Esprit

Yeah, sure... so long as you don't mind waiting 'til it's finished, will be only too happy to take you for a spin. Even better, turn up to a trackday I'm running in and you can see what they're really capable of. Sadly you'll never be able to bring in an S1 Elise as a classic as they don't meet emissions rules. Only avenue for importing is as an SIV or as an immigrant vehicle, both of which mean more hoops to jump through. NZ cars aren't badly priced at all either, especially since all of the corrosion problems that my ex-UK car has suffered are non-existent on the kiwi-new cars.

nigga you trippin seriously though..................awesome There's a couple of similar spec in the UK with some fancy ancillaries making 260bhp. Some of the 1.9L ones are now up around 275bhp and the 2L race engines are at about 310 ... mind you, that starts all getting rather expensive But the bottom end I've built for this is all about being strong enough for mega horsepower and then playing it conservative up top. Trying not to make it a grenade

Well over 200.. Should be between 220 and 230 somewhere. Once it's up and running I'll begin some development on the bolt-ons (manifolds/TBs etc) and should be able to take this through to the 250 region potentially.

Well, apparently my engine is now pretty much fully dressed Thanks to Matt for the pics!

Yeah, fair call... and it's your comments that planted the seeds in my mind. Still, it's no big loss. I can sell the emerald for most of what it cost me, will get a Link as soon as funds permit (which will be a few weeks). I've a couple of questions I've posed to Link Tech support to see if the Xtreme will work with my existing hardware... if that all comes back positive it's full steam ahead. what were the questions may i ask .... link are very good with some things....not so good with intergratation oh and welcome to the dark side ... tell link wayne from cartune hamilton sent you Questions were mainly based around the inputs and working with some of the sensors I've already bought for the project. Things like the lambda sensor. The Link says in the manual it takes a 0-5V signal, but my STACK controller gives a 0-4V range. They clarified that this 0-5V value was just a maximum range and that any voltage range within this could be configured.

Yeah, fair call... and it's your comments that planted the seeds in my mind. Still, it's no big loss. I can sell the emerald for most of what it cost me, will get a Link as soon as funds permit (which will be a few weeks). I've a couple of questions I've posed to Link Tech support to see if the Xtreme will work with my existing hardware... if that all comes back positive it's full steam ahead.

Hi all... well I'm still alive and haven't forgotten about you or my stupid car I'm still waiting for the gearbox to arrive, although it's now in transit so will hopefully be in the country by the end of the week. It's looking promising now that Bernard Scouse will be pressing on with a run of his engine mounts since there's enough people in the SELOC community keen on one. This is good because it means I won't have to design up my own mount and reinvent the wheel when a good product already exists. One area I am reinventing/improving is the airbox/trumpet backplate. Ken gave mine back to me to tidy up as the powdercoating was coming off: Now, to my surprise this plate is actually manufactured from STEEL, so it's actually pretty damned heavy. I've been through and modelled up a new one in SolidWorks: I'll get this made up in Aluminium this week, then get it anodised blue. It's a cheap way to save 100g While in this area I've also been looking into filtration. The standard "witches hat" filter in the intake tube has known shortcomings and isn't the best for flow, so an ITG megaflow racing filter will be drafted in and modified to suit. This will sit inside the airbox and present a much larger area than the OEM filter. It also should sit far enough away from the trumpets so as not to disturb the airflow. One other area I've been looking into and might be doing a U-turn on is engine-management. Now I've trodden the established path and gone with the Emerald K3. However, looking into it now, the new Link G4 (Link's a kiwi company) offers a pretty impressive package that has a good few advantages over the Emerald. I may bite the bullet and get the G4Xtreme because it can handle on-board knock-control and is a MUCH more universally known ECU in this part of the world.... which will come in handy come dyno-tune time. The main virtues of the Emerald is the plug-and-play nature with the Elise/Rover MEMS loom and the interface with the Lucas 5AS security unit... given that the Exige S1 has a different loom (which I'm having to custom-adapt) and no Lucas 5AS security module, the benefits aren't as great and the more capable Link ECU may end up being the better (if more expensive) option. Watch this space, but if anyone wants a latest-gen Emerald K3 brand new still in the bag, never installed or powered up... please let me know, it may be for sale in the near future, obviously with a small discount over the brand new price:

Just a quick note to say I've not forgotten about y'all. Work has been pretty hectic this past couple of weeks so tinkering time has been nil. Good news is that I heard today my new Quaife gearbox has been picked up and will shortly be crated and stuck on a big plane to make its journey south... should be here in 10 days or so! *excited*

Right, a short one this weekend. I've been stick doing work work rather than car work and this has hampered things a bit. I've also been getting things ready for a trackday tomorrow (I'm helping, not driving), so that's kept me busy. Might get to blag a drive of dad's Elise tomorrow if I'm lucky though, which is always a nice thing to get in my situation where I don't get much seat-time any more. However, this weekend I DID manage to make a very slight start on the ECU loom adaptor. Earlier in the thread you'll have read how I identified the Exige S1 connector (which shares the same ECU as the Esprit V8) as being common with an E36 BMW Bosch/DME ECU. I liberated a connector from one of these and I'm going to build up an adaptor-box to allow me to plug in the Emerald K3 without having to chop my original loom at all. This will also make it easier in future to add in extra sensors or circuitry if I decide to. I needed to make a box to contain and protect the wiring off the adaptor plug and to also house a couple of switching relays (for the fuel pump and any other high-drain external circuits). Here's the connector I liberated from the BMW: So I started by taking one plastic "hobby box" of the appropriate size from Jaycar Electronics: I then took to this with my trusty Dremel. The walls were too thick to fit the slots in the connector so I had to carefully grind them down around the edges. This took a while, but gently I managed to massage it to fit: This then houses the connector as can be seen below: I'll now be able to begin attaching wires and labelling them to the appropriate pins on the connector. I'll then batch these up in shrink-wrap to make a fly-lead I can attach the Emerald (Rover MEMS connector) to. Not much, but at least it's something

Stopped by KW today to pick up some bits for Dad's Elise. Had a look at my engine getting dressed on the bench. Throttle bodies are on now, all looking nice and clean... just how I like it

A sweltering, muggy night, so what better way to spend it in the garage swearing at my broken car?!?! Picked up some miscellaneous bits from the electroplaters today. Had some norma clamps (for the coolant rail and the fuel filter bracket) re-plated in bright zinc and also the front bonnet striker replated in its original zinc / gold passivate. Here they are as-received: And as reassembled on the bench: The next job was to reattach the front bonnet striker and get it lined up. I got it all set up and centred and shut it. Then when I went to open it, it jammed solid after popping up about an inch..... bugger. Now I kinda expected this as I've heard this happens if you don't align them juuuust right. So it took about 20 minutes to free it. I reset the thing several times but it kept jamming. It appeared that I could either have a functioning bonnet catch OR nice even shut-lines... not both! So, I pulled the striker off again, greased it up, inspected things and then went to put it back on when *jangle* the nut-plate for the striker fell down inside the "nose" of the front bonnet. I'd been very careful to tape this up before to stop it from happening, but of course I pulled this tape off when I fitted it the first time! So followed lots of swearing, followed by pulling the bonnet off to retrieve the nut plate, bolting it back on again and lining up the hinge before FINALLY getting the striker to line up properly.... 2 hours to do a ten minute job... bloody good job I'm not charging by the hour! The other small job I did was to replace the front compartment alarm switch with a new one I ordered. It was still working just fine, but as you can see, the weatherproofing boot over the old one had perished, so a new one now sits in its place. Off to the bank tomorrow to pay for the rest of my gearbox, then I can arrange to have it collected, crated and sent... can't wait until that arrives!

work basin filled with warm water, a tablespoon of dissolved "Finish" dishwasher powder. Soak for 5 minutes, scrub with a nail scrubbing brush... job's a good'un

Right, well given that we're in a holding pattern pretty much until the gearbox arrives, I've been just getting on with the little things. I've got a bunch of bracketry out for plating. There'll be more to follow as I come to reassemble bits I'm sure. Today I spent some time in the workshop cleaning up some alloy bits. First was the breather catch-can. I'd polished this before but it didn't come up too well: I set up the bench grinder with the scotch-brite wheel on it and stripped it all back. The alloy this is made from isn't a particularly good grade and doesn't take a polish that well. I then attacked it with the buff-wheel and finally with the autosol, rag and elbow grease. Came up pretty well compared to how it did before: I then turned my attention to the lower coolant rail. This looked a bit grotty so it got the same treatment.... from this: To this: I'm also gonna have to jack the car and drop the fuel tank out again. I've decided as an insurance policy to replace the fuel pump with a Walbro 255lph one since I figured my standard one is likely to be marginal on pressure when hot. It's only a safeguard really and given that the next few weeks will be spent twiddling my thumbs until the Quaife box arrives, I may as well. I should also really begin tackling the wiring sometime soon... been putting that off for a while now...

Right, first update in a week or so. Got my new front mount spacers this week, so been out in the garage tonight fitting the front Nitrons. On the car now and sitting pretty I've also been acid (Vinegar) dipping a few components to derust/deplate them in preparation to have them replated. It's a slow process, but it gets the job done. Here you can see the coolant rail clamps in the vinegar, having their old zinc plating removed. These will be replated later this week. The engine's now busy getting dressed. It won't be going in for a while though since I've decided to hang fire until the Quaife box arrives as there's little point in putting the 5 speed box on, only to remove it in 6 weeks to fit the 6-speed. Still, there's plenty I can get on with in the meantime. Another little project I've embarked on is the gearknob. My car came with an aftermarket Momo knob that I hated the look of. It was nice enough to use although after a trackday in my old car a week or two ago, I was reminded in how much I like the feel of the stock knob. I ordered a new one from Lotus (they're only 15 quid!) so that arrived this week too, all shiny and brand new. I also ordered a new escutcheon for the top of the knob (the bit with the "LOTUS" script on it and the shift pattern. I plan to use this as a template to have a new one lasercut and laser-etched as an exact replica, but with the 6-speed shift pattern on it. Just another little finishing touch that'll be noticed by nobody but me

Well another day of distraction as I've just gone and bought another Lotus! Well not really, but I've bought it on behalf of my father. It popped up on Trademe this week for a bargain basement price so we kept n eye on the auction and at the price we got it for we figured it's worth a punt I know of the car... it's not the best one around, but it's far from the worst. Chassis #503 so it's an early spec S1, just the way we like them... MMCs and alloy uprights all the way. NZ new car so it comes sans the corrosion headaches the UK cars are blighted with. Resplendent in Norfolk Mustard The sale will go though over the next few days, but it means that my SEXIGE now has a little sibling to keep it company. It also means I might be able to FINALLY convince my father to do a few trackdays! Right, now... out to the garage!

Well another weekend rolls around which means another weekend of working on cars... my life is nothing if not consistent Today I started out by treating my daily driver GTi6 to some new shoes (A bit of a departure from Lotus stuff for a minute). The rears had worn out, and I also found out that these were the originals fitted to the car when new! They've lasted since '99! The fronts were newer but I decided to replace all four as I was stepping things up a bit. I also decided to have the wheels refurbished. The original owner was fond of the odd kerb or two, so now seemed like a perfect time to tidy things up (I'm not just obsessive about my Lotus you see). Thanks to my friend Pasene (PRF on NZHondas), I was recommended the new Bridgestone Potenza RE-11s as these are kinda a hybrid between a performance road tyre and a track tyre. These suit me at the moment because with the Exige being off the road, the Pug's having to do a little bit of trackdaying as well as fulfilling more mundane daily roles. Pasene's recommendation seems to have been excellent because the car feels brand new again! I never knew how bad ageing Pirelli P6000s were, but this has transformed the car into something quieter, smoother and yet much more responsive. Can't wait to wear them in so I can test their levels of grip The car looks a lot smarter on shiny wheels and new rubber! Then this afternoon I ventured into the garage with the aim of getting the car sitting on her new Nitrons. I was originally going to leave the car on the old LSS Konis until it was ready to go on the road, but I figured the longer I have the car sitting on the new springs when the engine's bolted in, the longer they'll have to settle. This means that when I set the geo up, I should be able to be confident that things should stay put Here you can see the new shock against the old LSS Koni setup. The Konis were still functioning well, albeit a bit weathered and rusty. Despite the negative press these things get in Lotus circles I've been quite happy with them. Only went to the Nitrons since I wanted new ones to match the rest of the shiny stuff, and Nitrons are the accepted way forward... especially for track work. These went on the car sweet as a nut. Everything's now torqued up and the car's sitting pretty on them! I then came to do the fronts, whereupon I realised that the upper shock mount spacers were still the rusty old ones. When I stripped the car, I think I assumed that these were part of the shock and that I'd sort new ones or refurb these when redoing the shocks.... which I promptly forgot about in the intervening 18 months! I was sorely tempted to just bolt them back on anyway... I mean it's just cosmetic and they're only a small part... but then I reminded myself that I'm not a pikey and that taking shortcuts isn't the ethos of this build. Some new ones have been ordered from Lotus via Bell & Colvill and will be here in a week or two. The front will just have to stay sitting on the old suspension for now. It's not holding me up, it's just one of those jobs that'd be nice to tick off. Got a couple of other small jobs done on the car today and will continue with these tomorrow.

Well, they weren't quite in time for Christmas, but when Santa's bringing me stuff this good, I can forgive him for being a little late! Fresh from snow-covered Blighty are my new set of Nitron racing shocks. I got these through Hofmann's Motorsport and they come with Chris Randall's custom internal valving and Eibach springs and tenders to suit my specific application. If word of mouth is to be believed then these should really do the business on track, and shouldn't be a whole lot worse on the road than the stock Lotus Sport Konis were. They certainly look the part anyway

Today was pretty much a tidy up day. I had some work stuff to do today that kinda threw a spanner in the works. Since I didn't have a lot of time left in the end, I decided to get the car out of the garage to give me room to get the rear brake hoses correctly clipped up and to give the garage a long-overdue clean up. Also a good opportunity for my baby to work on her tan! This is only the second time she's been out of the garage in almost 2 years... scary. The next time she ventures out it'll be to get reunited with her engine. Sooner rather than later I hope

Don't worry, will be testing the ultrasonic theory this weekend And as for securing the garage... it's seucre, believe you me... but the cat infestation in my neighbourhood is getting crazy right now... you'll be working in the garage. you'll pop inside the house to take a piss or get a part, literally turning your back for 30 seconds and you come out to find piss everywhere. We've managed to trace it to the lady five doors up who has NINE cats.... none of them spayed / neutered.... like I said, irresponsible owners.

Well I hope this message finds everyone refreshed and relaxed after (or still during) their holiday seasons, wherever they may be. The last couple of weeks I've been away down-country with my family so I'm only now getting back into the swing of things with the Exige. Yesterday I got the front brake lines all clamped up, front wheels back on and the car's now back on all four wheels and rolling. I'll do the same to the rear brake lines in the next couple of days. I arrived back to work today to some late Christmas presents, which is always welcome. Among these was my new set of Schroth Racing Profi II-FE-ASM harnesses as supplied by the lovely folk at MSAR Safety. These are a direct replacement for the OEM Schroth/Safety Devices harnesses in the car and as such are also legal for road use (without a motorsport authority card here in NZ). The only reason I'm replacing the original harnesses is that they were out of date and so were ineligible for motorsport use. Given that intend to sprint the car when done and given that MSAR were kind enough to offer a discount on a group-buy I struck while the proverbial iron was hot. New harnesses are rated through to 2015. My other big news on the Exige front is that I've just bought a Quaife Motorsport 6-speed gearbox. Some readers may recognise this as the box out of David Skeggs' Elise Trophy race car. Class rules stipulated he must revert to a factory gearbox so I've picked up the 6-speeder. When the box arrives it'll be cleaned up and inspected before being slotted in, although the engine will be installed on the stock 5-speed close ratio box first, the 6-speed being substituted in later. The 6-speed Quaife box in this configuration fits the intentions of my car perfectly. It's a Helical/Synchromesh box so won't be horrendously annoying on the road or require constant rebuilds. However, it'll provide me with approximately the same ratios as the Lotus Sport Ultra-Close ratio box that I've been thinking about, whilst the extra ratio will mean it won't be doing unreasonable RPMs on the open highway. In short, it should be about the best compromise between being optimal on track and liveable on the road. It's also equipped with a Quaife ATB differential (LSD) and also a Laminova oil cooler (water/oil) as well as an electric g/b oil circulation pump. I'm unsure yet whether I'll bother fitting the cooler, but I can cross that bridge when I come to it... the option's there if I need it. After this, I think my wallet needs a cup of tea and a lie-down.... so do I for that matter

We have a neighbourhood mailing list. And my garage is VERY secure, but the cat problem is so bad that you can be working in the garage, go inside the house for a piss or a drink of water, come back and find that some cat has secreted their anal glands all over pretty much everything. And in any case, I'm not trying to poison anyone's pet.... It's a garage, I'm doing a couple of engine installs... there WILL be anti freeze around... it's not my fault if a cat gets into it.

I have already sent an e-mail around the neighbourhood warning them that due to upcoming engine work on the cars this summer there will be anti-freeze on the garage floor drip trays that will kill their kitties.... so they might want to be a bit more responsible in where they allow them to roam

Hahaha Mummify the bitches

Indeed, and I don't xactly enjoy wailing on the neghbourhood cats, but then nor do I enjoy cleaning cat spray off my car daily. This is the desired affect of teh ultrasonic blaster

By that logic, getting a dog/gun to do the job is like savaging or shooting a chick The idea is to just give them an unpleasant memory of the area... beatings will continue until my ultrasonic earblaster arrives to do the job for me