So. Astute readers will note I had bought an 05 Lotus Elise to run in AS to replace my 09 Pontiac Solstice GXP coupe I had run locally and had decided although I won the local championship this past year, it was NOT the car to have in AS! I penned a letter to SCCA, they said nope, Solstice is where it belongs and as I like weird, quirky stuff, the Elise had a great appeal!
REALLY astute observers will note I had acquired a very nice Nightfall Blue 05 with some mods that I would need to change back to run legal in AS. (Seats, exhaust, radiator, rotors..and 56K miles) I really loved the Chrome orange cars, but the Nightfall Blue had become my 2nd favorite. Pretty sweet car that felt good and was within 100 miles of me. Bought it. I started ordering stuff to put on the car and change back to stock AS legal stuff, I had not found/bought seats yet. I got to run it in one practice and was happy to be @ 3 secs. of Andreas in his Beautiful CO NA Exige with fresh rubber and several mods.
Sooooo, there I was minding my own business and a BONE STOCK , Chrome Orange 05 with 12 K miles showed up for sale for the same price as the Nightfall, and was 4 miles from where I got the first!!.... uuuuhhhh, what do I do? Well, By looking at the pics, you already know!
What to do with the Blue car is the question... I'm actually not anxious to sell it.. and I promised the owner I would offer it back to him first when purchased....but I digress.
Unlike the practice in the blue, that was a smaller lot. This last event was on our large West lot in San Diego. I had already sewn up the annual class win against a couple Vettes and Porsches in the Solstice, but some were still slugging for 2nd, so great time for a baseline test!
So, if you look close, in one pic you will see "standard" Elise wheels on the orange car. It is not an LSS car, most stuff on LSS I can change anyway, so no biggie, have SSR rims in LSS size, so good there..I had also procured a spare LSS wheel/tire set. Combo choices as follows
Blue Elise= 4 yr old RE-71s on LSS rims
Spare LSS rims= 2 year old Toyo R888s
Stock Elise = 14 year old Yoko 071s ? (so old were out of the question, whatever they are)
SSR LSS size rims had slicks mounted..
I'm guessing you all sided with me in picking the 2 year old Toyos to run. What that meant was I was putting LSS sized tires on "STOCK" Elise springs/shocks. I am not exactly sure how that affected a baseline, but oh well. I have acquired the extra oil cooler needed and now have two sets of LSS shocks I think.
Observations:
When you buy a lo-mileage Elise that has been stored outside sporadically, and driven even more rarely and are new to Elises as a whole, pay attention to the spare brand new looking battery bracket laying in the trunk. Even when you glance over at the battery and see a clamp in place. The battery slid for and aft with a bit of effort... but where could it go?
Answer- After your first 100 yard 5 cone slalom attacked with aggression at the start, your car will lose power, lose dash display, not restart, but carry you with enough momentum through the 180 sweeper to make a 270 and coast off course. You will then open your boot to see your battery (Thankfully sealed) laying on its side and the cables detached. At that point you will see where the "spare" hold down clamp in supposed to go!. Place the battery back, stick the cables back on by hand and you can drive back to paddock to fix. (It turns out the battery it had was about 1/2" or less too wide to fit between the brackets, I ended up mounting the spare bracket upside down with some other "Spare screws" that had been taped to the hardtop and then some elaborate zip tie affair to the visible clamp that held for another 8 laps till done.)
2nd run: Spun and did a 360 and drove back upstream to prevent a DNF. 15 seconds off pace of leaders.
3rd run: Car felt good, revs hard, constantly fighting push the tail happy.. but felt good.. now WITHIN 1 sec of Porsche Cayman drivers that had just beaten me in Solstice at last event by less than .250 sec! (They are now getting used to the car after about a year)
4th run: Things were coming together, everything felt right and riding the limit of most everything... come in... my laptime was.. 1.3 seconds! woo hoo, top time of day!! Not really clocks messed up- rerun
5th/rerun.. went well, but a previous section that was fast and I hit limiter in 2nd, Was trying to short shift a lane change, but the car and tires were not ready for that yet.. slowed 1.3 secs/dnf
Went out to work course and lots of other people.. the more I thought about, our days in the giant west lot were numbered, it was a great course and I LOVED driving the Lotus!! I snuck back over to registration and entered X runs after lunch!
X runs, got more consistent and had 2 runs 3 tenths faster than earlier... so HAPPY!!
Next up, already here to be installed, or on order
BWR hardcore front
Next up, already here to be installed, or on order
BWR hardcore front bar
SSR rims
DA Penskes AS legal
2Bular exhaust
I suspect will run RE-71s
Woo Hoo! Happy Thanksgiving!, Hope I gave you something to read and enjoy, enjoy your holiday and any inputs appreciated!
Very cool! Your CUSTOM AS legal Penskes are on their way.... I neglected to take a photo of them before packing the box but they almost look too good to put on the car! It will take some fiddling, but I think you'll really get this car dialed in.
Very cool! Your CUSTOM AS legal Penskes are on their way.... I neglected to take a photo of them before packing the box but they almost look too good to put on the car! It will take some fiddling, but I think you'll really get this car dialed in.
Just a couple pictures of the current state of affairs.. for some reason I have left me building the Penskes for last as they scare me for some reason. But I'm
Between The Penskes, I found these TR F1 wheels... MAN are they light!! and will be in a test and tune with RE-71s on SSRs vs A052s on the TRs.. moving on.. I hope to have out on March 7th event.
I have been weighing all the tire/wheel combos and find amazing and great that the rear touring wheels on 225/45/17 tires weighed 10lbs, 5oz. MORE EACH than 245/40/17 A052s on the TR F1 wheels!! WooHoo!
Well, the first event in the car with testing on Saturday and then running on Sunday is class netted some great results.
First up was this combo, A052s, dirty course, cool morning (first group).. I was running the BWR S/T front bar and a 2bular exhaust. I was about a second ahead of my normal competition in AStreet. I used to run my GXP Solstice coupe in AS and won 5 events and took the year end championship... but the class was getting faster as a whole.. (one gent today won with his first class win last event) I took 4 laps.
Pulled off and fit the above 15s on the Konigs.. I then promptly dropped 3/4 second and then another 1/4 sec. The car seems to like the extra "meat" up front...
LOVE the bar and exhaust.... The shocks had a fitment issue and Fred is working on that.. so should help yet again...
Next up (Thanks to a roommate delivery) I put on brand new RE-71s on SSRs to try in the afternoon. Some discussion as to whether the track was faster, slower or the same due to temps, etc.
After 6 laps with the RE-71s, I was still a second off of the 15"/17" Yoko combo..
Which brings me to today.. HOLEE CRAP I'm having fun!!
I went with the full F1 wheel, Yoko combo as the 15" Yoko had not been heat cycled so I left off for longevity....
But after 1st laps, I was a half second+ back in 3rd, but 4 drivers were 2 driver cars and had warm tires. On my 2nd lap with a teeny bit of heat and now some familiarity with the car... I dropped 1.4 seconds!.. Bam! Dropped another 2 tenths after that!. Next car was 6 tenths back! and the class was not "slow". I won class and PAXed out 3rd overall if it holds through auditing! Some guy named Jeff Keisel taking 1st in PAX.. (Some of you may know that name..) I was just over a second PAX time off Jeff.. and 146 entries..
I LOVE THIS CAR!
I am looking forward to the Penskes helping me go faster yet!!
A forum community dedicated to all Lotus owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!
Not really clocks messed up- rerun
