dp lotus elise s190

12/17/04 A quick trip up to Seattle to visit a friend. On the way there, my 5K RPM resonance shifted to 4K and got much louder. So I basically had to listen to it the whole way there (and later all the way back) because that's pretty much the cruise RPM. The noise appears to be coming from somewhere inside the passenger-side frame rail, or thereabouts. Annoying.

While in Seattle I stopped by to check out the Fremont Troll under a bridge... Note the VW bug in his claws. Very cool. It's the perfect thing to find lurking in a spot like this (click each pic for bigger version).

It's a long and boring drive back, and despite my best efforts to scan for cops and generally keep speeds reasonable, I spot one on the overpass a fraction of a second too late. Damn. 84 in a 70 - oh well, my turn to pay road tax I suppose. Safety-wise even 120 would not have been a problem in that spot. So it goes.

Upon return dug into the dash and found a potential noise source - the shrouded wire that leads down to the passenger door switch. Taped it down and it seems to have cured the buzz, or at least the worst of it. Time will tell if this is the actual fix or if the noise is just toying with me.

12/18/04 Beautiful day today so decided to do a quick Elise run - and what better way to do it than in the company of my 'ex' 190. So I drove out to where it lives amidst all manner of other obscure British machinery...

Very cool to see that car again. I should sell all the cars to friends so that I can visit them occasionally.

Of course on the way to the rendezvous The Noise was back in full force. Once there, this being an unseasonably nice day, I removed the top hoping that the wind blast would drown out the buzzing rattle. Amazingly, the rattle went away altogether! Turns out it was in the top itself, in the forward portion of the passenger-side rail. Never would have guessed it by just listening for it. So off we went, tearing along some twisty roads. Following the 190 around is really cool, especially in a low car. It looks so aggressive from that vantage point... It was so obvious we were having fun that someone who had witnessed the proceedings actually posted about it on the RoadFly forum. Ha!

Upon return, a much-needed bath for the 'Lis. All clean and shiny now.

01/11/05 People keep asking me what it's like to have the Elise as a daily driver. After thinking about it, the best analogy I could come up with is "imagine putting on a 3-piece suit every time you go grocery shopping". Yep, it's pretty much like that. The sense of occasion can be a drawback since I subconsciously try to make every drive memorable, even when it shouldn't be. I now have several hundred dollars' worth of tickets to show for it. Not the kind of memories I was looking for... Fortunately, a friend kindly lent me a beater Montero for around-town errands. It is a pretty nasty car in every way - and yet whenever I need to drive (as opposed to wanting to) I end up taking it instead of the Lotus. I can carry pretty much anything in it and park it pretty much anywhere. When some lowlife did break into the wretched thing hoping to steal a radio that wasn't there I just put some cardboard and duct tape over the broken vent window and it doesn't feel any worse for wear. Now I don't even lock it. This is just like college days. When the occasion calls for longer trips I simply rent an econobox for a day or two. Sitting on the interstate for hours in a boring car actually feels better than doing the same in the 'Lis. Enough so that I readily go to the trouble and expense of renting. Recently I got upgraded to a minivan and was loving it - never thought I'd hear myself say that. So, now you know what it's like to live the dream :) I'm definitely looking forward to the new track season. March 5 is Alfa day at PIR...

03/04/05 In preparation for the first track day of the year tomorrow I've decided to adjust front camber on the Elise. If you look at the picture below, you'll see that the front wheels tilt 'outwards' compared to the rears. This results in the front end losing traction first, 'pushing' in turns and reducing overall grip. Of course Lotus does this on purpose to make the car more predictable for the average driver but it limits performance and enjoyment...

Fortunately the Elise is designed to be easily adjustable and negative camber is achieved simply by taking out some shims at each of the front corners - I took out 3 per side, leaving none on the right and one on the left. The whole procedure took about 20 minutes. A quick test drive on my favorite road confirms the result - understeer is now completely gone. When the limit is approached the car goes in to a nice 4-wheel drift and the corner speeds are noticeably higher. The steering does feel a bit heavier and there's a more noticeable tendency to tramline on uneven pavement. Overall I'm very pleased with how the car responded to this adjustment. The track day tomorrow should be lots of fun :) The next mod will be to stiffen the a/r bar a bit, but one at a time is best way to do it.

03/05/05 The first trackday of the year - an Alfa club event. On the plus side, the weather turned out perfect. A little foggy in the morning but the day itself was sunny and warm. The bad news was the fact that I for whatever reason only managed to get 3 hours of sleep the night before, so I was more than a little zombified. When actually on the track I was fine, but back in the pits and out of the car it was a bit of a challenge. Fortunately the 'Lis is now so predictable and pleasant to drive that I spent most of my time demonstrating the fine points of throttle steering to my passengers, as the video shows (with some extra educational moments courtesy of a Dinan M3)... Fun stuff.

I didn't set any lap records, with fastest laps on video being in the 1:35-1:36 range but overall I'm very happy with the car on the track and I suspect with a good night's sleep (and maybe solo) I'd be able to do a good deal better. Even so, it was very enjoyable. I did call it a day earlier than normal, after 5 sessions. No sense pushing my luck.

In terms of other machinery, most notable was the presense of a couple more Elises and a Noble. Nice interior on the latter but I really don't care for the styling. It ran in the Novice group so no way to tell if it's actually fast. Supposedly it is.

Overall, an excellent start to the track season. Hopefully I'll be more functional for the rest of it.

03/13/05 An instructor clinic at PIR. This event is put on jointly by the BMW and Porsche clubs to train people who wish to become instructors. At every club event there seem to be more and more novice drivers and the demand for instructors is high so the clubs are doing something to increase the number of people able to teach. I've been instructing informally for a couple years now (in fact David, one of my first students, himself just started instructing and was taking the class with me) but I wanted to see if I can get 'official' certification and hopefully pick up some new bits of knowledge and perspective as well. Oh, and get some cheap track time too ;) The format of the clinic was rather interesting - first an open track session to get 'warmed up', then alternating sessions of classroom and in-car 'role playing' where an experienced mentor pretends to be a novice and the instructor candidate attempts to instruct. Some aspects of this worked well, others were a bit questionable due to the artificial setting. At the end there was a checkout ride with a different mentor and then another open session. Overall, a fun and useful event. Weather was perfect, the car ran great and I did indeed learn a couple things. Didn't take any pictures or video but then there are plenty of trackday pictures and vids on the site already... A friend did time me at 1:34 from the stands and that's about how fast the pace felt from behind the wheel. On the way back from the track David and I swapped cars. Following the Elise in an M Coupe is a neat experience - the car does look very fun slicing through traffic and a few tight turns. Was good to drive an M Coupe again, too. The M and Elise are very different cars, each cool in its own way. I guess someday I'll have to get another one...