Recent updates

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

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

Post # 100 - My first track video

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

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

(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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am sooo lusting over this....

Superb drive this morning

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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