MartynB

It certainly would look pretty caved in without the support rails. If you don't feel up to fitting the kit yourself, which I can understand, can't your dealer sort it for you? You end up with just another pair of sockets, just like there is already in the windscreen header, under the cover which you have at the moment. It looks totally OEM once done. I doubt you'd be happy with a soft top you'd have to remove in order to drive the car.YMMV

Imran, you make that sound like... I know I sometimes don't bother switching modes if I'm not "on it". Sometimes, I admit, I trundle. Trundle happens, especially on bad traffic days.

JBL GTO429 were £79 delivered from Amazon here. Pioneer MVH-X580DAB was £107 off the shelf at Halfords (high street UK auto store)

Flicking through the manual for yours I wouldn't say there was much in it feature/UI wise between that and the Pioneers. Maybe the Pioneer is a little simpler in operation, by not trying to do so much with just a single control knob. Hard to say. The Focals were hard to find and very expensive in the UK when I was looking, so I went to the JBL GTOs which I've used before. They add a good amount of upper mids for clarity. The cone and suspension are a little larger, so I used a drum sander to open the hole in the bezel a bit. I also added a ring of foam tape to seal the bezel, but I doubt it actually does much. It may help prevent future rattles though. The mounting tabs and basket rim are thicker than the thin steel OEM ones, so the bezel sits higher by a couple of mm, but it doesn't look odd, because the bezel is so deeply recessed into the dash anyway. I don't know how they compare to the Focals. I suspect there isn't a massive difference and it's not the car to use as an audio test chamber anyway. I think any competent 4" speaker is going to sound about the same in this application, especially once you cover the bottom end with a small powered sub, e.g. Pioneer TS-WX120A or a Focal iBus 20. Also, nothing much is going to be of any use at 70 mph with the top off.

I replaced the Clarion CZ315E that came in my 350 with the Pioneer MVH-X580DAB, largely to ditch the unwanted CD drive and get better bluetooth integration. It hooks somewhat into the Spotify app on my iPhone, and shows track names etc. I've also hooked up DAB and the handsfree mic. I wouldn't say the usability is night and day better. I occasionally hit the volume knob as I try to turn it, hence putting into menu selection mode, which is annoying. Other than that it works fairly well. I do hope someone brings out a decent 1 DIN touchscreen unit at some point, but I doubt it's financially viable these days. To summarise, I get the feeling most single DIN head units are a bit garbage and you just try to find one that does roughtly what you want. Luckily I use a QuadLock phone mount and the iPhone is basically my UI. I also added a Pioneer 120 sub in the pax footwell and swapped out the speakers for JBL GTOs. The sound is much more to my liking now

It may have come across more cynically where I said it before, but I have to say they do look much nicer in that red than the grey tones people often buy them in. Much more fun. I hope you really enjoy it. It'll be interesting to see if you echo David's feelings about understeer and the stock suspension.

At least it's not grey/silver. I guess

Yeah, that's the one I got too. Only for completeness really, as I only use Spotify and Waze/ Tomtom.

Wilbert, is that the Öhlins Road or Track variant? I see Komotec offer two setups. Enjoyable onboard, thanks

So are the Lotus dampers restricted at the soft end or the hard end, or both? Same question for the standard valving on the Nitron 3 ways?

My 350 does that. First noticed it after the running in service. I had Stratton go over it for about an hour trying to track it down. They couldn't pinpoint it, but think it's noise transferring down the water/oil cooler pipes in the sill. They and Lotus have offered to do a deeper dive on it next time I'm over there, but at the moment it's not a major bother. Exactly as you say, it only does it for a few minutes in the warm up phase. Not at full cold, not at full warm. The suspicion (unconfirmed at the time) was that it may be due to removal of some of the NVH measures in the sill. I was wondering about running my snake camera down there, via the inspection hole near the front wheel. If I get any more info I'll let you know. Same if I work out/get a fix.

That special feeling when your dealer rings you to say, "We've got your car. Not sure about it. Colour seems, err... Maybe you want to come look yourself". Not that a one off colour order is fraught. Oh no

Got to be PS4, PS4S is only in the larger sizes. So you're OK, but we're not

Oh, I dunno. With the yellow paintwork I can see the appeal of the old school white on black, merging in with he transom. Nice

I've found the glossy Pirelli website doesn't map that well onto reality when it comes to sizes etc. It may be that Pirelli are getting out of the non-supercar market, but I'd wait and see what actually comes through the supply chain. In the meantime, maybe it's a chance to try a set of Cup 2s?

@Bibs any news on this? You're better placed than the rest of us to get a straight answer.

Being 6'3", I moved the seat to the rear and left it there when I picked the car up. It still slackened slightly over time, giving rise to an annoying rock. Shortly before the other recent loose drivers seat thread, I decided to do the fix from the SEL0C wiki. Here's what I wrote in the other thread... These runners, like most others are made of pressed steel, shaped into interlocking channels, rather like drawer runners, but captive. They also contain some sets of ball bearings, held in channels between the runner faces. They provide the rolling contact that supports the occupant weight, but if you pull up on the seat, the runners will touch each other metal to metal. In order for the runners to operate, there will be a tiny amount of play between these to conditions, otherwise the metal to metal contact would make the runners hard and rough to slide when you wanted to move the seat. Ideally though the slack wants to be almost zero. The SEL0C fix is to remove the runners and use a vice to crimp the channels until the metal to metal contact is pretty much binding. It's a bit tricky and I would have preferred to have a spare pair before doing it. So I did it slightly less than I would have liked, so I still have a tiny bit of play, but much less. The thing to appreciate is that these are really tiny amounts of play. The problem is that the seats are totally rigid and lightly padded, so any play is massively amplified. Most cars have separate squabs and bases, each attached to the sliding frame. This allows them to significantly reduce the sensation of play. I had intended and others had also suggested 3D printing some shim parts, but looking at the mechanism I'm not sure how well that could work and still allow the seat to move. I wondered about milling ramps from Delrin (tough plastic aka Acetal), to fit over the rear mount bolt head, so that the top runner grounds out on it in the far rear position. In the end I figured actually bending the runner channels was a better solution. I'm waiting with baited breath to find out what the factory fix is, if indeed there is one. The total failure that Steve suffered is to my mind unlikely to be due to the play, more likely he had a properly defective part in the locking mechanism. Not good at all, but I suspect not systemic.

No, not really. It's a tiny amount, even when it's enough to feel quite disconcerting. The bolts and mounting points in the chassis would fail at much lower loads than the runners. In reality, it is in fact an irritation, rather than a safety issue.

More room to play with in the 410, very different runners and mounts...

I thought about sticking something to the receptacle, like velcro fuzz, but then thought I'd try a tiny bit of trim dressing on the leather of the seat where it rubs. I now can't remember which product I used, but basically any of the slightly greasy trim dressings you may have. Just a tiny trace on a rag and apply it where the two rub. Not enough to be visible, but it worked like a charm for me.

...or take a small paper clip. Open it out straight. Curve it round into a U shape, the size of your index finger. With a pair of pliers, bend each end, about 5mm from the end. Should look like this, kinda... But smaller. The wire should be thin enough to fit through the holes in the mesh. The prongs want to be slightly turned in to match the curve of the edge. fit them into the mesh, in the vertical bit around the edge, very close to the plastic rim. Pull up, while keeping the prongs in the holes. Mine was much harder to pop out than I could have exerted with a toothpick. YMMV The mesh grille is held in by a rubber trim ring. Don't worry if it starts to peel off, you can reattach it once you have the grille off. ETA: Ah, I see you managed to work it out Nicolas. I'll leave this suggestion and frankly, work of art, here for future generations to marvel at.

Mark, just check that at least part of your squeak isn't the seat belt buckle receptacle rubbing against the seat. When done up, the receptacle tends to rub against the back of the cutout in the seat side bolster. I tracked a loud squeak I had down to that. I just put a tiny bit of trim dressing on the rubbing faces. Squeak gone. YMMV

I actually did that (the 'playground' fix) a couple of weeks ago. It is quite a faff, but does work. I thought it might as I had the same problem with runners in the Caterham, which are a similar design and had done a similar fix with some success. I found the trickiest parts to be getting some of the bolts out that hold the seat to the runners, where access is limited, then also getting the runners to line back up with the chassis holes when reinstalling the seat. Fiddly Once I got it all back together, I thought it was unsuccessful. Still had a wobble. Gah! Then I sat in it and the seat and it actually clicked into place. Doh! Now the wobble is pretty much gone. The caveat is, I'm an engineer. My wife and I built a Caterham. I'm good with tools and spatial reasoning. Not everyone is, so I can't recommend this job to everyone. Some people will have to go via dealers, warranties etc to get a replacement that is nice and tight. The issue here is the tightness of the fit of the stamped steel sections of the runners. Ideally when new they should be quite stiff, so that as they bed in they ease up without becoming loose enough to wobble/rock.

I was just thinking that it was lovely seeing a completely empty track at Bedford, so yeah I can see why a spun car would be quite the unpleasant surprise. Nice pedalling. I assume the blue pro trace is Jolyon's. It really shows how smooth and optimised you can get when you really have confidence in the machine and what it can do, plus the track knowledge of course.

As an engineer I am very dubious about the crash worthiness of the V-Force bar. I can't see how the design can stay put under a forward loading of 3 or more tonnes. If I decide to go for harnesses in the future, I want something that is bolted to the roll hoop from behind, with no cranking due to offset attachment points. I know you've satisfied yourself, Imran, but I feel you've underestimated the forces involved. My 2p