Lip Service

Xmas is over, and I've begun my winter mods. Starting with the cheap and relatively easy stuff, I made the car 2 inches longer by moving the splitter forward. Previously it stuck out a measely 2.5 inches and had only been applied for the purpose of protecting my clam shell from cones.  It did a fair job of that, allowing a couple cracks but fending off major damage.

From an aerodynamic perspective, the splitter was far from optimized. Air was leaking between it and the car and the front edge protruded significantly less than allowed by the rules. Furthermore I've been running with the license plate attached across the struts supporting the front. Both that and the air leak interfere with the creation of a pool of high pressure air in front of the car which is what creates the down force.  The new configuration should be a tad more protective in addition to providing more front down force.

I also added some foam to keep the air from flowing between the car and the splitter.

The paperclip corners required an extension...

And for those of you wondering about my mounting system, the basic idea was to not attach it to the (fragile & expensive) fiberglass clam shell. Instead I used Aluminum angle to bracket it onto hardpoints.

And the front is connected to the tow hook hard point.

So with an additional 2" of down force perhaps I can return to using my wing at full height and not get significant under-steer. With the corners already poking past the base of the car I've pushed this splitter as far forward as possible, so if I need to go out to the full 6" allowed by the rules, I'll probably be making my own out of plywood...

Mods For 2013

Winter is upon us, at least from a racing perspective, and soon from a seasonal perspective. The lotus is parked safely in the garage, with a tank full of stabilized gasoline. The daily driver has swapped on it's snow tires, the 7year old oem battery is replaced, and new wipers/fluid. Oil for both our cars, and snow tires swap for her car, and then some where after Christmas, I can begin tinkering, and prepping for next year.

Here's the list of things I do plan to do for sure this winter, all of them relatively small:

• Delete the rear speakers (weight saving)
• Shift the splitter an inch or two forward (more downforce, but more likely to scrape)
• Need longer bolt to extend splitter bracing, not sure how far forward the bolt can handle, or how long a bolt I can find that fits.
• Relocate the battery to behind the driver seat (weight forward, convenience, compliance)
• The braile B106 is AGM, and so this is allowed as long as I can bolt a bracket to the chasis (per rule 3.3.3.B.17), and I locate it behind the rearmost seat per 14.9.A this should be legal, and allow me to leave the trunk lid closed for all but inspection and most importantly allow me to leave the original battery cover in to avoid weenie protests that removing the < 1 lb. plastic cover constitutes "stripping the trunk" (prohibited by omission until X Prepared class). If I put the cover in I need to unbolt the wing support to take it out for inspection of the battery mounting. This also means I don't need to open the trunk to turn the battery disconnect.
• Rear Motor Mount replacement (less motor movement, more power to wheels)
• In May 2013 New Hoosiers 
• The current ones are > 100 runs now, by may they should be around 150 or so)
• It's not safe to order hoosiers before may due to the risk of freezing during shipping, so probably first 2-3 races of 2013 will be on old Ho-Ho's 

Here are the things I'd like to do this winter:

• Pull the transmission, ship it to AZ and have Blackwatch Racing install an OS Giken limited slip differential (LSD) 
• They have tuned this LSD specifically for the lotus Auto-X platform. My car will NEVER be a real contender as an SSM car without this or a super charger.  
• While the Tranny is out, replace the flywheel with a lightweight version made by Blackwatch Racing
• Replace the Clutch with a lighter, stronger version from ACT (the HDG4 kit

And there's some maybe mods:

• The re-ENFORCER from sector111 (improve shift feel)
• I haven't figured out if it's legal to add this shifter mount mod. Is the mounting for the shift lever part of the "Shift Linkage" as and therefore permitted as per 14.10.G and 15.10.Q? This may require clarification... But it's not really important. It's supposed to make the shifting feel a bit more positive and a bit less wishy-washy (many things are good about the Elise, but the shifter feel isn't one of them).
• AC compressor delete (weight savings)
• Removing the AC compressor will save around 11 lbs. I rarely if ever use the AC anyway, except when I'm trying to get the engine to warm up to full temp, and then sometimes I forget to turn it off, which is not so good. I'm fairly likely to do this one.
• AC condenser delete (weight savings) 
• Another 11 lbs reportedly to be had here, but it requires removing the front clam shell. Probably won't do this if I do the tranny, because both will take a lot of time and the weight in the front may not be a bad thing for front/rear weight distribution anyway. On the other hand, this, the compressor and the speaker delete will likely pay for the weight of the wing... maybe I just move the splitter all the way forward :).

The transmission work will depend heavily on how much it costs to put a new roof on the house. That comes first, and so those may get punted to the 2014 list... Meanwhile, I'm going to try to work bunches of billable hours and see how it goes...

Season Wrap Up

YOY comparisons

2011 - pax standings - 53rd of 91, score 4502
2012 - pax standings - 55th of 92, score 4592

So I got almost 1% closer to the fastest cars out there, but so did everyone else! I also believe that the top cars got somewhat faster given the larger number of trophies brought back from nationals this year.

2011 - 2nd place, 2 of 13 drivers qualifying, 35 points
2012 - 2nd place, 6 of 20 drivers qualifying 38 points

So last year I was 2nd and last among drivers qualifying for a trophy (by attending 5 races or more), but this year I'm 2nd of 6. To some extent this is due to an enhancement of the lower end of the field however. The car that beat me last year got at least as much faster this year as I did, so I'm in no way closer to first place. But as mentioned many times previously, he's actually prepped his car to the max, and I'm a total slacker on that front, so no surprises there.

2011 - 2 firsts, 1 second, 2 thirds in 6 races - 4 trophies
2012 - 1 first, 2 seconds, 4 thirds in 9 races - 3 trophies

So I brought home a little less hardware this year. I blame my co-driver :) He stole it! (he beat me the last 3 events we raced! eek!


2011 - vs. Matt Neiman - I won 3 of 5 races in the season.
2012 - vs. Mat Neiman - I won 2 of 7 races in the season

Matt got his car sorted out this year, and it's got bigger tires, a properly installed sway bar, and is more or less fully prepped (except he needs a WING! :) ). 

As for vs. Russ Sigglekoe and his super-stock elise... I still haven't beat him, but I came within 0.1 sec once... Next year.... :)

2012 Highlights

The National Tour! I got my vehicle weighed (1877 lbs), got my vehicle stickered up, and got my butt handed to me by the car that eventually won 3rd place at nationals. I also got off line and into marbles and blew my best run on day 2. Oh well, still was a blast, and I didn't seriously expect to be competitive at the national level yet.

The Co-driver! David's been lots of fun to drive with, and is now providing me with excellent competition. No car prep level excuses anymore! Tires are now warmer on cold days, and the last race actually provided some evidence that perhaps I now need to guard against pressure rise due to tire temps...

The Wing! At the beginning of the season Experienced drivers said things like "I've never driven a lotus that was trying to kill me before" after driving my car. Now they say things like "Wow, this thing's fun!"

SSM has become one of the biggest classes at NER. Most of the cars are still woefully under prepared, but first you get people, then they start competing and the cars get better :). Several events SSM rivaled STX for attendance (though STX still has a better average driver skill level)

2013 Prognostications & Goals

1. Dog-fight for placement with David! 
2. More competition in SSM - Leafy is building an SSM miata, My co-driver as mentioned above, I'm sure Don will be back with his CRX, plus whomever else new shows up... Next year will be FUN. 
3. Goal: Hang on to 2nd place. 
4. Goal: Cut the average time diff between me and the CRX by 1 second. This season, excluding the event where their power steering puked all over and the car setup was unmanageable the average amount they beat me by was 1.2 seconds. Don may get a little faster as a driver, but I doubt that the car can get much faster. I suspect it's pretty much maxed. Given that don's a trophy winner at nationals, my driving probably has a lot further to improve than his, plus there's lots that can be done to my car
5. Goal: Move the front splitter forward, add front downforce and perhaps move the wing back up to maximum deflection, stiffer rear motor mount to cut down on wheel hop at starts & put more power to the wheel (less into flexing the motor mounts).
6. Stretch Goal: Improve the car with OS Giken LSD + lightweight flywheel & clutch. Still quite unsure about the ability to find the funds, but I did find a way to get the costs under $3k for the LSD now (previous estimates all put the labor price over 3k before any parts). All I have to do is learn how to get the tranny in and out and ship it cross country. The plus is that the install would be done by the same folks who built the 4 time national champion XP lotus, so one can be pretty sure they know their stuff. 
7. Goal: Keep an eye on tire temps - an area for investigation next year. My pressures 5-10 min after the last run in the moss event were up over 4 lbs from initial temps. They might have been up another pound or more when I drove off course, given that there was a decent breeze. Furthermore, I definitely experienced a couple points at which the stopping power seemed reduced vs prior runs on the last run. David however had his best run immediately prior. Not sure if that means I'm just full of excuses, or if it means he put better heat in the tires on that final run. I've got a good tire gauge now so no reason not to be checking!

Ferrari Owners

Having owned an elise for a while I've sort of become used to it. I also didn't have any real sports car experience before I bought it, so to a certain extent I'm spoiled. I suspect I don't quite know how an elise really compares to other sports cars. It's kind of hard to get perspective by reading posts on Lotus Talk, since it's full of lotus enthusiasts and so one sort of expects folks there to say good things, or to be bitter about something.

Recently I ran across a very interesting post on Ferrari Chat that seems to be a window into how the elise is viewed by Ferrari owners. One of the regulars there was contemplating getting an elise or exige, and asked for opinions. Given that Ferraris have a sticker prices upwards of 5 times that of an elise, my expectation was that there would be a bit of snobbery and upturned noses.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=379103

To my surprise I found almost none of that kind of attitude. Many of the respondants turn out to be current or former elise owners, but it's clear that most of them can own whatever car they feel like. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

Flash G:

It will be the best handling car you ever drive (short of an Ariel Atom). The grip is insane and the communication/feel from the wheel is second to none. 

leead1:

Not wanting to be disrespectful but I must respond to someones post. I own an Erial Atom 3 with 300 hp and the Lotus is hands above the Atom on handling. The Atom of course is a good to fair handler that has stunning acleration that you do not get with the Lotus. The quote for the Atom manufacturer was 0-60 at 2.85 seconds. Not sure if it is true but it is quick and makes other cars feel slow. My Mosler is a tad quicker and my ZR1 is a little slower 0-60. 

hyenahf:

i've driven a SC K20 atom in anger a few times and tracked a whole slew of S1 exige race spec, elise S2, elise S2 with 350hp turbo, opel speedsters etc... imo, the elise handles better than the very competent atom. however not much beats the atom for crab walking when u stomp on the loud pedal. 

kverges:

Finally, there is really no other car that is within 1000 lbs of curb weight and when you drive a car that weighs under 2000 lb you will always view even 911s, Ferraris and other sports cars as fat toads in comparison.

 boxerman:

If a Maclaren F1 was 90's F1 tech on the street then a lotus elise is 80's F1 tech in anaffordable package for the street... ...My boxer has become more of an ornamental pice since the lotus arrived...

As a side note, this past weekend NER held the Stirling Moss championship, and a non-points event along side it. A ferrari owner showed up with a 458, and unlike some of the other super-car owners who have showed up in the past he turned out to be quite cool, had a good time, and it sounds like he might return. This is a refreshing change versus some of the other super car drivers who left halfway through because there were folks with 1990's civic SI out driving them (nevermind the years of experience the civic drivers had).