Stu Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Dedication - like much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 lotus's (loti?) are so cool. my uncle used to have a 1999 elise same colour as your exige. twas so cool/quick/awesome. i believe it had the toyota celica engine in it though If it was 99, it'd be rover powered. Toyota engines only came along in the 04. A stock Elise is a wonderful thing to behold. I miss my old one, so delicate and fun. I also miss my father's one, sadly that one's never coming back. In the market for another not though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoozin Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Bring it to burgerfuel meet tonight, gotta be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaMpylobacter Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 ^ do that. and chuck a bottle of palmolive washing up liquid in the glovebox for max burnouts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 Would love to, but already have plans tonight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtdvl Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Tell Toni you have man loving time requirements... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 HAha if I did, I'd have a finished Exige I couldn't drive thanks to certain missing appendages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HungLau Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 I thought I'd just apologize before I total a Lotus around Hamptons: friends have bought me one of those supercar experience things. Hooooly damn I nearly chundered at the thought of smacking that thing off into the grass or an armco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 It's ok, their Lotus isn't a particularly fast or rare one Still, should be nippy enough to give you a thrill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HungLau Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Theirs is also an Exige, correct? Ofcourse without as much awesome fab work as yours, I'm guessing bone stock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 Theirs is an S2 Exige. Less power than mine had stock for stock and 150+kg heavier. The S2 Exige is basically an Elise with a roof. The S1 was a racing variant of the Elise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I think this vid sums up Exige handling nicely... 2ZZ powered though . qiFaNqv-imY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 Nice! I'll have to watch that later, up loud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 Well, I'm officially road legal again! The six-monthly faffing around that is a WOF is always entertaining. It got through relatively easy this time until it came to the brake testing on the rollers.... it came up with a pretty bad front brake imbalance and failed. I took the car away and got it out onto the motorway for a few hard stops thinking the discs just needed a clean-up from all the oily fingerprints etc they probably had on them. I got the car back and it passed.... JUST. This was a little concerning but after reading about it, Elises/Exiges are notorious for reading well under on the left-front wheel on a brake test roller as there's not enough weight on the wheel to grip the roller properly. Certainly you can stop on the road lightly or heavily without the steering wheel pulling anywhere, so I'm picking it's more of a problem with the testing method than the brakes themselves. I've got to re-bleed the brakes and clutch in the next week or two anyway as it's only got crap fluid in it at the moment (what we put in when my clutch line failed on the dyno in March). So if there's any air left in the brakes (although it doesn't feel like it) it'll get worked out then. But the main thing is I'm all legal to go again, which makes me happy. Now I just need a sunny weekend so I can get to work with the mile-munching! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Testament Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 yeah thats pretty much the reason I never goto vtnz anymore - brake rollers are feindish hounds of things. awesome to hear its all go again/please book trackday at taupo/take me for a fang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted September 25, 2011 Author Share Posted September 25, 2011 Well not a LOT to report this weekend. It's been pi$$ing down all day today today and I'm knackered so been spending some time with the better half instead, but yesterday I got the car washed and cleaned up a bit as well as a couple more peripheral bits bolted on. I masked up the engine bay finishers and test-painted the extinguisher nozzle mounts matt-black. I've got the other two still to do as they're in the engine bay and harder to mask... so I'll probably brush-paint them instead since they're so small. The two I've done turned out really well so I hope to get a chance to do the other ones in the next week or so. No huge hurry at this stage anyway. With the car cleaned, Brad came around and got a couple of shots of the car for the next issue of G-FORCE magazine, which is due out the week after next. I've yet to see the shots, but here's a couple of quickies I snapped with my phone. I'm hoping for finer weather next weekend so I can take the car for a run down to Taupo and back and maybe even do a bit of run-in work around the circuit where I'll be taking my father's E-Type on a trackday... all going well. The engine still sounds and goes sweetly. Nothing leaking or weeping yet, and it doesn't seem to be using any oil or coolant, which is a bonus. There's about 50 miles on the engine now (plus the 3-4 hours of dyno work) so the most critical part of the run in is past, but we'll still do it by the book with the run-in oil until we're at about 800 miles or so. On the still-to-do list is the following: - Paint the remaining extinguisher nozzle mounts in the engine bay - Mount the engine bay extinguisher nozzles and run the lines from the rear bulkhead to the nozzles. - Mount the remote charge cannister on the extinguisher, hopefully inside the footwell divider out of sight. - Get Glenn to wire up the extinguisher circuit all tidy to match the rest of the vehicle wiring. - Cut up my spare dash piece and lay up a carbon fibre console to sit in the radio slot to hold the MoTeC MDD, the extinguisher controller and a couple of buttons as well as the vehicle CANBus connector. - Get some more correctly-coloured blue Alcantara material to upholster the modified dash piece in. - Get the car remapped after run-in. - Do some trackdays. On the horizon is a bit of a refurb on the wheels along with some new tyres since the 048s on it are now as hard as bullets from sitting in the garage for 4 years.... shame since they're almost new in terms of wear! Then maybe I'll get shopping for a set of TMR alloys... all in good time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted October 2, 2011 Author Share Posted October 2, 2011 Right, well a red-letter day in the rebuild really as on Saturday I took the Exige down to Taupo for the CJC Jerkfest trackday at the Taupo short track. Up at 4am to meet up with James & Nikki Colverson in their S2 Exige S and my friends Richy and Ryan who also convoyed down in Richy's awesome MkII Triumph PI. What followed was a day of fun and (thud far) faultless Exige running. I've got 500 miles on the car now, some of which was around the track and it's feeling really good. Still not as fast as it will be by a country mile with a 6500RPM limiter, and with me generally short-shifting somewhere around 5500-6000RPM, but it feels perkier than it did in March and then some. It got through the trackday without burning any oil (last time it burned a lot) and the oil is still clear and smelling sweet... last time it blackened very quickly and smelled like petrol. I was very cautious on track and took care to keep the oil temp to under 100 degrees as I wanted to be VERY conservative with the car, but I was able to use the track to get some useful load on the engine without stressing it too much. The handling is FANTASTIC, and while it's only a base setup to improve on, it's going to be one very quick car when I can unleash it... and that's even WITH old 048s that feel like they're made of stone. I did see a few drips of oil on the undertray when I put it away Saturday night but I also see the gearbox has blown a little oil out of the breather vent, which was something I'd expected to happen running it so full of oil. It's on my list of things to make up a new catch-tank for the car at some point with a dual-chamber... one for the engine (as it currently uses) and one for the gearbox. That way I can keep the box nice and full. So now I'll post up a few photos courtesy of the Jerks that were out in force with the cameras on Saturday: The Exige sitting in the pits (photo courtesy of Caleb Wong): Nice fisheye shot of the engine bay, looking shiny! (photo courtesy of Brian Cox): And another fisheye shot, this time of one very happy muppet behind the wheel! (photo courtesy of Brian Cox): Then, of course, a few photos of the Exige doing its thing on track (photos courtesy of Royce Mihaere): OVERSTEER! And of course, I've promised some video, so here's some video I snapped on my GoPro of a session on track... you can see I'm driving it pretty gently, so expect it to be an animal once I let it off its leash! Also present on the day was my father, who brought his E-type along. He's not yet strong enough in the neck to risk a day blatting around the track in his helmet, but it was the first time he's been back at a trackday since his horrific accident and he loved the atmosphere. He was also kind enough to let me take the old girl out for a spin around the track. He offered me a drive at a trackday back in '06 and I declined for fear of bending it. This weekend though (after regretting not accepting the offer before!) I made sure I took him up on it. I was still being pretty gentle with the old girl, after all she is 47 years old! It didn't stop me having a little bit of fun with her though and the 3.8L XK engine on track just sounds so wonderful! Even though I loved having the Exige there and it was very special for me.... being able to give the Jaguar its head of steam was the day's highlight for me Here's a video of that session So yeah, that was the Saturday... no dramas and a car that behaved and performed fairly well.... RESULT! Next weekend I'll be giving it a clean, fashioning up a temporary breather tube for the gearbox and hopefully finishing painting up the extinguisher nozzle mounts in the engine bay.... if it's fine I'll even take it for a drive! I'll finish with this shot, which I love. My car with the Colversons' Exige in the background (photo courtesy of Mr Richard Opie Esq.): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanfels Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 I was still being pretty gentle with the old girl, after all she is 47 years old! bullshit you were! The jag was my car of the day, no question about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted October 2, 2011 Author Share Posted October 2, 2011 Haha no, seriously I was taking it fairly easy on her..... I was having some fun for sure, but I wasn't driving anywhere near 10/10ths in it.... it'd break my heart if I bent it or blew it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoozin Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Brilliant to see and hear the Exige finally getting a track outing I'll resize that photo for you this evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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