1/15/01 The new factory race exhaust showed up for the Lotus. Need to get ceramic coating and install. This is supposed to add 24 hp, for a total of 214? I am skeptical, but we shall see.

Also got some noise damping materials, to reduce the race-car harshness and make the Elise more agreeable on longer trips. A set of high-tech floormats really makes a huge difference!

1/23/01 The header is back and coated with fancy ceramic stuff. The vendor recommended a black coating as the best heat barrier, which is surprising, but I decided to take their word for it. At any rate, it's better than nothing. The old exhaust system is out (after much disassembly and skinned knuckles), and the new one (with single exit pipe) is ready to go in..

The new header has primaries that are larger diameter and longer than the old one...

The installation process was rather difficult. While removal of the old header was challenging, it pales in comparison with trying to install the new one. It took a lot of maneuvering and twisting this way and that, removing components that were in the way, etc., just to get it positioned. To make matters more interesting still, two of the header bolts are virtually impossible to get to. It took 1.5 hours on my back with a box-end wrench to tighten two bolts, 1/12th of a turn at a time. The rest of the exhaust is infinitely easier. Finally, everything is in, new oil filter installed, the engine fired up with a twist of the key and settled into a crackling, stumbling idle. The exhaust is reasonably quiet up to 4000 rpm, at which point it changes to a race-car shriek. Neat. Just have to remember to keep revs down around town :) The weather is currently lousy, so won't have driving impressions for quite some time. Sigh.

1/24/01 The hardtop finally showed up from Belgium. There is a little bit of damage, but that will be taken care of at painting time. The top will require a lot of adjustment, including drilling and re-riveting, to make it fit properly. Still, it's about $800 cheaper than one from Lotus, and a good deal lighter at less than 25lbs.

The look is definitely clean, I like it better than the softtop or open roof. Trying to decide whether to paint it black, or go with titanium grey to match the wheels. Leaning towards the latter, especially since it will be cooler in the summer. Doesn't look half bad in primer even.

2/12/01 Got some red leather to cover the door trim panels. Came out pretty neat. Along with alloy window winders it dresses up the interior quite a bit. No performance gain, of course, but something to tinker with...

Finally got a sunny day, so this was the first test of the new exhaust. It isn't all that much louder than the original, even at 6K RPM. It does sound really cool. The new header introduced a slight roughness at about 3500 RPM, but Lotus assured me that the new ECU upgrade will take care of it. Whenever it becomes available, that is. All efforts at the factory are on solving problems with new Elise production, so existing customer upgrades are on hold :(

First track day for the year is on February 17th, but it looks like the Lotus won't be ready. Maybe I'll run the Bimmer instead...

3/7/01 The camera mount in the Lotus is working a lot better than on the bikes. Just as well, since that is primarily what I got the camera for. A quick video of a spring sunny day run is below (the file is 8.6M). I'm definitely looking forward to some track days :)

3/23/01 A busy day. Finally picked up the painted top, it turned out nicely.

I replaced front brake pads on the Lotus, they are completely gone after just 2300 miles - track driving will do that (see picture of old pad next to a brand-new one below). Then I cut off all the extra rubber that hot tires pick up off the track...

While the wheels were off, I took some pictures of the front and rear suspension - pure racecar..

After that, it was off to the track for a Porsche club day. Beautiful weather, not too crowded. The exhaust change didn't seem to add that much power, certainly not the claimed 20hp... oh well. I was convincingly passed by a 205hp Motorsport Elise, so the exhaust gained me noticeably less than 15 horses. I'm guessing 5hp, if that. This was the first track day with camera onboard. I still haven't gone through the full hour of footage, but it seems I was consistently running 1:31-1:33 laps. A few exciting moments, as can be seen in the video clip below (a 10M file):

5/25/01 A Lotus track day at PIR. Great weather, great fun...

In fact, for a few seconds (about 10 of them) I had to wonder if maybe it's a bit too much fun...

"It's still 80mph (down from 130), do you know where the track is?......

Oh, WAAAAY over there, huh...." Neat pattern in the grass though. Video here (1.5M). Also played camera car to a couple M Coupes, who did manage to stay on the track (barely)...11M file.

Between sessions filmed some friends (5.5M) going through the chicane...

The more I see the 340R, the neater it looks. It's just so far out there...

6/02/01 Had the Elise out of the garage to move stuff around, decided to take a pic - just because.

7/5/01 The lift finally arrived. After much sweat all 1500lb of it is off the truck and set up in the garage. Still need to hook up the hydraulics and clean up the mess, but it can wait...

Also, the new ECM arrived. After installing it, I got a call from Lotus that they sent me the wrong program (my car has the late-production upgraded throttle bodies, the program is for the old ones). so now I have to send it back for reprogramming. Took it out for a quick spin anyway, runs much better than with the old ECU. Hopefully will be better still with the correct program. Well, I've waited 4 months so what's another couple weeks...

Next track day for the Lotus is probably August 16, unless I manage to get to one of the Seattle events before then.