Umbropelling

First annual

2010-07-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

Just picked up the car after its first annual service. Spent 721 EUR + VAT. I had about 521 eur worth, the rest were materials (mostly oils). The high labor charge is due to the immense ammount of work that these cars' anual entails.

I am quite thrilled about what I was told by the mechanic. Car was in great shape. Tyres and brake discs and pads are still going strong even after 5000 miles and 9 track days! talk about low running costs.

They installed a manual override for the fan. Hopefully that will solve the heating problems I have been having in traffic (having to turn the engine off because the needle was rising above to 100ºC and the fan did not kick in!). There's a track day this weekend and another one on the next! woo hoo!

First footage of a TD

2010-01-13T22:35:00.001-08:00

Here's are four videos which ammount to a full session at Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, with a nice spin at the end. I was doing 2'38" which would put me in the 7 place from last in the grid of the Portuguese Graduates Cup when they raced at AIA. Feeling pretty proud of myself!

TD at AIA

2009-12-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

I had a great time on Tue 8th of December at AIA. First session was done with a wet track, lots of fun. The other sessions were on a dry track. My PerformanceBox blew a fuse, so no timing data LOL

I did feel much faster than in my previous visits and no leaks at all! yay!

Driving in the rain

2009-11-16T00:36:00.000-08:00

The Lotus was like a delicate lady. This car is my bitch! As much as a daily driver as my toyota corolla. Took it to work under the rain this morning. Top tip that I got from the first time I did this: Leave the back window unzipped open. Otherwise no visibility and it gets too stuffy. The plastic leans against the rollcage, so the rain slides out :-D

I love this car!

I <3 my 7

2009-11-15T00:43:00.000-08:00

I love it. It is much more 'me' than the Exige ever was. I have been twice to the race track at AIA and had a blast both times. Last time I was there, I felt great because I saw my lap times go down. Love it, love it, love it! It's also my daily driver. I've driven it in all weathers. I really feels like flying. What a superb little piece of kit!

Vendo Carrinha Audi A4 de 2005 (da minha mulher)

2009-09-08T15:14:00.000-07:00

Vendo uma carrinha Audi A4 1.9 TDI Diesel (Carro de senhora)

O carro é óptimo e apesar de ser uma carrinha familiar, proporciona muito prazer de condução.

A Automotor, num comparativo do modelo de 2005 afirmou:

"O Audi destaca-se pela boa dinâmica, que faz jus à sua imagem desportiva, para além de apresentar uma boa relação preço/equipamento."

A carrinha Audi A4 de 2005 foi um dos Tech Cars of the Year da CNET. A prestigiada revista Edmunds escreveu no teste a este modelo em 2005:

There are things in life you just don't think are possible. And then they happen. Things like the killing off of Oldsmobile, the Dukes of Hazzard on the big screen and Arnold the Governator. But the shocker of this young century has got to be Audi improving the A4.  Honestly, we didn't think it was possible. The last two generations of A4 saved the company and have been Audi's best sellers by a bunch. But the 2005 Audi A4 is better. A lot better. And almost in every way. It's more powerful, has new transmissions and its suspension has been retuned for a smoother ride and better handling. It even has a cool, new look.

Usei o carro essencialmente para fazer o trajecto entre minha casa e o meu emprego (Campo Pequeno - Oeiras via A5). Tem agora 107200 km. O carro nunca sofreu acidentes. Têm um conjunto de pneus Michelin Primacy HP colocados recentemente (12.000 km). O registo do carro é de Agosto de 2005, vêm inspeccionado (passou à primeira sem anotações) até Agosto de 2011.

O carro está em óptimo estado. Tenho o livro de revisões completo e sempre fiz as revisões sempre na marca de acordo com o programa oficial do concessionário.

O carro é de um discreto cinzento médio metalizado. Têm uma série de extras orientados para o conforto do condutor e dos ocupantes. Além da pintura metalizada, o carro tem ar condicionado automático com regulação independente para passageiro e condutor. O carro têm também um apoio de braço dianteiro com espaço de armazenamento (ideal para cartões, trocos, telemóvel, etc...) As janelas traseira têm cortinas laterais manuais. O carro têm fecho central com o comando integrado na chave, com abertura remota independente da bageira. Os bancos de trás são rebatíveis e o tampo da mala (toldo) é deslizante e amovivel.

O carro têm também extras orientados para facilitar a condução, incluindo cruise control, limitador de velocidade programável (emite um aviso quando o carro ultrapassa uma velocidade definida pelo condutor), e aviso sonoro de ajuda ao parqueamento atrás e à frente.

Tem ainda extras orientados para a segurança. Tem 6 airbags e controlo da pressão dos pneus com aviso em ecrã digital.

Apesar de todos estes extras e do óptimo estado mecanico, interior e exterior do carro, o preço é de apenas 21.000 EUR.

Well... well.. well...

2009-08-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Picked it up yesterday

2009-08-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

All I can say is WOW!

Much more comfortable and compliant than I imagined, much faster than I imagined, rawer than I imagined - just very pleasantly surprised.

How small were Colin Chapman's feet anyway?!

Finally!... almost

2009-08-02T02:07:00.000-07:00

I finally met my 7 last Friday. Still can't drive it though, waiting for license plates and some bits and ends :-(

Here are some pics. As you'll notice the lights are futher ahead than pre-sigma sevens. I didn't really like it at first, but it's growing on me.

Got the first call!

2009-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

My 7 starts its journey home to me today. Due on Friday or Monday.
Godspeed!

Yay :-D

The roof is in

2009-07-05T03:51:00.000-07:00

I received my 7's doors and roof by mail.

Here's the contents of the package:

Here's the main challenge in mounting it: just look at all those fasteners!

Just to get a notion of how narrow the car is, this bar is the width of the whole body and the squares are CD cases!

More photos

2009-06-17T03:51:00.001-07:00

Looks great. One week to go!

(A bit disappointed that the exhaust does not exit on the side)

First pic

2009-06-08T01:12:00.000-07:00

It's missing its EU4 ECU, Airbox, seats and front lights... but it is already a thing of beauty:

2009-05-26T02:03:00.000-07:00

Happiness is but an email away! Look what I got on my inbox today...

From: "Elizabeth Reid"
Date: May 26, 2009 9:46:22 AM GMT+01:00
To: "Joao Vieira da Cunha"
Subject: RE: Seven ordered for Portugal

Hi Joao,

The car enters build this week so I will get some pictures taken in the next couple of weeks. You will then be able to see the car in a semi assembled state.

I look forward to emailing you some pictures.

Regards,
Liz

Framed advertisement for the seven

2009-05-19T02:11:00.000-07:00

I have this in my office:

I want to roll over and cry!

2009-04-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

I got this email from Caterham today...

----
I estimate that we will have the car complete by the end of June 2009.
Please contact me on this email address around that time and I will
advise you on the status of the car.

If you also email me at the end of May, I will take some pictures of the
car in build and email them to you so you can see the progress.

Decided on the color

2009-04-17T09:25:00.001-07:00

but I won't tell... it's a surprise. I'll show you a pic once I have it!

My fast little fly

2009-04-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

Stats for my car:

Engine: 1600 Ford Sigma
Max Power (bhp/rpm): 125 @ 6100
Max Torque (lbs ft/rpm): 120 @ 5350
Weight: 550kg
0-60mph: 5.9 Seconds
Power-to-weight: 227 bhp-per-tonne
Top Speed: 112mph

Even just being the basic model, my Seven is as fast as (0-60mph, after the first corner, forget about anything racing it, as it only weighs 550 kgs!):

Audi S6, Mercedes SL500, BMW 330i Sport, Jaguar XF V6 Diesel S, Audi Coupe S2 5.9s, Nissan 350Z 5.9s

It's faster than:

Alfa Romeo Brera 3.2 Q4 JTS 6.0s
BMW 535d E60 6.0s
Renault Renaultsport Megane R26.R 6.0s
Lotus Elise S1 6.1s
Porsche 968 6.1s
Audi A8 4.2 Quattro 6.1s
Honda Integra Type R DC2 6.2s
Vauxhall Calibra Turbo 6.2s
Honda Civic Type R JDM 6.2s
Audi 3.2 Quattro 6.2s
Ford Escort RS Cosworth 6.2s
Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 6.2s
Mini Cooper S Works GP 6.3s
Alfa Romeo 156 GTA 6.3s
Porsche Boxster 2.5 6.3s
BMW M3 Evolution E30 6.4s
Audi S3 6.4s
Audi TT Coupe 225 6.4s
Honda Civic Type R JDM 6.4s

Lack of updates

2009-03-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

At the request of a kind reader, a quick note to say that I have not updated the blog because I am still waiting for the car. In the meantime, I hired an instructor to help me learn quickly how to drive fast(er).

Thinking about painting the car and put a transparent starshield just like the Lotus. Not sure if I want this

or this

As soon as I get the car, I'll let everyone know. Crap, can't wait.

Almost there!

2009-03-06T02:16:00.001-08:00

Just made my half-way payment to Caterham... yipeee!

I miss speed sooo very much!

The king is dead, long live the king

2009-01-15T07:44:00.001-08:00

Yep, I sold the Exige some weeks ago and....

... ordered a Caterham Seven for this year's academy in Portugal. I am going to embarrass myself and my family not only because of my poor driving skills but also because a lot of the Academy competitors in Portugal are experienced pilots. Well, at least I'll learn a lot :-)

I have started the Club Seven Portugal to help spread the love for Chapman's creations.

See you on the track

Lotus Exige S para venda: VENDIDO

2008-11-14T06:43:00.001-08:00

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS POST IN ENGLISH

O meu Lotus Exige S está à venda. Parte-me o coração vendê-lo. Apenas o faço porque a pressão no trabalho tem sido muita e não vai abrandar. Nas últimas 4 semanas andei 2 vezes com o carro. Não é o que o carro merece.

CONTACTO: jvc@fe.unl.pt / 91-452-6180

Está por iso à venda o meu Lotus Exige S, comprado no concessionário Lotus em Portugal em Junho de 2007. É o primeiro Exige a ser vendido pela Lotus em Portugal e o único em Portugal Continental (há um nos Açores).

O carro pode ser comprado com toda a confiança. Nunca teve um acidente, nem sequer um toque. Têm a manutenção em dia, está na garantia (até Julho de 2009) e TODA a minha experiência com o carro está descrita em detalhe no meu blog. O carro é conhecido do Fórum Autohoje e do Fórum Contra-Brecagem . Sou membro da direcção do Club Lotus Portugal e se o carro ficar na zona de Lisboa e o proprietário quiser juntar-se ao Club, vai ver-me pelo menos uma vez por mês. O mêcanico da Lotus ADORA o carro e conhece-o bem. Pode ser contactado na Lotus para dar referências sobre os estado primoroso em que o carro se encontra (Sr. Loureiro: 226158620).
O carro esteve sempre guardado na garagem com cobertura por cima e nunca andou à chuva.

O carro está melhor que novo. A venda incluí:

a. O Lotus Exige S na côr mais bonita (Laranja) em estado mecânico irrepreensível e óptimo estado comético.

b. Um ‘voucher’ para um serviço na Lotus que inclui mão de obra e materiais para ara pôr o carro irrepreensível do ponto de vista estético (do ponto de vista mecânico o carro já está irrepreensivél, do ponto de vista estético está óptimo, mas para ficar perfeito precisa de três detalhes mencionados no ponto abaixo), incluindo uma lavagem / detailing.

c. Uma série de acesssórios que tornam o carro melhor que novo:

--> Espelhos multivex Acabam com o ângulo morto e permitem fazer marcha atrás em plena confiança sem retrovisor central. Este espelhos estão colocados por cima dos espelhos originais do carro e podem ser tirados sem deixar qualquer marca (Custo: 75 EUR)

--> Piscas frontais reforçados, para evitar o efeito dos ‘piscas voadores’ comum ao Lotus Elise e Exige

--> Um CD com todos os manuais técnicos, incluindo o do motor (custo apróximado: 200 EUR)

--> Um extintor original Lotus

--> Uma cobertura de garagem original Lotus (custo: 400 EUR)

--> Uma cobertura de cockpit para quando o carro andar descapotável (Custo: 50 EUR)

--> Escape desportivo orginal Lotus (custo: 800 EUR)

d. O Club Lotus é um dos clubes automóveis mais activos em Portugal, permitindo-lhe disfrutar do seu carro em conjunto com outros entusiastas

As epecificações técnicas resumidas são:

Peso: 900 kgs
Motor: Toyota VVTI supercharged 218 cvs
Configuração: Motor ao centro / tracção traseira
Suspensão desportiva independente
Travões brembo

Mais especificações ...

Mais fotos do meu carro ...

Videos da minha condução...

Relato de TUDO o que aconteceu com o carro desde que o encomendei...

Algumas perguntas:

1. O carro tem 16 000 kms e andou 3 vezes num kartódromo, está em bom estado mecânico?

O carro está irrepreensivel do ponto de vista mecânico. Eu não gosto de andar muito depressa. No Fórum AutoHoje disseram que eu tinha medo do carro por não andar depressa. Sempre deixei o carro aquecer antes de andar mais a sério. Sempre o deixei arrefecer antes de o estacionar. Prova do cuidado que tenho com o carro são os pneus. Enquanto que muitos dos proprietários de Elises tiveram que trocar os pneu ao fim de um ano, na última revisão o mecânico da Lotus disse me que eu tinha pneus para mais um ano (revisão feita aos 15 000 kms, o carro tem 16 000 kms agora).

O carro esteve três vezes em pista. Duas com o Club Lotus e uma com o Contra-Brecagem. No total andou cerca de 40 minutos em pistas de Kart sempre com muito cuidado. Apesar de ter o carro mais potente do Club Lotus, sempre fiquei para trás nos tempos porque não quis estragar o carro. Chegaram a comentar no trackday do contra-brecagem que ‘ele nem acelera a fundo nem nada’ e no trackday do club lotus disseram-me que eu não tinha confiança no carro – não o queria era estragar.

Depois de cada destes 15 minutos em pista (menos do último, que foi o fim de semana passado) levei o carro ao mecânico da Lotus para ter a certeza que estava tudo bem (uma vez riu-se de mim).

Usei o carro em 6 estradas: 3 passeios do club Lotus (ver percursos no blog), Estrada da lagoa Azul, N237 e 238 em Tomar, e montejunto. Todas as estradas têm óptimo piso e todas implicavam uma deslocação grande por auto estrada (até há pouco tempo tinha o carro no centro de Lisboa). A maior parte dos kilómetros do carro foram feitos em auto-estrada. Na venda incluirei um print da via-verde para comprovar estes factos.

Percurso garagem-lagoa azul:

View Larger Map

Percurso garagem-montejunto:

View Larger Map

Percurso N237/238:

View Larger Map

Há várias pessoas que podem dar referências sobre o carro. O Sr. Loureiro, mecânico da Lotus (telefone acima), os meu colegas do Club Lotus, e alguns membros do Forum Contra-Brecagem que foram algumas vezes à Lagoa Azul comigo (ver neste tópico...). Todos dirão que tenho uma condução muito cuidadosa e o Sr. Loureiro confirmará que o carro tem tido uma manutenção exemplar.

Como disse acima, sou membro da direcção do Club Lotus. Se o carro ficar em Lisboa, o dono vai ver-me todos os meses para qualquer dúvida ou pergunta que tenha.

O meu blog têm tudo o que aconteceu ao carro e todas as alegrias que me deu, pode por isso comprar este Lotus com toda a confiança porque sabe TUDO sobre o seu passado.

2. O carro está em bom estado cosmético?

Não tive só cuidado com o estado mecãnico do carro mas também com o seu estado cosmético. O carro é lavado e aspirado com frequ~encia. Uso produtos de boa qualidade, panos de micriofibra, luvas de pele de ovelha e a técnica dos dois baldes. No entanto um carro desportivo baixo como o Exige não está imune aos elementos. Apesar de todos os meus cuidados, a matricula da frente partiu-se estalando a pintura no splitter frontal por trás da matricula (como podem ver nas fotos, é invisivel a não ser que se olhe por trás da matrícula), houve um pedacinho de borracha que saltou de um pneu traseiro que fez um risco pequeníssimo na pintura, há também alguma sujidade (alcatrão muito dificil de tirar) nos autocolantes de protecção lateral. Todos estes três promenores serão corrigidos pela Lotus. Encomendei um splitter frontal novo já pintado, um conjunto completo de autocolantes e pedi para pintarem a zona onde o pneu riscou. O carro ficará assim tão perfeito do ponto de vista estético como do ponto de vista mecânico.

2. O Carro é mesmo assim tão bom?

Este carro é um orgasmo. Não é um carro é um kart. É um carr de corrida para a estrada! As bochechas inda me doem do sorriso que este carro traz. Não é preciso aceitar a minha palavra. Aqui vai um video em inglês e outro em português:

Video da Lotus...

Teste Top Gear (Inglês)...

3. O carro é assim tão diferente de um elise?

É mesmo. Estéticamente é brutal e super agressivo. Não tem comparação. Eu nunca tinha visto um ao vivo antes de ver o meu, mas já tinha visto muitos Elises e fique de boca aberta. É lindo. As pessoas cenam-nos na rua, as crianças dizem-nos adeus, a rua fica cheia de poças de baba e os polícias manda-nos parar só para ver io carro!

O Exige têm um pacote aerodinâmico muito avançado que poduz cerca de 15 kg de força atrás e á frente. Nota-se. À medida que a velocidade vai aumentando, o carro cola-se à estrada. Um Elise ‘levanta o nariz’ quando anda muito rápido – assusta um bocadinho!

O motor e o compressor são uma delícia: 80% do binário disponível às 2000 RPM. O Exige S é quase 1 segundo mais rápido dos 0-100 do que o Elise. O compressor é diferente do compressor usado no Elise SC - é mais agressivo.

Além disso como podem ver nas fotos abaixo, o Exige é descapotável. Tenho um email da lotus que afirmaa que o carro pode ser descapotado sem nenhuma consequência a não ser a perda parcial do efeito aerodinâmico. O manual diz o mesmo. É incluivé possível comprar um soft-top na Lotus e instalá-lo como se fosse um elise (ver conversões aqui)

4. Onde é que se faz a manutenção? É muito cara?

A manutenção pode-se fazer no Porto ou em Lisboa, nas oficinas da Jaguar. O carro está na garantia até Julho de 2007. O preço da mão de obra é 35 EUR / hora e as peças mecãnicas (motor e transmissão) são Toyota (motor VVTI do Celica). A manutenção é muito em conta. A revisão anual ficou-me por 400 EUR, pageui mais 200 por uns discos de travões novos para a traseira e um extintor.

5. E mesmo assim queres vender?

Não uso o carro como ele merece. Quero dar-lhe um dono que o leve a passear e até quem sabe o leve á pista. Vou ter muitas saudades. Como podem ver no blog, este carro é uma fonte de eterna felicidade

6. Quanto é que consome: 8l / 100 em AE - 11l / 100 em cidade

7. O carro é confortável:

Sim. É o úncio carro de produção com bancos Pro-Bax (já fiz 1000 kms num dia e quando saí do carro estava com as costas óptimas). A suspensão é perfeitamente tolerável. Não tem ar condicionado, mas mesmo em agosto é perfeitramente confortavel com a janela aberta (ou sem capota!!!).

8. E quando quiser aumentar a potência?

Há varias opções. A melhor e mais reputada é a da Komo-Tec: 280 cvspor 5000 EUR . 280 cvs dão ao Exige S a relação peso potência de um F430 Scuderia!

Link:

9. E o preço de venda do Exige S, É muito caro?

Não. Estou a pedir 56 000 Eur. É mais barato que o Elise novo sem extras e é ao mesmo preço de um Exige com 3 anos que se vendia no standvirtual (com 192 cvs). O carro pode ser pago a pronto, ou então o comprador pode ficar com o meu leasing: aí o pagamento seria 31000 a pronto e 25 000 em leasing (cerca de 700 eur /mês até Julho de 2011).

O seguro do carro (cobertura máxima) são 1000 EUR / ano.

My Lotus Exige S is for sale

2008-11-12T02:30:00.000-08:00

My Lotus Exige S is for sale. It breaks my heart to sell it. I only do it because the pressure at work has been very high and it will not abate. In the last 4 weeks I drove the car twice. It’s not what the car deserves.

CONTACTS: jvc@fe.unl.pt / 91-452-6180

My Lotus Exige S is the first Exige to be bought in Portugal. I ordered it in February 2007 and it was delivered in June 2007.

The car can be bought with complete confidence. It never had an accident, not even a scrape. All service work is up to date and the car is under international warranty until July 2009. All my experiences with the car are described in detail in this blog. The car is known of the Forum Autohoje and the Forum Countra-Brecagem. I am a member of the board of Club Lotus Portugal and if the car is staying in the area of Lisbon and the owner wants to join the club, you will see me at least once a month. The chief mechanic at Lotus Portugal loves the car and knows it well. He can be contacted at Lotus to give references about the pristine state of the car (Mr. Loureiro: +351-226158620).
The car was always kept in a closed garage with a dust cover and never drove in the rain.

The car is better than new condition. The sale includes:

a. The Lotus Exige S in its more beautiful color (orange) in excellent mechanical condition and impeccable cosmetic condition.

b. A 'voucher' for a service at Lotus that includes manpower and materials for making the car showroom-new from an aesthetic point of view (from a mechanical point of the car is impeccable, cosmetically it is also superb, but to be showroom-new it needs three details mentioned in section below), including a professional detailing job.

c. A series of extras that make the car better than new:

-> Multivex Mirrors (link: http://www.hangar111.com/ckshop.php?item=746) which eliminate the blind spot and allow reversing in full confidence without using the central rearview mirror. The mirrors are placed on top of the original mirrors of the car and can be taken off without leaving any marks (Cost: EUR 75)

-> A CD with all the technical manuals, including the engine (approximate cost: 200 EUR)

-> A fire extinguisher original Lotus

-> An original garage cover from Lotus (cost: EUR 400)

-> A cockpit cover to park safely with the roof off (Cost: EUR 50)

-> Lotus Sport Exhaust (cost: 800 EUR)

The summarized tech specs for the car are :

Weight: 900 kg
Engine: Toyota VVTI supercharged 218 bhp
Setup: Central engine / rear traction
Independent sport suspension
Brembo brakes

More specifications here...

More photos of my car here...

Videos here...

Reporting of everything that happened to the car since ordered: see the remainder of this blog

Some questions:

1. The car has 16 000 kms and has been driven 3 times in a Kart track, is it in good mechanical condition?

The car is irreproachable from the mechanical standpoint. I am a slow driver. In AutoHoje Forum people wrote that I was afraid the car because I did not drive it fast. I always let the car warm up before driving. I also let it cool afterwards. Proof of care that I have with the car are the tires. While many of the owners of Elises had to replace the tires after a year, in the last service the Lotus mechanic told me that I had tires for another year (revision made at 15 000 kms, the car has 16 000 now) .

The car was three times in a kart track, for a total of 40 minutes. Two with the Lotus Club and one with the Counter-Brecagem. I always drove it with care, well below its potential. Despite having the most powerful car of the club Lotus, I was always relatively slow because I did not want to ruin the car. In the ‘contra-brecagem’ forum, people wrote that 'he does not even reach full acceleration' and comments to my driving included that I had no confidence in the car – I just did not want to spoil it.

After each of these 15 minutes stints on small kart tracks I took the car to Lotus to make sure he was all right (once the mechanic laughed at me for being overzealous).

I used the car on 6 roads: 3 tours of the club Lotus (see roadmaps in the blog), Estrada da Lagoa Azul, N237 and 238 in Tomar, and Montejunto. All roads are excellent and all involved a large travel by motorway. This car was mostly driven in highways. In the sale include a print of the highway logs to prove these facts.

Route garage-lagoa azul:

View Larger Map

Route garage-montejunto:

View Larger Map

Route garage-N237/238:

View Larger Map

There are many people who can give references on the car. Mr. Loureiro, the Lotus mechanic (telephone above), my colleagues at the Lotus Club, and some members of the Forum Counter-Brecagem that drove with me occasionally (see this thread). Everyone will say that I drive very carefully and Mr. Loureiro will confirm that the car has had an exemplary maintenance.

As I said above, I am a member of the board of the Lotus Club. If the car stays in Lisbon, the owner will see me every month for any questions or concerns you have.

This blog details everything that happened to the car and all the joys it has given me, so you can buy this Lotus in confidence because you know EVERYTHING about its past.

2. Is the car is in good cosmetic condition?

I was not only careful with the mechanical condition of the car but also with its cosmetic condition. The car is handwashed frequently only with the best quality products, including microfiber cloth, sheep-wool gloves and two buckets, of course. However a car that sits as low as the Exige is not immune to the elements. Despite all my care, the front splitter has collected some chips behind the number plate (as you can see in the photos, it is invisible unless it is look behind the registration plate), there was a piece of rubber who jumped from a rear tire that drew a very small fine line in the painting, there is also some tar (very difficult to clean) in the self-protection adhesives on the sidepods. All these three details will be corrected by Lotus. I ordered a new front splitter from Lotus painted to match the car color, a complete set of stickers and asked to paint the area where the small line in the paint is.

2. The car is really so good?

This car is an orgasm. It is a race car for the road! My cheeks still hurt from the smile that this car brings. Here are a couple of videos in English:

Video from Lotus...

Top Gear Test...

3. Is the car is so different from an Elise?

Yest it is. Aesthetically it is more brutal and super aggressive. There is no comparison. I had never seen an Exige in person before my own, but I had seen many Elises and I was amazed when I saw my first Exige. It is beautiful. People wave at you on the street and the police stop you just to see the car!

The Exige has a very advanced aerodynamic package that produces about 15 kg of downforce at the back and at the front. In the Exige, as the speed is increased, the car becomes glued to the road. The Elise 'raises its nose’ when going too fast – quite scary!

The engine and compressor are a delight: 80% of torque available at 2000 RPM. The Exige S is almost 1 second faster to 100 km/h when compared to the Elise. The compressor is different from the compressor used in the Elise SC – it is more aggressive.

Also as you can see in the photos below, it is possible to drive the car roofless. I got an email from lotus stating as much. There is no conseuqnece at all to the engine, only a partial loss of aerodynamic effect. The manual says the same. It is possible to buy a soft-top from Lotus and install it as in an Elise (see conversions here)

4. Where do you do maintenance? It is very expensive?

The maintenance can be done in Lisbon and in Oporto, in the Jaguar workshops. The car is in warranty until July 2007. The price of the manpower is EUR 35 per hour and the mechanical parts (engine and transmission) are Toyota. Maintenance is very reasonable. My annual service was EUR 400.

6. Why are you selling such a great car?

I don’t use the car as it deserves. It deserves going to a new owner that will use it as it is intended to be used. I will miss it, though. As you can see in the blog, this car is a source of eternal happiness

7. Is the car is comfortable?

Yes, it is the only production car with Pro-Bax seats (I have done 1000 kms in a day and when I left the car my back was still not aching). The suspension is perfectly tolerable. It has no air conditioning, but even in August it is quite comfortable with the window down (or without the roof!).

8. And when you want to increase the power?

There are several options. The best and most famous is the Komo-Tec: 280 bhp for EUR 5000. 280 S bhp give the Exige the power to weight ratio of an F430 Scuderia!

Gas mileage: 8L / 100 in highways 11l / 100 in city driving.

10. And the sale price of the Exige S, is it very expensive?

No. I'm asking 56 000 Eur It is cheaper than the new Elise is without any extras. The car can be paid in cash, or so the buyer can stay with my lease: that the payment would be 31,000 in cash and 25 000 in lease (about 700 eur per month until July 2011).

The insurance of the car (maximum coverage) is 1000 EUR / year.

News

2008-10-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't been writing for a while, so time to give a good update.

First item of news: I moved the Lotus into a private one-car garage close to Lagoa Azul. It was pointless to drive the car through Libon traffic and congested highways. This means that a couple of workdays a week I actually go for a drive in the morning.

After much thought, it feels pointless to get a track car that performs below the Exige. I am off to England in a couple of months to get myself spare front and back clams, so that I can track the car with some peace of mind.

Also, I saw a Lotus 23 at the Caramulo Motor Festival (that's the car in the pic above, more pics here). I was underwhelmed. I'll probably get an Eleven instead.

OBD2 scanner

2008-08-15T09:49:00.001-07:00

My Exige has an OBD2 port just below the dash. I've been thinking about getting an OBD2 scanner to do some data acquisition. Here's a source for this type of equipment.

Trackdays in kart tracks / Portugal

2008-08-15T09:47:00.001-07:00

Driver's Legion is a TD organizer in Portugal that specializes in kart tracks. I've done one of their events and I really liked it. Quite well organized.

Made to measure helmets

2008-08-15T09:44:00.001-07:00

Safety i an important part of tracking and racing. Many of the discussions I have read on helmets claim that not all helmets fit every type of head. So why not get a custom made helmet from stand 21? If you drive a classic, you may be interested in one of these nice autostoria vintage helmets and racing gear (notice that helmets and some of the clothes on this site are not track safe).

Tuning the K-series engine

2008-08-15T09:40:00.001-07:00

Now that I am getting an S1 for the track. I have been trying to learn all I can about it. In the process I found this great resource that provides a deep and thorough discussion of the tuning possibilities of the Rover K-Series engine that powers the car.

POI in Portugal

2008-08-15T09:35:00.001-07:00

Looking for a good POI database for your GPS in Portugal? Try here. You can find POIs for most GPS systems. Restaurants, speed camermeras, ATMs, WiFi spots... everything is covered.

What happens when your Lotus is left alone?

2008-08-07T03:03:00.001-07:00

Yahoo! Cars on the Elise 135R

2008-08-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

"The picture is significantly brighter on the open road, where the Elise comes to life. It's hard to think of an appropriate analogy to convey just how much grip the car has, in the dry at least. Cornering speeds are determined more by courage than the chassis' capability; a complete recalibration of the mind is necessary to comprehend just how rapidly you can travel from A to B.
Roundabouts are more a question of the boundaries of your social conscience than a function of the radius and one has to be wary of the speed differential between you and other traffic. We continuously found ourselves exiting corners wishing we'd attacked so much harder due to how much the Elise still had in the tank."

Change to the car line-up (updated)

2008-08-03T07:40:00.001-07:00

This first year with the exige really changed my orientation from a street driver to a track driver. The tructh is that while the Exige S is still on leasing and market values are high, I dare not use it as a track car, except in very controlled conditions. However, I really do want to build my track experience, especially because after the 7 I am planning to stick to full on race-cars.

I was looking at some catherham's but basically they are the same price of S1 Elises. So I'm getting one of those ASAP.

I've been struggling with that because I might have gotten that in the first place instead of the Exige and saved some money (only getting an exige later after having outgrown the S1). However, although I like the S1, I love the Exige and I am sure that once I get enough track experience under my belt, I will take the Exige to the track instead. I love the Exige as a fun street car. My ride in an S1 conbinced me that I would not have the same feeling in an S1, but it's a brilliant track slag.

This means that I am probably dropping the 7 off the list. It really does not make any sense owning one because the type of historical events that a roadgoing 7 can compete on are limited.

So, the new lineup is.

My baby: Exige S

Lotus Elise S1 111S

Lotus 51

Lotus 23B

BTW, instead I could get a caterham 7. I'm not doing it because I prefer finesse and subtelty to brute handling and holding a car by the scuff of the neck:

Blat today

2008-08-02T07:53:00.001-07:00

I didn't get a chance to drive the Exige all of last week. To compensate, I took the top off and drove it to Tomar yesterday and did an hour-long blat through N238 and N237 today at dawn. Driving the car roofless is a blast. It feels like it lost 100 kgs and the connection with the road is much tighter. Of course, not a single problem and no perceptible change in performance. I enjoyed the medium turns and the long sweepers today, took them 10 to 20 km/h faster than usually and the car still felt planted. Still not having to much fun on tight corners though.

Recent updates

2008-07-19T05:09:00.001-07:00

Two big pieces of news.

1) I picked up my Lotus from the annual service. I paid a 700 EUR bill that included a couple of hundred EUR for new rear brake pads and almost 100 EUR for a fire extinguisher (I'll post pics of that later). All in all, not too bad. Tires and front brake pads are in good condition. All in all, not too expensive.

2) Yesterday I went topless. I had loads of fun. It was really hard to tell how the car took it. I didn't push it past 5000 revs. Temps were at 88c, up to 95 when I was in traffic. This was in a mountain road ad noon with 34c outside. Coming back on the highway doing 130 km/h in 6th gear the car was at 86-87 C, so going roofless doesn't seem to have that much of an impact on engine temp.The roof bolts are really easy to thread, mine are probably a bit threaded already :-( I also found out that the wrench Lotus supplies is too big for the bolts :-D I had to borrow one from my father in law.

Check out the pics below:

Superb end to my B'Day

2008-06-04T04:01:00.000-07:00

34 last Monday. Finished the day in the best possible way!

Post # 100 - My first track video

2008-05-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

It only seems fitting... This is the video from my first ever track day on the Lotus Exige S (for a report see two posts below) ...sorry about the swearing :-P

Blat last night

2008-04-27T04:14:00.000-07:00

Went to the LA road as usual. The first sprint was as boring as it can be inisde a Lotus. I had two cars ahead of me far enough from one another to forbid a clean double pass but close enough to forbid a couple of single passes. I then started working on my consistency. Not great at the beginning but better towards the end. In the last couple of sprints I was heel-and-toeing somewhat consistently :-) My shifting was not very smooth though, need to keep working on it, I guess. I took a slightly different route back through Janes and the seaside road. It was fun!

First (mini) track day

2008-04-25T02:05:00.000-07:00

(Photo credit: Pedro Aroso)

13 days ago, I took the Exige to the track for the first time. All I can say is that the car is mindblowing on the track and until you drive it there, you have no idea of what it is capable of. The track day happened in the second half of a meeting of the Portuguese Lotus Club. See a full report of the day on the Cluib’s blog here.
The day started with a *very* ealy rise. I picked up my friend José Gil in Benfica at 6:20 am. I then picked up to M100s on the first highway stop towards Oporto and a black Esprit halfway through.

(Photo credit: Paulo Canedo - i think)

We arrived at Oporto and had breakfast at the Lotus dealer’s premises. Huge number of Lotus there… unbelievable turnout for the meeting. I was really happy.

(Photo credit: Pedro Aroso)

We started driving towards Vila do Conde – a city with a road circuit where Lotus ran in the 60s. After a short pit stop we went to the karting track where many of the cars would taste ‘racing tasrmac’ for the first time. It was an almost magical trip. I was leqading the convoy – looking «in the rearview mirror and seeing a bunch of Europas, Elans, M100s and a few Elises and an Exige… wow!
After lunch, Manuel Pinheiro and I led the laps. I drove the car as hard as I use to do on the street but not much harder. Basically braking late but not carrying too much speed on corners. I only lost control of the car once, but was able to hold it from spinning. It was fun, but nut really all the superlatives that I had heard about how this car behaves on track. I was soon to find out that the fault was the drivers’, not the car! Look at the poor racing line :-(

(Photo credit: Pedro Aroso)

My times were as follows: 1'04"031, 1'05"366,1'04"230, 1'03"651, 1'06"073

Second time around, I basically looked at the car and told it: ‘I’m going to have some fun with you, slut!’ (sorry about the graphic language, but that’s how I felt!)

(Photo credit: Marco Costa)

OMG! OMG! OMG! I did carry more speed this time. I just grabbed the car by the scuff of the neck and drove the hell out of it.

(Photo credit: Marco Costa)

Still not brilliant, but much better. The sense of exhilaration that I felt during the 5 laps and afterwards is impossible to put into words. Finally I drove the car like it deserved. Finally I drove like it a Lotus driver would drive it.

(Photo credit: Marco Costa)

Oh yeah!!!!! Do you know how much faster I was?! Almost 5 seconds faster!!! My times were: 1'01"619, 1'00"397, 1'00"449, 59"661 :), 1'00"172 on a kart track.

(Photo credit: Marco Costa)

I was really proud of myself and I did make the top 10 times for the day. For me, this was a big accomplishment because I drove the car in a completely new way.

Like I should, like a race car for the road should be driven! It was a metamorphosis, a quantum leap. Can’t wait to take the car to the track again.

Car list

2008-04-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted a 'wish list'. Things have not changed that much, except that after I tasted the track for the first time (well to be honest even before that) I really shifted into track-only cars. I do want to have a clasic road legal Lotus. So next up is a Lotus 7 (what else?!):

Then a Formula Ford (a 51, please)

And then a Lotus 23.

In an ideal world, I'd would get a new round of cars.

The Exige would be paired with a 2-11

The 7 with an Elite

The Forumla Ford with a Formula 2

The Lotus 23 with an 11

10 000

2008-03-27T03:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my Lotus reached its 10 000 km mark as I was driving here:

View Larger Map

I went to an open parking lot with some gravel on the ground to drift the car a bit, but I was unable to get it to loose traction... dam A048s... Understeer kicked in before I could upset the rear. I think the solution is a nice slalom course. This is what I will be experimenting with next:

Just in case you're wandering if I'm going to risk cones... no I'm not. I am going to use putty :-D

TADTS #1

2008-03-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

On a thread asking people for help about a knocking noise on the front wheels, someone replied:

"There's many noises and things that come from Elises; when I first got mine I was hearing every noise and thinking "what's that? is that a, no, it can't be, oh hang on there it is...uh oh" every time I drove it. Slowly you get used to the noises.

Enjoy!"

Drive last night

2008-03-23T04:52:00.000-07:00

It had been raining during the day, so I just took an easy drive last night. I went to a possible location to experiment with loosing traction an found it to be quite satisfactory. There were too many people around so I just did a few rounds trying to loose traction (not succesfully) and then went for a longer drive. I quite enjoyed having a more relaxed time with the car. It is a very competent mini-GT :-)

Turn signals

2008-03-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

Found out on Lotustalk that flying turn signals are a common problem. Some useful solutions here.

This pic shows that it happens to the pro's as well :-D

Blat last night

2008-03-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

Went to the LA road trying to get back in shape... I only did one sprint because there were a few large piles of dirt on the road. Still I was able to train heel-and-toe and it went quite well. Haven't lost the touch. I was a bit bummed to have to com back so soon :-(

Lotus 2-11 base

2008-03-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

I am sooo lusting over this....

Superb drive this morning

2008-03-15T04:05:00.000-07:00

I was sick with food poisoning this whole week. Couldn't take the Lotus out. This morning I meant to wake up at 5.00 and go to Sintra. I did wake up at 5.15 but couldn't bring myself out of bed until 6.15. By the time I got to the car, it was almost 7.00. As soon as we were on the open road to monsanto, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of childish happyness as I allowed myself to connect with the car. I even screamed of joy. This is such a superb driving machine. I was just going for a quick blat through Monsanto but ended up going all the way to Sintra. Lots of traffic, so I just went for a one way sprint. I hadn't done a mountain road blat in a while, I was really rusty... even my heal-and-toe sucked. Oh well :-P

Not again!

2008-03-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was cruising on the highway on the way to Porto and my left front blinker came out flying again!!! It's the third time this happens in 6 months! Not happy. The darn thing hit the front clam a number of times, making no damage (thk god!)

Other than that quite a pleasant trip up and down. Had a great time at the Jag launch party and then had dinner with a bunch of Lotus enthusiasts. Check the pics here.

Crashing the Jag XF launch party

2008-02-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow a bunch of Lotus will be meeting at the Jag XF launch party. I will be leaving Lisbon around 4pm, we're meeting at 7pm at the dealer in OPorto.

In other news, I finally got the acknowledgement from Via Verde - I had sent them the papaerwork over a month ago! No more embarrasing moments having to step out of the car at toll gates :-)

Finally!

2008-02-26T05:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was dead tired, but after a spell of terrible weather, I *had* to take out the Lotus. I was so tired I did not dare to take on the LA road. Went to Monsanto instead, which is a much faster circuit. All I can say is that I had a BLAST! Drove much faster than uual... The car needed a good beating after being in storage for so long! Superb!

New license plate

2008-01-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

BTW, on new year's eve I went for a quick blat and broke my license plate again. Add this to the list of 'you know you're a lotus owner when':

... license plates are consumables just like brakes and tires

Blats and crap

2008-01-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

Major sadness!

Well kind of. First. I have only been on one ride in a whole week. I took the car for a ride in the wet to check a couple of drift spots, but no luck yet. I only have one to go.

Then miserable weather... :-(

Called the service rep at Lotus and got the news that my front blinker was finally here. However, got a call today from my salesman saying that the service rep found a leak in the radiator. I am going to have to take the car to OPorto. Bummer!

Here's a pic of my blinker before it was fixed:

Recent blats

2007-12-27T02:05:00.000-08:00

Went for a drive on the 23rd at dawn to check out the Gradil road. My GPS took me down a mud road guarded by a german shepherd dog :-O Had to reverse and then found the Gradil road. Pretty fun, but the pavement is very up and down. Won't reapeat it, methinks.

I broke my license plate when getting back to the garage (there was a frigging truck parked out front). I went to a store which was already closed and I was able to beg a new license plate out of them. I installed it myself yesterday and went for a drive last night. I was planning to do the LA road a few times but towards the end I saw a bunch of mean looking people around a large bonfire and decided to call it a night. Incidentally, I came across a large gap on the road because of construction, just at the beginning of LA. The car bottomed out and then developped a huge rattle. I started to belive that I had broken the glass that looks into the engine bay, I kid you not. Fortunately, everything was well and the rattle disappeared.

On the way home, I stopped for gas and a bunch of kids totalled freaked out when they saw the Lotus. Fun!

Took a couple of pics yesterday in the parking lot of a friend's appartment building. Enjoy!

Blat this morning

2007-12-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

Woke up at 5.30 as usual. I went to LA. The road is still hurt from the recent rains. Tons of mud on some sections. I went up and down onece and then took the coastal road to Azoia. Very nice drive. I really improved on looking towards where I am going (the Azoia road has great visibility, so that helps) and doing much less mistakes on braking too late. I am braking a bit early and a bit soft right now. Have to work on that. The alternative death roundabout ended up in zilch. I am going to check a new road and another candidate to a roundabout of death tomorrow morning.

On a side note, really fun dream. I dreamt that I woke up at 8 and missed my drive and then I really woke up and it was 5.30 am... thank God!

It was confusing for a bit :-P

The sun!!!

2007-12-21T07:35:00.001-08:00

The sun is out!!!!

After a whole friggin' week of Lotuslessness, I can finally hit the streets at dawn tomorrow! Hurrayy!

BTW, last week I went for 8 laps of LA (the final half): It was great. I got progressively more comfortable with the car and made fewer mistakes. On saturday at dawn I went to check out the Roundabout of Death. Too much traffic, alas... I did find a suitable parkinglot for training oversteer, but there's a circus there now. Let's see if I can find something interesting tomorrow.

Two blats in a row

2007-12-08T08:03:00.001-08:00

Thursday night and today at dawn, I went for a couple of blats in Sintra. It turns out that my experimental blat path through Sintra sucks.

My original road has a really uneven ground on the second segment and then it gets worse. It is also a really narrow road, and in the last downhill sprint to Sintra it has high walls on both sides. Not fun if you loose traction. No fun at all.

The first blat was, in retrospect not too bad. Once I left the LA road, I got into a section with uneven ground but not too bad. Should be great in the spring. Now it's figgin covered with leaves and has some really heavy fog patches. There was a point where I got a surprise steep downwards incline covered with leaves and the car skated down through with with the ABS working double time! It was so dark and foggy that I got seriously spooked. Fortunately, I took a wrong turn and ended up in Azoia and had a very pleasant trip back to Cascais. So this now is my favorite circuit in Lisbon.

In the second blat, I drove through the right road except for a turn where I ended up litterally skidding with no brakes down a muddy path that forced me to reverse and do a u-turn. The car has mud all over. No fun at all. Another part that was not fun at all was having the car understeer on me (went into a corner too hot) and havign a car coming in the opposite direction. I was always in control, but didn't enjoy the experience :-P

Blat last night

2007-11-30T02:47:00.001-08:00

Went for a blat last night in Sintra. The road was great, although it seemed to be a bit damp. Had a great time, the car behaved wonderfully. I made a couple of mistakes but the Exige S is a really forgiving car. When I was reading online fora prior to getting the car, I thought it would be a bit twitchy and bite back a lot, but that is not how the car is at all. It is really very forgiving. Hopefully, there will be one more opportunity to practice this weekend... :-)

The left-hand front turn signal... again

2007-11-26T03:49:00.001-08:00

I went to pick up the Lotus from the garage yesterday to give it a wash and on my way home, the left hand front turn signal flew out of its casing. As you might recall, this happened already. The first time, the top latch keeping it in place broke, so the signal moved but it did not fly out. Now the bottom one broke and the signal flies out all the time. Had to tape in place :-(

Blat today

2007-11-24T05:34:00.001-08:00

Hadn't driven the Exige for the past couple of weeks (I was away on business). Took it out today. Delicious as usual. I really missed it. I was bummed by the trip though. The road I was going to play in was littered with leaves and gravel :-(

No fun in the twisties at all!

Blat next dawn

2007-11-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

OK... I'm leaving for a business trip tomorrow and the thought of spending a week away from the Lotus is just too much. I'm going to try to set my internal alarm clock for 5 am tomorrow and go for a quick blat in one of my favorite spots :-D

Blat this morning

2007-11-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

TNAS from AHO joined me for my drive through Montejunto this morning. It was great having his company in the car, but I was mad at myself because I wasn't able to focus on the driving (same thing happened with my last pax ride there). I need to learn how to chew gum and walk at the same time :-P

The road was quite challenging today. A lot of foliage on the ground and even a dead fox, FCS! Anyway, the car still behaved like a dream and we had a great conversation about Porsches.I'll be away next weekend --- not sure if I'll be able to take the car out before that.

Next blat

2007-11-07T01:27:00.000-08:00

I'm going to Montejunto on Saturday early morning. If anyone is up for an early breakfast of one of the greatest roads in the country, drop me a line to zjoao_mx at yahoo.com

My own rules for blats

2007-11-05T11:55:00.000-08:00

Blats are dangerous, but they should only be dangerous for those that choose to engage in them and not for anybody else. I have four rules that I always follow in every blat to make sure that if anyone is in jeopardy because of my driving, that person is sitting behind the wheel of the most beautiful organge car in Portugal. These are my own rules, I don't think they're the best or the only ones. Just the rules I feel comfortable with.

1. On highways, stay close to the speed limit and always below 150 km/h
Driving the Lotus is all about the twisties, there's no point is paying a fine, loosing my license or putting myself and others in danger to go fast in a straight line

2. In villages and cities allways keep the speed limit

The point here is to prevent running over somebody. This is especially important in villages on mountain roads where people may be less used to cars and children are allowed to play outside.

3. In long straights keep below 100 km/h

I've learned how well the Lotus can break and this is the speed at which it is still safe to go in medium visibility. There can be children playing in the woods or people may hear / see the Lotus coming and want to come closer. Also, if something upsets the car, there's still a chance of surviving. Again the point of the car is not going fast in a straight line.

4. In the twisties, drive like a maniac just below 7/10's. This is where I really take risks because this is what this car was made for and here is the place where I'm less likely to put others in danger. Obviously the possibility is still there. At 7/10's I am really pushing the car, but I still have some leeway (not much) to improvise. This is a lesson that many of the gentlemen drivers learned in races such as Mille Miglia and that gave some an edge over the professional pilots.

Lotus meet

2007-11-04T03:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I spent some time in Lotus Nirvana!

As you might recall from the posts below, yesterday was the first recent Lotus meet here in Portugal. I did some of the background work for it but it was really Manuel Pinheiro (afternoon drive) and Pedro Aroso (morning and lunch) that did most of the work… and it was great!

I could barely sleep the night before. I literally woke up every hour and a half, until, at 5.30, I decided to call it a night. I ended up browsing the internet up to 6.30 and then went to get the Lotus. I kid you not, the car has almost 7000 kilometers on it, I take it out at least once a week, normally twice, and yet whenever I am walking towards my garage, I feel a giddiness that can only be compared to the one I felt when I got to spend an afternoon with my girlfriend in college, and her parents were not at home :-)

I drove to Arruda dos Vinhos, to pick up Zé Rodrigues (JCPR from AHO). I was there a couple of minutes later, because I went to fill up on gas and there were a good dozen of cab drivers doing the same and it was the gas station clerk’s first day :-O

We met with my good friend Zé Gil, the biggest Lotus fanatic I know, in Aveiras. He was driving a small VW Polo coupé (his Elan M100 is not repaired yet). I told him to go in front because he said his car could not go much faster than 120 km/h.... yeah right :-) I ended up really having to push it to be able to keep up with him. We had a nice quiet drive up to Porto. Where my GPS decided to take us through some less canonical routes. OK… so we get to Bela Cruz and the first thing I see is this gorgeous, beautiful, delicious little car. As with most Lotus, the pics of this car do not do it justice… not in a million years. I was totally drooling.

Photo Credit: Rui Coelho

I followed the little Europa to a gas station and find out Pedro Aroso was driving it. The car is beautiful and quite lower than mine :-O

We were joined by an Elan. As we were chatting, a bunch of Elises passed by :-D

We all drove down to Bela Cruz and parked. There were a bunch of cars there already. A bunch of members from AHO stopped by to say hi… quite a pleasant surprise. We checked out some of the old school Esprits and also the most hard core Elise in the group, which driven by a really fast driver (it even had a PerformaceBox installed!). We were later joined by a Porsche 997 Turbo whose beauty was overshadowed by a certain orange Lotus ;-)

Everyone chatted for a while and then we drove away. We just stopped for a quick group photo in the roundabout just before leaving.

Photo Credit: Rui Coelho

The drive to Ofir where we were going to have lunch was great. I went with the front drivers. We were all following an Elan S3 that was pushing it really hard. It was fun to see the tiny car ahead driving past Porche Cayennes and other SUVs. We all took a moderate rhythm. The S1 Elise had yet to be seen, and Zé Rodrigues, who is seriously thinking about buying one was sort of disappointed. Imagine our joy when we saw Rui in his S1 overtaking us!

When we got to Ofir there was a little not soo good surprise in store when we got to Ofir. The road to the restaurant was like taken out of a moonscape and unfortunately one of the Europas ruptured its fuel tank.

Photo Credit: Rui Coelho

Lunch was pretty good. I was sitting in next to the sales rep from Lotus, Manuel Pinheiro, and in front of a service guy from Lotus, José Rodrigues and Rui (the owner of the S1). Good conversation at lunch, although to much Ferrari talk for my own liking :-) The service guy told me that he loved my car and that it was the only one that would steer him away from an AM Vanquish. He told me he had done the presales inspection and the 1000 mile service on it and that it looked great. A real enthusiast!

Lotus paid our lunch. It was really nice of them (we didn’t know they were going to do it)! The service in the restaurant was also great. We were more people than they were counting on and still they were able to get some more tables in a snap.

Off we went to the drive and I let me tell you that Manuel picked some wonderful roads. These were the most challenging roads I have ever driven on with a quick succession of hairpins, fast sweeps and short hooks (map of the whole trip). The asphalt was great as well and the visibility was superb. On the first leg (map), I hadn’t warmed up properly and didn’t do a great job. Ended up last. On the second one (map), I pushed the car much harder. I used all of what I had learned with R_U_Local’s teachings (1,2,3) and was able to do a very quick and very clean run with very few mistakes. One of the S3 Elans did the first leg with us. Props to the driver! On the third run (map), José Rodrigues who was my passenger, got a severe case of motion sickness and I had to take it slow. Zé’s company’s is more valuable to me than a delicious road, but it was an insane uphill climb (nor for me, I took it slow). Well, Zé might as well have saved my car because one of the cars lost control and spun and only sheer luck prevented a bigger accident. Fortunately the car involved didn’t suffer much and everyone was allright.

Photo Credit: Joao Cunha

The scenery from the top of the mountain was breathtaking.

Photo Credit: Joao Cunha

I drove down to Spain with Manuel and a Rui Coelho in his beautiful Rover S2 Elise and then down to Porto. Zé Gil picked his car and he drove down with Zé Rodrigues and me to Mealhada, where we had dinner. Arrived in Lisbon after a 927 km trip of pure pleasure. I was in my car or talkin about it for more than 14 hours and I only spent 2.3 tanks of gasoline. Isn’t the Lotus a great car!

I forgot to say that Manuel and I did a couple of drags from stoplights - proper 'fast and furious' style. The first one was only a dozen meters. In the second one, he pulled away a little bit at the start (probably did a standing start or almost) but then my supercharger kicked in and his car got a bit smaller in the rearview mirror ;-)

It was a superb day out!

Check out more pics here, here, here

Pax ride / Montejunto

2007-11-02T11:38:00.001-07:00

Had a great time this afternoon. I spent five hours driving and talking about driving with Fili, a guy that I met on AHO that asked me for a ride on the Lotus. We went to Montejunto and after a few wrong turns (you'd think a guy with a PhD from MIT would know how to read GPS instructions... doh!) we found that delicious road I posted about before. It was great, there was no traffic at all! This is a road from heaven with many twisties and long fast sweeps with great visibility and great scenery. Fili is an experienced track driver and he gave me a few great tips on drving. The gist of it was that I should not try to gradually push the car until I reach the limit. Instead I should find the limit sooner by breaking traction at low speed and catch the car. According to Fili, the ideal setting for this is an uphill quick bend tilted towards the inside of the turn. Looking forward to give that a try. We had a late lunch and talked a bit more about trackdays and how bad they have become at Estoril.

We scheduled a joint trip to Montejunto (Fili really loved those roads) with his S2000 and my Lotus. I really look forward to that :-)

Here's the map of the ride

See a pic of the road below taken from a Porsche (sorry, only pic I could find).

Flickr Lotus Photo Pool

2007-11-01T02:05:00.000-07:00

Came across the Lotus photo pool on Flickr. Check out the great pics. The one above is the Lotus Mk II

Soptted!

2007-11-01T01:57:00.001-07:00

A Lotus Cortina MkI and a Lotus Elan S3 Sprint in a car dealer close to my house :drool:

Lotus Driver: A new blog

2007-11-01T01:56:00.001-07:00

Lotus Driver is a new blog I started to hold information about Lotus cars. Most of the posts focus on a specific car and feature a smal blurb on its history, some links to historic references, links to replica makers, searches on Youtube, Google and Google Images and a price range (in Euro).

Occasionally, there are posts on some other resources for the Lotus classic car enthusiast. One of my favorites is a post with links to classis race car dealers. Check it out and pass along info or photos if you have them :-)

W00t: Great weekend ahead!

2007-10-31T08:32:00.001-07:00

This next few days are going to be great. On Friday a quick blat to Montejunto with FiLi, an experience track driver and enthusiast. Really looking forward to do that road again and to a nice lunch talking about my favorite topic with someone that really knows about driving :-)

The big one is on Saturday, though. The first big Lotus meet in Portugal which includes a 100 km blat up to the North of Spain. Oh yeah!

Pics will be posted, have no worries. My co-driver on Saturday is JCPR, a Lotus enthusiast that I me through SELOC / AHO. He's a great photographer.

Anyway, I'll be at Bela Cruz at 10.30 or so, in Foz (Porto). Stop by to say hi, chat about Lotus and see all the other guys arrive.

This is sad :(

2007-10-30T07:56:00.001-07:00

OMG!

I just went to check the pics of the meet last saturday and apparently the post below was interpreted as saying that some people were crap or the whole AHO is crap. (sigh)

In spite of not wanting to post in AHO anymore, I was tempted to post one last message explaining this. That will teach me to use american colloquialisms when I have a Portuguese readership. Hell, I didn't even know I had a readership.

Anyway, if someone comes and reads this without checking the Forum, the gist of my message was that I was using crap as in the expression 'my boss gave me crap', to mean grief not as in the expression 'I went to take a crap' to mean 'sh*t'.

I was referring to conversations that I had about the closing on my diary of the Lotus that sort of revived the whole exprience from which I wanted to stay away that day, so that I could enjoy it in the company of my fellow enthusiasts.

Oh well...

Meet this saturday

2007-10-29T14:12:00.001-07:00

Had a blast on Saturday. Drove in a group to Fatima up the highway. The highlights of the trip were an empty tunnel in CREL where I was able to let the Stage II sing its best song. It was soo good I wet myself :-D

The meeting was great. Again the Lotus was the star even with a couple of Fezzas around (a 360 and a 355 spyder). No fun roads where the meeting was held, but did take a few trips. The brakes felt a bit strange. On the trip back they seemed to be OK though. There are a number of very nice pics of my car. Check them out here (don't forget to check until the end of the thread

Not sure I'll go on another one. It got tiring to have to deal with the crap from some of the other members of the AHO forum :-(

Track rat

2007-10-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

I am really committed to go to be a proficient track driver. I thought I would do that in the Lotus, but I just can't afford an accident right now. I am planning on buying a Caterham as soon as I can. It may seem like a waste of Lotus, but the only reason that I'm going to be using the C'ham instead is because I can afford a C'ham repair, but not the 10K+ that a Lotus costs.

Anyway, the Exige S is still an epiphany on mountain roads, and it is used as it's meant to be there.

Kind in a sour mood today because I closed by online log book, so I'll probably take it for a spin tonight to wind down.

Back here

2007-10-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well, my log book at AutoHoje is gone because some users just kept hammering me. No way I was going to take that kind of crap from people. I was constantly judged on how scared I was of my car by people that had not taken a single drive in a mountain road with me.

It was hurting my development as a driver by putting unduly pressure on me :-(
So I'm moving my experience as a Lotus owner to this blog.

Enjoy.

Upcoming car meets

2007-10-16T13:31:00.001-07:00

Lots of social activity for me and my little Lotus. On Oct. 27th we're going on a meet for rare and historical cars and the weekend after that we are going on a Lotus only car meet. Hurray!

Newest car line up

2007-08-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

Since I got the Exige S, I really do not see the point of bigger and better, only different. I also became increasingly passionate about Lotus. As things stand now, this is the lineup.

1. Lotus Exige S (check)

2. Lotus 2-11 / Caterham if the 2-11 is not road legal

3. Historic Lotuses, probably beginning with a 23B

Pax rides last night

2007-07-13T05:02:00.000-07:00

Went to a car meeting last night and gave 4 pax rides. Check out the pic:

Joy across all blogs!

2007-07-11T03:45:00.001-07:00

Busy driving the new toy. Not much time to publish...

The Lotus compared with regular cars

2007-05-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

There is a great thread over on elisetalk with pics of the Elise and the Exige next to regular cars. Some of the pics are amazing. The one below is my favorite:

More nesting

2007-05-09T01:12:00.000-07:00

Just picked up my own Multivex Mirrors from the mail (ordered from hangar 111). Now I just need to get a bigger horn.

Nesting

2007-05-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

Got leather racing gloves from Luvaria Ulisses in Lisbon. A Classic Team Lotus shirt from an F1 memorabilia store at the airport. Also bought a Nuvi 360, very happy with it except for the voice instructions in portuguese, which is appalling! I immediately installed the Portugal speed trap database.

Here's a pic of the Nuvi 360.

Here's a pic of the Classic Team Lotus shirt.

Data acquisition on track

2007-05-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

Haven't tested any of the products below, but I have read about them in online fora and thought it would be interesting to post.

First there's ChronoGPS which is a free piece of software for Windows Mobile devices. Lots of features and hgey, it's free! Virtua cup follows a similar approach, but with more features. You have to pay for it, though.

The cheapest datalogger (and not so bad, this is the one I want) is the Performance Box (used in shows like Top Gear). Very compact and looks great. Not sure if it features backlight, though. But you wouldn't be timing your driving at night now, would you?

If you don't want to go all the way, there's always GPS speed sentry.

Exige S delayed :-(

2007-05-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Got a call from the dealer. I'm going to have to wait a few more weeks.

:-(

Britcars all the way

2007-04-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

I spent ome time in China and I had the opportunity to think for a bit about cars. I found out about the ultima GTR and realized that the only reason I would pick a 360 CS over the GTR would be to be able to tell people that I had a ferrari. Me... a poser! So screw that. New car lineup is:

1. Lotus Exige S (coming in 3 weeks!)

2. Ultima GTR

3. Ariel Atom

>
4. Probably something bike-powered, like the Westfield XTR4 (it is street legal)

Nesting for the Lotus: Shoes

2007-03-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

Building the nest for the upcoming arrival of the Lotus. First step: get some new rubber for my own feet :-)
(Mine are brown and *do not* have the Ferrari logo)

Hooray for Geneva and light cars!

2007-03-09T02:54:00.000-08:00

The Aston Martin N24

The Gallardo SuperLeggera

The Exige GT3

The Lotus 2-11

The KTM X-BOW

.... and Ferrari finally announced the Light Pista!

w00t! Pulled the trigger on an Exige S

2007-02-26T04:46:00.000-08:00

Finally!!!!!

Put my deposit down for a (Chrome Orange) Lotus Exige S on Feb 19. Should be here in May!

Can't wait!!!!!

:-D

Holy shit! I have the cash!

2007-02-08T01:55:00.000-08:00

It's really happening. I just reached my 40K target to get the lotus. I'll be making the call to the salesman later this mornig. OMG!!!!1!!!

2007-01-31T11:18:00.000-08:00

How to drive

Now that I am about to get an exige, it's time to get some lessons in real world driving.

Alomost there

2007-01-10T06:49:00.000-08:00

W00T! I already have the cash I need to get the Exige. It's being paid to my account at the end of this month! Can't wait!

Americans are ruining sports cars!

2006-12-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

Crap. I am almost, almost ready to place an order for my Exige S, but all this talk about the end of the US Federal Exemption for bumpers is making me nervous. What if all the rumors on E-Talk are for real and I get an Europa S-looking Exige. YUCK! Crap. If that happens, I am getting a used one from Italy or Germany. Ferrari owners in the US also complain about how much better Euro Models are. Ferrari is also loosing its exemption there: No more sports seats. Geez!

Your average Elise / Exige owner

2006-12-22T03:12:00.000-08:00

A member of teh EliseTalk community posted a really interesting profile of the typical lotus owner. See the discussion here.
1. This may seem obvious, but perhaps the single greatest thing we are likely to have in common is a passion for sports cars.

This may not seem like something unusual, but it is. Few people can
identify, let alone have any knowledge about, the broad range of sports
cars that so many folks here are aware of.

2. Although they are passionate people, Elise/Exige owners are more
likely to be led by their heads than their hearts. Logic comes before
emotion.

These owners are more likely that the average person to be excited by
and be able see beauty in mechanical design, not just physical form.

While the mass public defines “function” as a minivan or a Toyota
Camry, Elise/Exige owners might argue that they have confused the term
“function” with “utility”. Even when compared to other sports cars,
this Lotus has sacrificed utility for function.

3. By and large, Elise/Exige owners are very independent thinkers.

These owners are much more likely to have participated in individual
activities and individual sports. They are confident in their own
ability to make reasoned decisions. They are more likely than the
average person to cast aside convention if it suits them.

This car is tiny. It has a 1.8 liter four-cylinder engine. It only puts
out 190 horsepower. And women almost invariably agree that the car is
adorable. For a man, driving this car should, by all rights, be a
statement on par with admitting that one doesn’t like beer. But, they
don’t see it that way.

4. Ironically, Elise/Exige owners aren’t likely to be attention seekers.

In fact, it would seem that the large majority of owners are quite
unaccustomed to being the center of attention. Although though they
don’t necessarily seek the attention that their vehicle unavoidably
garners, they do enjoy the respect they receive.

5. Elise/Exige owners are more likely to be willing to take risks.

They aren’t necessarily adrenaline junkies, but they are more likely
than most people to make bold moves and take calculated risks.

6. Even when burdened with the full responsibility of adulthood, the average Elise/Exige owner is still able to nurture the inner desire to experience childlike joy.

It seems a shame that when we reach adulthood that we lose so much of
the desire to play like a child. When was the last time that you pulled
out the Hot Wheels and the old action heroes (dolls) and just played?
Really played?

Although many reject the idea that a Lotus could be considered a toy, don’t you feel like a kid playing with your toy when driving it?

7. Most people will assume someone driving an Elise or an Exige must be wealthy. Unlikely.

It seems to me that this vehicle is most often purchased by the
upper-middle class. People with middle-class values who work for a
living. People who don’t have a sense of superiority or entitlement.
People who are concerned about having enough money to retire
comfortably once they reach the normal age for retirement.

8. Although, in my experience women find this car to be more
interesting and appealing than any other sports car I am aware of, the
Elise/Exige is still purchased almost exclusively by men. But it must
be said that the women here who have purchased this vehicle are amazing!

Clarkson Quote

2006-12-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

Here's Clarckson speaking about the Caterham, but this is how I feel about the Lotus.

"I’ve always assumed that a car like this would feel like an extension of your hands and feet, but it’s the other way round.I felt like a part of it, an organic component but a component nevertheless. You use a normal car to take you somewhere and it tries to make that journey as pleasant as possible. But you would never use a Caterham as a means of transport because this is driving for the buzz of it, and as a result you’re not a passenger. You are there to do a job, which means you are no more and no less important than one of the pistons or the windscreen wipers."

Songs that make me sigh for the Lotus!

2006-12-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

Madonna: Sorry

Madonna: Hung up

Bodyrockers: I like the way you move

Gnarls Barley: Crazy

Benny Benassi: Satisfaction

Nelly Furtado: Maneater

U2: Vertigo

US: Discotheque

Pedro Abrunhosa: Estrada

Pedro Abrunhosa: Outra noite perfeita

Ferraris on fire

2006-12-11T14:32:00.000-08:00

I am not one to complain about Ferraris spitting fire out of their exhaust. I for one think it's really cool, but when a number fo them starts blowing up, well that's kind of scary!

Great site selling amazing classics

2006-12-10T01:50:00.000-08:00

Holy mother of classics, Batman! This site has a number of classics such as two Carreras RS, a Renault 5 Turbo and two Reneualts Alpine and a Lotus Elan.

Lotus videos

2006-12-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

Check out this video of the Lotus Elise, with great Lotus Classic Team footage at the end. There is also a great companion video of the Lotus Exige. These cars are so special!

Advanced driving techniques: Heel and toe downshift

2006-11-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

Heel and toe downshift is one of the most useful but also trickiest advanced driving manoeuvers. Here's a good how to. Here's a helpful video

The 430 CS is here

2006-10-26T02:20:00.000-07:00

According to this LeftLane piece, the *is* going to be a 430 CS. In the gallery, notice the standard windows, no rollcage, differen design and location of the fuelcap and different design in the part between the exhausts. Can't wait for the reviews.

Bye Atom, hello Caterham

2006-10-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

New change to the car lineup. As much as I regret it, the Atom won't follow the Lotus. Acording to an EVO test, It is very snappy getting out of turns, not good. So I'm getting a Caterham CSR instead.

Hooorray for lightness!

2006-10-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

YooHooo, a Catherham broke the top gear lap record , previously held by a Koenigsegg! Lightness pwns HP!

Check the video here

Cool elise video

2006-10-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

I found this great video of the Liz on YouTube. I like to watch it at lunchtime, listening to some of my favorite driving songs. Very cool.