MartynB

My reading of the rear tyre picture: Michelin Cup 2 (size, fonts and text layout are a match) Nitrons (yes, the collars are right) Floating rotors (not the standard fixed two parts at least, both bell and rotor are scalloped and I could be seeing bobbins) Nice to see Lotus pulling out so many stops

Apart from the fact that your chap decided to remove the hub and pfaff around with the clock springs. I wonder if that was because he didn't realise the blue/green connector was a connector. If you didn't know that you could be forgiven for believing that the hub had to come off I guess. As for Elise-Shop, this is the misleading text... "You can also use this spacer on an Elise, Exige or VX220 to bring the original Elise steering wheel 30mm towards yourself. You will need to drill the thread out of the four holes in the adapter ring. Then use four long M6 bolts (M6 x 35 or M6 x 40) to mount the steering wheel." I'll drop them an email to explain why that's not actually true and suggest how to remedy it

Real world findings are in. So is my spacer. As I suspected, there is no reason whatsoever to remove the steering wheel hub. The Momo airbag wheel is attached to the hub directly by 4 socket head M6 bolts. The airbag and horn connections can be disconnected "this side" of that interface... The airbag plug. the green tab pulls out to release the connector from the airbag module 5mm socket head M6 bolts x 4. The horn connector is a total pain to disconnect. The barb on it is huge, so you need to really distort the socket part to remove it. Wheel off. That's the hub with connectors. Dismantling any further is unnecessary. Phew! The four small holes that I drilled out, as suggested by the product text on Elise Shop were unusable, because they're too close to the hub (PCD is too small) to line up with the bolt holes. The holes I did use are deeply counterbored to accept bolts with their heads for attaching this part to the hub, then you'd bolt the bagless wheel on using the other threaded holes. To avoid any slippage in use I made some aluminium spacers from tube I happened to have (perfect luck). These are wrapped with tape to give a non-vibrating fit. Next up, the plastic shroud around the airbag module has a lip that is too small for the spacer to fit into. Fortunately I have a small lathe, so I turned it down to fit. After disconnecting the battery at the start I gave it 10 mins to fully discharge at the control module and that seems to have been sufficient. Waiting for hours seems to be overkill. The space this gives me is great. Heel and toe much easier now, albeit I need to learn the response now, which is quite different to the physical throttle link in the Caterham, and indeed seems a little different between DPM modes. I'm going to see how I get on with this setup, with a thought to possibly swapping to the shorter 15mm spacer if I feel that it would be enough.

Will you be doing a UK/Euro spec version with amber indicators or is it just red US style turn signals? Is it really necessary to splice connectors? No possibility of an econoseal to econoseal subloom?

They look pretty badass for 100mm drivers. Let us know how you find them.

Nice job. Which Focals did you order?

Fair enough. Probably part of the Gulf spec. It's all Clarion in the UK for the last year or two, e.g. my Sport 350. Having removed that to replace with a Pioneer discless unit, I found it was only held in by the standard OEM cage. I don't see why they would do any different with the Alpine, especially as it would be a pain to do. Nice screen on that 149BT, good luck

Mark, you'll have to remove the front display panel from the unit, then the edge bezel that it fits into. These tools can be either flat, centre fitting ones, one per side or 'U' shaped ones that fit into a pair of holes each side. Lotus doesn't bolt them in, they just use the basket that comes with them. Are you sure your OEM one isn't a Clarion?

No worries. When I get the bolts and time, I'll document the fitting. http://www.elise-shop.com/steering-wheel-spacer-30mm-hub-to-snapoff-elise-exige-all-models-incl-federal-p-178.html they also do a 15mm one, but I tried sitting in a car with the wheel 40mm closer than stock and it seemed the better ball park for my legs. Heck I drove the Caterham last night, which really is "Think To Blip". So much space in the SV chassis!

Cheers George. I really appreciate that. I have to say a brace of Renault Tricoats could be an interesting setup. Let's see if we can make that happen at some point.

Fair enough. Many experts develop their ways of doing things, which may or may not be the simplest/easiest way. By the looks of it there are plugs for each of the airbag and horn connections, which can be unplugged and reconnected afterwards. I could be completely wrong and Jon did it the only way possible. I'll post with my real world findings...

So, as I said in George's thread, I'll be trying this with a 30mm spacer, once I've sourced some longer, high tensile bolts to account for the 30mm. Then we'll see if it can be done without waking the watchsprings.

@Rancid You mentioned that earlier, but I don't understand why your installer was mucking about with the watchsprings at all. The airbag is bolted into the wheel. The wheel is bolted to a boss with 4 bolts and the watchsprings are behind that boss. Any idea why he didn't just stop there? Did he not realise he could unplug the airbag? I guess I'll find out when I try. ETA: let's move over onto your thread about this... Sorry George, didn't mean to hijack.

Funny you should ask. This just turned up. 30mm spacer. Now just need a couple of brave pills to go messing with the steering wheel. Stupid long legs... i concur totally with George, heel and toe in the Caterham is night and day easier. Good amount of space and no servo assist on the brake. Will be driving the two back to back this evening, due to Caterham service time again.

No problem, @Bibs. Attribs please There will be many more pics, as I try to capture the depth of the paintwork.

Right, let's see if we can get this a bit more on topic. One from Friday evening...

Nice meeting you Anthony, you're going to love the 380. Those yellow details really bring the look together

Just had the soft top done yesterday, so also loving the fact we now have two different cars available. I love the liquidity of the paint in those evening shots. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with the change in front camber once you have had some time to evaluate properly. In particular, do you feel any additional "dartiness"? Interesting to see that you're getting smoke off both rears

Yeah, I think we're broadly in agreement and the operative clause in the manual is "However, being too sympathetic on the car will not allow the piston rings to bed in satisfactorily". I'm not impressed that they don't mention bringing the engine up to temperature before giving it some, but otherwise I think you can read plenty of the way I do it into the words they've chosen.

Mark, your grilles are MASSIVE! Just like mine. however, once you pop the mesh out (friction fit with a rubber trim around it, inside the plastic edge) you'll see the underwhelming 4" or 10cm speak cone. It's a generic coaxial driver. the plastic trim that fits over the top of it makes it look bigger than it is. (That's what she said)

Successful day at Stratton yesterday. Windscreen with finisher replaced. now in perfect condition rather than the slightly shabby state it came in (see finisher thread). Happily, I also ended up with a tint-top screen too, which the original wasn't. Also, the soft top conversion is done and we can now do this for the first time... But damn it's chilly driving at 11pm in around 10degC!!

Exige Orange = Exige Signature Orange = Signature Orange. Basically someone thought they should have a signature colour for each model and so designated the signature range of colours like that. The Evora got a silver and IIRC the Elise got a metallic green

A baby blue with yellow highlights acquired its owner at Stratton while we were there yesterday. Looked rather pukka. It's strange, colours look far better in their workshops than in the showroom.

I subscribe to the Motoman school of running in, which has served me well for three different engines now: 2.0L Duratec, the MZR variant and now the V6. That's really all about the first 100 miles, after which most of the running in is done with. http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm The trick then is to be considerate until you get to the oil change. The engine needs to be properly warm before any large throttle openings and high revs. I didn't take it over 4k revs more than a couple of times during the first 1k miles, and then only marginally, when fully warm. I would be very wary of any advice not to give large throttle openings during run in. That kind of nannying can cause glazing of the bores and a less than ideal bedding of the rings. That leads to more oil use and slight loss of compression.

The Clarion will do BT streaming, but no track info. Not sure about USB. I like to stream from my pocket or with the phone over by the drivers A-pillar, so not so keen on wired tethering. I also like having no CD drive in the HU. Maybe I'm odd. As it is the sub is kickable, but my wife knows not to and would have to reach to do so. When it's up and under the dash it'll be very much out of the way. If I had decided to go for behind the seats I would probably have gone for the slightly larger Focal iBus 20, which I have installed in her Honda CRV. That's also what Steve Banks has in his, see page 1.