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"Hopeless" Exige 350 Sport


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16 hours ago, Mattmahope said:

Anyone else experience this issue and have a more elegant solution??

If you can, reverse in at a very tight angle, almost as if parallel parking.  My girlfriend’s dad’s house has a similar kind of driveway and my splitter scrapes unless reverse in and get the angle right.

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On 12/01/2019 at 09:16, Mattmahope said:

Car feels fantastic although an odd clanking noise has developed at the rear. Sounds like something is a bit loose and it’s metal banging on metal. Will need to investigate further.

This happened to mine when I first got it. Turned out to be a loose locking nut on the rear toe link.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Since I got the helmet, I figured it was about time for another track day.  Booked in for Snetterton 300 with Javelin for this Sunday 10th.  Might be a bit damp but should be fun to test out the new LSD.  Anyone else fancy it??

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Had a terrific day at Snetterton 300 yesterday (Sunday) despite (or perhaps because of) the horrendous conditions.  Some thoughts:

1. Javelin organised a great day.  Staff were very friendly and helpful.  Admin dealt with quickly and painlessly.

2. My car passed noise test no problem.  The chap said I read 101 at around 6k.

3. It was wet.  Really wet.  Wetter than an otters pocket wet.  Cars were going off all over the place and there was more sideways action than a Tokyo Drift day.  I spun on standing water coming out of the slow hairpin early on, but managed to carry straight on without causing any delay, so was a bit more careful after that.  I had more than enough power (EX370) to light up the wheels on demand, pretty much any gear at any speed.  Car generally felt reasonably predictable and it was certainly a lot of fun sliding all over the place, but definitely a handful and quite hard work to get the right amount of steering lock on quickly enough.  Also snappy/bit ragged transitioning out of the slide, which I am sure says more about the driver than the car. 

4. Although hard to tell too much about the balance of the car in those conditions, I think the nose noticeably pushes wide coming out of slow corners under power, probably more so now with the LSD fitted than the standard car.  I can sense that some suspension changes may be on the cards before too long to dial some of that out...

5. I need a new windscreen wiper so have ordered a PIAA silicone one, along with a bottle of Rain-X to boot.  Current visibility in the rain is appalling.

6. I experimented with all the traction control settings, including off - see spin above.  Race does seem to be good, although it didn't seem to deal with massive puddles of standing water very well - just cutting power back rather abruptly. I imagine it would be amazing in the dry, but then I would probably just switch everything off in the dry anyway.

7. New helmet (Arai GP6) was very comfortable and just about fitted in the car without being wedged against the roof.  I did feel a little pushed forward in the seat though because of it.  Currently working with JLF Designs to finalise my design before get it painted -  which so far is taking ages, although giving them the benefit of the doubt because Jason seems like a great guy and I know that this is peak season for them.

8. Snetterton 300 is a great track.  Long at around 3 miles, especially compared to Brands Indy circuit.  Terrific mix of slow/fast, left/right hand corners, a couple of decent straights and plenty of run off.  Only thing missing is some elevation changes.  There were a lot of stoppages for people spinning off etc but all dealt with very efficiently.  Good food in the café too!

9. Track day insurance is expensive.  £300 with Adrian Flux was the best quote I could find.  I know that the long-term answer to this is to have track day cover with my regular insurance policy, but I wasn't sure how many track days I was going to be doing when I last renewed my policy and I have a very reasonably multi-car policy with Admiral at the moment.  Will re-access once I have a better idea how many track days I am likely to be doing each year.   

So in summary, a great day out.  Learnt a lot about myself and the car.  Love the fact that I could slide round the track all day, then simply remove helmet and drive home in (relative) comfort. Exactly what I bought it for.

Looking forward to the next time already!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Had a great day at Hethel for the Driving Academy "Silver" day this weekend.  Great learning experience (especially in the changeable conditions) and terrific fun too.  My instructor Rob was very patient and a top bloke, managing to stay calm in the face of my decidedly average efforts behind the wheel!  He really pushed me along and there was definitely progress made.  I'm looking forward to the "Gold" level already.  As an aside, most of the others at Hethel that day were very friendly Germans who had come over in a couple of groups, one in his lovely brand new Evora 430.  Was great to meet them and see how enthusiastic they were for Lotus over on the continent.

I'm off on hols with the wife to Japan for a wedding and some skiing at the end of the month, so will be dropping my car off at H111 to have my beautiful new Ohlins TTX fitted as well as a few other jobs dealt with while we are away:

Fit Ohlins TTX dampers & springs.  Going for the softer 800/1050lb springs rather than stiffer the Cup R spec springs.  

Fit Michelin Cup 2 tyres (215s at front, 265s at rear).  Hearing very positive things about these and hoping that the increased width at the front helps the balance a little. 

Full geo set-up (including more negative camber at front and lower ride height all round with additional rake).  If anyone has recommended settings, I'd be glad to hear.  How much negative camber is it possible to run with stock 350 suspension arms/uprights etc before milling?  I have decided to go without adjustable ARBs for the time being.  I don't want to run stiffer aftermarket ARBs and Lotus don't have any of the adjustable Cup ARBs available, and even if they did they are bloody expensive of course!  Having the adjustment on the dampers (along with the slightly wider front tyres) should get me where I want to be without needing further adjustment in the ARBs.

Deep clean / protect new Ohlins and other suspension components / underbody etc with ACF 50

Replace windscreen wiper with best available option.  I bought a PIAA replacement wiper blade having read positive reviews on here, but it doesn't seem to fit at all!  I can mount it onto the wiper arm OK, but the blade doesn't sit flush against the windscreen.  Any recommendations?

Remove silver “EXIGE” badge from rear bumper.  Bits of it already falling off.  Key weight saving measure...

Check whether harness shoulder belts need to be swapped over.  Having looked into this after being prompted by @Ulli, I think that they may in fact be correct as they currently are (the new Schroth belts like mine appear to have the yellow ASM on the opposite side to the earlier belts), but worth checking.  Is anyone able to confirm this?

Last but not least, the car has developed an unusual clunking/clanking nose from the rear driver's side that I need investigated properly.  It's an odd metallic noise that sounds like it might be in the suspension or exhaust somewhere, but it doesn't seem to correlate to anything in particular.  It is by no means constant and it occurs at both high speed and low speed, on flat and on bumpy roads, and sometimes not at all.  Anyone had anything similar?

Edited by Mattmahope
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For the driving academy, do they teach you in an exige? Also do they teach you how to control the car when it exceeds the grip limit? This is something I would love to have taught to me.

sounds like some great upgrades whilst you are away. Is acf50 a must do? Thinking whether I should get that done with the nitrons when they go on! 

My exige badge fell apart too! Took it all off so mines completely debadged at the moment, debating a yellow sport 350 sticker but undecided.

let me know when you fancy a track day and enjoy japan and skiing! 

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28 minutes ago, Mattmahope said:

 

Check whether harness shoulder belts need to be swapped over.  Having looked into this after being prompted by @Ulli, I think that they may in fact be correct as they currently are (the new Schroth belts like mine appear to have the yellow ASM on the opposite side to the earlier belts), but worth checking.  Is anyone able to confirm this?

 

The lap belts should have the strap attached to the buckle on the centre line of the car (i.e against the console), with the ASM straps on the same side.

The shoulder belts are labelled Left and Right (small paper dots on the shoulder strap buckles. However if they accidentally mixed up the lap belts from each box, this could be misleading.

The ASM stitching needs to be on the inside. If you crash and the ASM breaks, the driver and passenger smash their heads into each other if the are on the outside (body twists in) - certain head injury. If on the inside strap the body twists to the outside of the car, and at worse it hits the very breakable window. 

Quoting from Scroth: 

Why do I need a left and right side belt (driver/co-driver)?

The patented asm® system is designed to be installed on the in-board side of the vehicle. The asm® system is located in the inside shoulder belt and thus requires 2 different harnesses (left and right) for each seating position. Please make sure the belts are installed on the correct side of the car!

SCHROTH link here (bottom of the page): https://www.schroth.com/en/segments/tuning/service/faq.html

Schroth have always been pretty insistent on this

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1 hour ago, BatMobile said:

For the driving academy, do they teach you in an exige? Also do they teach you how to control the car when it exceeds the grip limit? This is something I would love to have taught to me.

sounds like some great upgrades whilst you are away. Is acf50 a must do? Thinking whether I should get that done with the nitrons when they go on! 

My exige badge fell apart too! Took it all off so mines completely debadged at the moment, debating a yellow sport 350 sticker but undecided.

let me know when you fancy a track day and enjoy japan and skiing! 

The Silver level is all in an Elise. First half of day is skills based - braking, skid pan and slalom exercises. So yes, definitely good for getting used to exceeding available grip. Afternoon is track laps. All with same instructor. Gold level introduces the Exige. Personally I wouldn’t bother with Bronze level unless you are a total novice.

I don’t think the ACF50 is essential, but people recommend it and seem sensible to do while the car is in the air with the suspension off. Hopefully it helps keep the Ohlins looking mint too.

I also debated getting a sticker made for the rear but decided against in the end. I like the cleaner look at the back and mine has massive 350 Sport stickers along the sills any way!

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On 20/01/2019 at 11:46, Mattmahope said:

Collected my new helmet yesterday. Is it weird to just wear it round the house?

C949149E-B8F0-420F-98E6-B88AF717F4C1.jpeg

Looks like you are in the bedroom. That's exactly where you should be wearing your helmet otherwise you might be looking for a +2 Evora!  And that would never do.

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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36 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

Looks like you are in the bedroom. That's exactly where you should be wearing your helmet otherwise you might be looking for a +2 Evora!  And that would never do.

Haha! Funny you should mention that... I fear that “problem” may be fast approaching...! 

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1 minute ago, Mattmahope said:

Haha! Funny you should mention that... I fear that “problem” may be fast approaching...! 

Oh. Time for a px. And I'm not talking about the car!  

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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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Those stickers look great @MrP_! That’s exactly the sort of thing I would have gone for, just all black for me to go on my red background. May still do that in future but right now happy with the cleaner look at the back

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