[zvezdah1]

WCLM report

HI All,
Just talked with Kiyoshi at Tahoe, he says the events going great!! People are thrilled with the US car and have been going out in it all day. Shinoo had just recently left in the car when I was talking to Kiyoshi, apparently Shinoo was quite a happy camper!!!
Chris

 

[Randy Chase]

I am soon on my way to the airport. I will be there in a matter of hours. Wish I could spend more time there, but maybe next year.

I hope to get some autocross runs inside the Elise on video tomorrow.

 

[mikester]

Wow have fun, take lots of good pics !

 

[Racer X]

This is such a tease!!!!

We need more info....
Must have more info....


Really, thanks for posting. Any information is better than none.

Is there one with and one without the sports package there? I would like to understand how different they feel.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[Randy Chase]

From what I was told, there is just one federal car there. I don't know if it has LSS.

What I would like to find out, is if I can create inside rear wheel spin when driving it all out.

 

[Derek]

Cool, looking forward to the video... Have fun guys:clap:

 

[Vantage]

Maybe next year! It will be hard to top such an exquisite location as Tahoe though.

 

[Need4Speed]

Maybe next year! It will be hard to top such an exquisite location as Tahoe though.

Damn, might just have to repeat it.

 

[LotusLust]

man, i am an unhappy camper. after this event was closed i fiound out i have to go to pt mugu and san dego the days following the event. i dmn sure would have made the tahoe trek had i known that sooner

 

[zvezdah1]

Kiyoshi sent me a couple of sprint phone pics from wclm to whet our appetites!!
This is of the concours.


Chris

 

[zvezdah1]

Here's Clyde of Lotus on the autocross. Randy's going to post pics and vids tomorrow
Chris

 

[Randy Chase]

Kiyoshi sent me a couple of sprint phone pics from wclm to whet our appetites!!
This is of the concours.


Chris

Heh, he mentioned he was golng to send them to you. That is my back showing the Elisetalk sweatshirt.

 

[Randy Chase]

I need to do a long report. There is a lot to mention! I need to post pics and then some videos. I have some videos of a federal car being driven in anger!

But I can't.. I need sleep.

I do want to share some things. First...

HOLY CRAP! WOW!!!!!

That is the most important thing. I had some expectations. The car was not an LSS car and was on street rubber. I expected more understeer and not as much grip as I would have liked.

However, the car performed fabulously. It stuck like a well prepped race car, far better than I expected. Handling was near neutral with just a touch of understeer and I could easily create more or less understeer with my driving, and I could easily create oversteer too.

Backing up a bit... we had a Lotus Autocross day. A mix of cars including Elans, Esprits, etc. Most cars were in the 46-50 second range. The fastest other car was a race prepped Europa on race rubber that got down to a 41 second time.

Kiyoshi drove very well and I think got down to a 42 second time. Clyde was impressive, quickly picking up the sport. I mean he did very well. He got down to a very good time.

I think I had fast time of day in the Elise. 41.33 seconds.

What it did extremely well was slaloms and transitions. Just keep your foot in it and twitch the steering wheel and the car just skirted around the cones.

The power was very cool when it the power band. It was okay before it.

Car felt very good. Starting it is an odd thing. Shifter was kinda average, but perhaps is more improved now....still lightyears ahead of the early Elise I drove. A couple times I had trouble getting it in gear, but understand it was during a fast and furious race.

Launches abouve 5k rpms seemed to involve some smell from the clutch. Not sure how often I would want to do that.

Brakes showed zero signs of fade after repeated hard use.

Noticed that the back of the helmet seemed to lightly scratch the leather seat's headrests. Not sure if there is a way to mitigate that. Perhaps with some leather conditioner it will come out?

3M film is a good idea if you want to wack cones in the car.

Did I mention I really liked this car? And it was not the LSS version!

 

[perryeyges]

WCLM at Lake Tahoe

Shot up to Lake Tahoe from the SF Bay Area late last night @11:30pm.
Got up early and beat it out to the airport to check out the WCLM autocross.
Alot of really nice Loti in attendance. My favorite and the only reason for making the pilgrimage was to see, hear, touch, sit in, and to climb under the fed Elise in attendance. I had never seen one before but I knew that I had to have one. The car far exceeded my expectations. It is the closest thing to a race car that I have ever seen on the street. Way more track car looking than say a Porsche GT3(I sell them).
My wife and I sat in the car together and fit quite nicely much to our surprise. The pedals were just fine for my size 12 feet. The cockpit is pure perfection. The trunk is pretty danm big. Getting in and out was not a problem at all with the top off. The Lotus rep said he has been using the windscreen for support (for over three years) and has never had a problem.
I retired from the epoxy industry about three years ago and was really impressed by the quality of the aluminium bonding adhesive.
Kudos to Lotus on the attention to detail and quality!
Interior plastic rocker covers are an exception.
Shinoo Mapleton of sector 111 showed me a carbon fibre rear diffuser and steering wheel, they not only looked sweet but were unbelievably featherlight. I ordered one of each!! Shinoo also said that they were working on a carbon rocker cover to replace the cheesy stockers.
The car was ripping off very competetive laps right out of the box and that's with the touring pkg wheels and tires! We were all very excited thinking about the potential of the car with the LSS pkg.
Chassis and suspension pieces are on par with most race teams!!
The car had a very pleasing if not a bit raspy exhaust note.
I am now even more on the edge of my seat waiting to drive my new Laser Blue LSS baby Elise home from the dealership.
This is a true milestone car for us here in the USA.
Regards, Perry

 

[John Stimson]

NOOOOOO!!!

I discovered the WCLM notice on Friday. I checked out the page, saw some implications that a Federal car would be available for test drives, and maybe even the autocross, and found that registration was closed. Rats. Well, they can't really have a Federal car there and give rides to everyone, can they?

Apparently so! And I missed it, the one thing that would make it easy for me to decide on the Elise: driving it at an autocross.

Damn, Randy, you make it sound really good. Any idea whose Europa it was? I mean, it's kind of silly to bench-race a marque autocross, but any data I can get will fascinate me for dozens of minutes

Wheelspin? I wouldn't expect any on street tires, so you'd better say "not the slightest hint"...

 

[Vantage]

Randy, if you liked the base car, then I will be "gobsmacked" over it. Thanks for taking the time to post for those who couldn't go.

About the leather scratches...I suppose conditioning may soften the appearance, but after a while, they aren't going to come out if they get severe enough. Depends if Lotus uses coated leather or not as well. It might look odd with a scrap of microfiber glued to the back of your helmet.

 

[Vantage]

Did you by chance see Shinoo's wheel? Pricing on the wheel and diffuser?

 

[James A]

Wow, high praise from someone who knows! I can't wait to autocross the Elise, I want to do back to back runs with my Seven to really compare the two cars.

 

[hermanslotus]

Randy,

Thanks for that post!!! You mentioned the clutch does not like a drag race start. We took our 111R to the drags one night to test some parts and nearly fried the clutch. It does not like drag races at all. I would say if you going to run these cars hard better change the clutch to an upgraded one.

Also was your test car a real US car or just one of the press demo's from Birmingham????

Please post some pic's. I'm sure one of you guys had a better digital camera than a cell phone cam.

Mitch

 

[hermanslotus]

Randy,

One other question. Just how many new Elises were there????

Mitch