Evora (should be a 400) integrated.......some years ago ...just to mention  

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  • 6 months later...

Wow it's been a while since the last update! Not really too much to report the Evora is sitting I think at about 5000 miles currently. As the weather has dropped I've not continued to daily it as I did last year. My situation with logistics has changed as we moved units at work and it's not as easy to store the Evora at work as it was before so it tends to get left in the garage more these days. 

I still have an outstanding rattle that I think is a hangover from when it had the new roof. Andy is trying to sort it but for various reasons (mainly my crazy schedule) we don't seem to be able to get it in. Will probably wait now until service time. JCT moving their workshop away from Leeds just as I bought the car is most annoying I really wish they would consider moving back to town. No other problems or issues at all with the car. Other than all the original QC related stuff the car has actually been fault free 100%

So early year wobbles have dissipated I have continued to keep an eye on 570s and indeed 991 GT3s and earlier this actually got the opportunity to drive both on track. I was happier on the drive home in the 410. It's really quite something and I think I'm really still yet to drive anything that touches it for dynamics.

No action on the modding front its all still totally stock. Still waiting for Dave to book me in :D The second set of rear Cup 2s are almost done so I will be making the swap to PS4s and also having a look at the geo. I really should have had a geo done before now as my car was certainly rushed through the factory the chances are the geo won't be optimal. We will probably do a bit of work to slow the turn in a little on the PS4s and it might help it work a bit better in the cold weather too.  The difference in "plantedness" in the cold weather between the 410 and Cayman GT4 on the same tyres was quite marked. I think if I was using it a bit more the seats might start to bug me. Even with the recliner brackets I don't find them comfortable and it's always bugged me a bit that they look too small for the cabin. Unlikely to bother doing anything. 

She probably won't see too much action this winter as we are crazy busy and I have some stuff to do with the VX track car before next season and a Sport 190 Elise to restore so those two projects will take up all the winter period by the looks.  In March it will unbelievably be 2 years old! Not sure where that time has gone! The panic now sets in where to find the second bit of the 50/50 :D:D :D

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