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More Nick Adams Dialogue from HRM

3K views 29 replies 12 participants last post by  meat 
#1 · (Edited)
If you haven't read my first thread yet, it was "HRM Dialogue." This is just a continuation as my memory dredges up more info.

More recollections of the conversation with Nick Adams:

18. Lotus does not advise allowing children to ride in the Elise, However, that stated, a child sitting in the passengers seat will be OK if seated in a booster seat and uses the conventional restraint system. The air bag and seating position of the passenger are designed to avoid contact with a small person in the passenger side. Any type of added seat with a backing which pushes the child forward will place the occupant at risk of coming into contact with a deploying air bag. Also a child leaning forward will be at risk. Nick recommended children ride in the LSV (Lotus Support Vehicle).

Just an aside, has anyone seen or heard of a person who had their feet resting on the passenger air bag when it deployed? I usually see this behavior in young women on the interstates in socks propping their feet on the dash. The injury pattern must be really bizzare. "Sure Doc, when we got to accident scene it was really weird. Her right foot was on her left shoulder and she said she couldn't move out of that position."

19. Someone asked Nick where his money is best spent in modifying the car for better performance. Nick said "Driving Lessons!"

20. We asked if the license plate attachment point in the front will be an issue with obstructing airflow to the front coolers. He stated that almost all of the North American testing was done using a North American plate attached so that the bottom of the plate came to the bottom of the front lip. This means that the plate top is resting substantially in the airrflow to the front coolers. Nick said no problem.

21. There is a soft black rubber water drainage apparatus at the top of the A-pillar which when to top is off, appears rather like the ear of one of those show modified dobermans but with the ear layed laterally with the opening toward the top. Nick refered to this in typical British fashion as "Prince Charles' Ear."

22. He talked extensively of the work that they had done in trying to perfect gullwing doors on the project. They had built a number of prototypes. They were too much weight, too leaky, too expensive, and too complicated were his conclusions.

23. Finally, an interesting story about the first Toyota powered Elise prototype. I may be getting my dates mixed up, but at the 2002 Geneva auto show, when an non-Lotus crew was removing the new S2 (?) show car they jacked it up with a bottle jack on the undertray and punctured the aluminun frame. The car was a writeoff and should have been scrapped. The engineers kept it in secret in the back of the shop at Hethel away from the bean counters, and when Arnie sent the Celica over to test the feasibility of the Toyota, they cut out the back of the show car, fitted the new engine, and this became the first test mule for the Federal Elise.

It is said of most disasters and accidents that a series of small errors, not just one large error, each contribute to the final result. In the case of the Elise, I believe in speaking with Nick that a series of small accomplishments by a lot of people made the federal Elise come to be. It is a great story. I hope someone is writing it.
 
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#27 ·
Adam P said:
So I gather you would put the car on the trailer, put it in gear, put the parking break on, and then strap down each wheel? Usually on a Dyno they use wheel straps, and I still hear about how they can cause harm to the suspension components..

admap
1) NEVER trailer with the car in gear. Very slight motions back and forth, transmitted through the tranny to the engine, can end up burnishing the internals in a bad way.

2) I've towed my RX-7 to the track several times using wheel straps - no problems.

ed
 
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