electro_boy

Have a chat with ES Motorsports to see if they can help you out? They often have a bunch of spares. Failing that, they have fitted the Evora 400 shift mechanism in my S1 Evora.

Not sure I agree that Merc messed up strategy, I think they were dealt a crap hand by the timing off the safety car. Toto said in post race interviews for them it was all about the win and if there was a chance they were going for it. If it was a boring uneventful race then I think Merc looked good to win with Lewis by doing a two stop instead of three. But due to the safety car the cars were bunched up and Max got a free stop to get the tyres he needed. With Max's amazing pace the only way Merc could have won was with track position they could not have pitted Hamilton and chased Max down. They rolled the dice with Russel as he said he needed tyres was their 2nd placed driver at the time. Same as with the season finale last year with Hamilton on the older harder tyres and Max on the newer gripper ones; I think Merc were stuck between a rock and hard place while Red Bull has the luck of the draw.

Amazing you use to work at Freevalve! Did you ever try to go cam less on the Evora engine?

Thank you very much @Techyd, I'm gonna have a look on Auto Trader and Piston heads and see if there is any dealers nearby with an S3 Elise that I can test drive. Failing that I may give you a shout.

Thanks all for the comments and suggests please keep them coming in. Hmm as I feared its not a straight cut call on one car or the other. They are both great in different ways. I think test drive is the way forward. I'll get in touch with some dealers and see what they have for me to try out. I had previously discounted an Exige V6 as I was after the lighter weight of the Elise. I just love that low mass feeling it had around the Hethel test track it also felt more friendlier and easier for a novice like me to extract its performance. The Exige V6 was certainly much faster round Hethel but I could feel the extra weight and had to be on top of the car much more. If there is a suitable Exige at a dealer I might ask to try that out just to double check.

Should be something in the settings of the head unit on reversing the image or not. If it's an aftermarket unit, sometimes there is a wire you cut to make it reverse image or not. eg this camera from amazon, check 5th picture down: https://amzn.eu/d/d4LQyup

Hi All, I’m thinking of swapping my S1 NA Evora for an S3 Elise. Wondering if anyone has done the same and if they have any feedback? I got the Evora 5 years ago as I wanted a happy balance of daily driver usability but also something engaging and fun to drive. I’m now using the Evora less and less as a everyday car and more of occasional fun drive car or the odd track day and was thinking the Elise starts to make more sense. I got to try an S3 Elise a few years ago at the Lotus Driving Academy and loved the even more engaging drive and even lower mass compared to the Evora. But that was purely track driving. I’ve never driven a Elise on the road. Any thoughts/comments? Am I going to miss that lovely V6 howl and power or the sublime road manners of an S1 NA Evora on a long drive eg from London to North Wales?

Hi all, I'm back from my day at the Lotus Driving Academy doing the Tailor Made Advanced experience day. In summary ... What a lovely car Lotus have made, I think it ticks all the boxes that Lotus want out of the new car; it is more appealing to the mass market but still has the essence of a true Lotus. Well done all at Lotus who made it happen! The car is beautiful to look at with so many design touches, a little swoop here, a vent over there a little flick in the body work ... absolutely amazing to look at. I got a quick look at the Emira at Goodwood FoS but at the LDA they had a spare car parked out the front so anytime you were not having your turn driving you could go and ogle at its beauty. The inside is very nice too. I'm a little out of touch with what a £60-80K car interior should feel like but to me it all feels and looks very nice inside. I had a little twiddle with the buttons and trim and everything felt solid and well put together with a quality and well judged weight. My S1 Evora interior looks lovely but you can tell its a little flimsy but absolutely no issues on the Emira. Now to the bit you are all waiting for .... the handling ... (Please note I only tried it on the Hethel track not on the road) .... Its a very nice handling car, I tried both the sport chassis with cup2 tyres and the touring chassis (didn't check what tyres this was on). The sport feels a bit stiffer and has less roll and more grip but the touring was absolutely no slouch in the corners and gave a very rewarding ride around the track. The handling is very stable and predictable. Does the Emira have a wider track than the Evora? It felt like the wheels are further apart and made a more stable platform, might be in my head by thats how it felt. They've hidden the weight of the engine and supercharger better than my Evora. I was much less aware of the heavy lump sitting out at the back and high up in the Emira. Again dont know if this is chassis setup differences or engine mounting differences to the S1 Evora? I can feel the back end in the Evora making its self known and wanting to come round a bit more on lift off compared to the Emira, which had more stable balance. The breaking was phenomenal too, very powerful brakes, and very stable under high braking, it tracks nice and straight and minimal dive too. I was far more confident late braking and using a bit of trail braking to get the front end to turn into the chicane than I have been in my previous jolly around Hethel. The steering I think uses a different rack to the S1 Evora, it felt lighter and had a bit less feedback compared to my Evora but its still very good compared to modern rivals. I think the steering feel and weight is better suited to daily driving and the mass market. While my Evora's steering is also assisted it is on the heavy side and I think your average person might get put off by the busyness. With the Emira, you could still place it accurately and you still had that magic Lotus feeling of the car pivoting around you in corners but the steering was just lacking a bit of the feeling of weighting up in corners. Going through Clark and Graham Hill sections I don't think it dances around the corners as much as other Lotus' but the very good handling manners and composure does mean you have good confidence in pushing the car to its limits so the stopwatch may end up saying you are quicker even if your heart rate doesn't. The clutch pedal was much lighter than my Evora which will suit daily driving better. The brake pedal felt better than the Evora. Mine has a few mm of dead travel and then the brakes engage the Emira has none of this, the weight was lighter but I didn't feel I was lacking in any feedback. Similar for the accelerator, its got a lighter weight to it but wasn't overly light and I got used to it very quickly and had no issues with it. The engine note has low bassy sound to it. Overall volume is lower than previous V6 Lotus cars but I think thats expected for a new car also will get under noise regs on track days better than the older V6 cars. I noticed the lower rev limiter, occasionally running into the limiter, the power delivery is very linear and keeps rising all the way to the redline, you don't feel the crescendo and the power tailing off like on my NA Evora so keep your foot in and stay in gear only to hit the limiter. Was a bit of a weird one, one one hand its got loads of torque and keeps pulling, on the other its lacking emotion. Either I have an incredibly well judged right foot or the traction control is very good. Coming out of the Rindt hairpin and Andretti I could happily bury the throttle without fear of running wide into the barrier or loosing the back end. But at no point did I feel the car was restricting me, it always felt like it was working with me and assisting to achieve on a common goal; get out of the corner safely and as quick as possible. As a novice I could happily leave it on all the time on track knowing it's helping to reduce the risk of bad stuff happening while also giving me that hero feeling. Overall what a cracking car, yes its not as raw or communicative as Lotus cars of the past but its a very fun car to drive on the track. It has bags more feedback and emotion compared to most modern cars so it really is a joy. But also its all packaged up in something that is well built and a better quality interior than before, and generally something thats far easier to get on with everyday. Hats off Lotus, well done! And congrats to Emira deposit holders I think you're going to have many miles with smiles!

As much as I like taking a mick out of Karen Horner, I think he might actually have a valid point for once. On the C4 highlights coverage looked like something funny was going on as the Perez / Russell gap looked to be constantly getting bigger and smaller etc ... So there was something weird going on. Shame the same fault didn't happen to Max's car. 😄

@tailslideshow was it? I am going this Friday to the Lotus Driving Academy. Will report back with a track test drive report!

Ahh what frustrating race with Charles making a mistake, it could have been fun watching him and Max battling it out. I think Charles has a chink in his amour in that he lets the pressure get to him and make mistakes. I think he had some breathing room, Max was right on his tail but he hadn't made any moves yet, so I think there was scope for the pressure on Charles to get higher still. Fantastic to see Merc having some good race pace and @C8RKH I think you are right Lewis has woken up and seemed more racey and up for it this weekend. I cannot wait till the flexible floor restrictions are bought in and see if this helps Merc be back on terms with Red Bull and Ferrari. Think Danny Riccardo also got a kick up the back side and stayed roughly competitive with Lando rather than being a lap behind so hopefully he can keep that up and stay in the team. The Channel 4 interview with the Mclaren boss didn't fill me with confidence for Danny, when asked what's your stance on Riccardo, is he safe in the team? He replied with "There are no changes planned at the moment. We have a contract with Riccardo till the end of the season". Reading between the lines, to me that says if it wasn't for legal reasons we would have put in another driver by now.

@hamzaif you are not fussed about grip limit or steering feel. They go for a Mich PS4 or PS5. They are fantastic every day tyres that are very hard to beat in areas such as comfort, noise, durabilit, wet grip etc ... all the traits that make a great high performance daily driver tyre. The other manufacturers cannot seem to match Michelin on this. The Yoko AD08RS doesn't come in 19inch as far as I know and is more biased to track driving than a Mich PS4, with more grip and steering feeling, things you said you don't care about.

If you can access the gear mechanism on the gear box side (easier if you have aftermarket induction kit) see if you can manipulate the gear box into reverse by hand. That might help you figure out if its a gearbox problem or something in the gear selection path (gear stick mechanism or cable adjustment etc ...) So far all my gear selection issues have always been down to cable adjustment.

Hope you get well soon @ramjet I had it recently a few months ago (confirmed by PCR test) and symptoms where much much milder than when I had it in March 2020. This time round I just a had a slight temperature, cough and generally felling a bit crap. I kept isolated in my home but otherwise I carried on with life as normal, just moaning a bit more than usual. Don't know the milder symptoms are down to natural antibodies from when I first had it, the 3 doses of vaccinations I've had since or if the virus has changed to create milder symptoms. Either way anecdotally I'm hearing people tend to get mild symptoms and getting over it after a few days. So fingers crossed the stories of long and intensive treatments to keep people going are become rarer and rarer ...

Shame, I like the guy but he really has not been competitive with his team mate so understandable if he gets sacked. Wonder if he can move to another team or if thats him out of F1?

@Whitey, If I have understood correctly, you have not re-lacquered your headlight? Just cleaned up the pealing lacquer and applied the PPF Kit? The PPF kit essentially acts as the new lacquer?

Yes we need to Ferrari management to sort their act out. I agree with their core thinking of let the drivers fight it out but there is some adjustments needed to increase chance of success and reduce risk. It was good a result for them but it could have been better and with a lower heart rate for me watching! 😄 I think all those drivers fighting over 1/2/3/4 deserved a massive pat on the back. They put on an amazing show, some proper ballsy moves, very close wheel to wheel racing and mostly kept it all very clean and fair. I think any other day we would be praising the drive by Checco to recover back to 2nd place but there was just so much action with Sianz taking his maiden win and local boy Hammy wringing out a 3rd place, those stories took the limelight. I am very impressed by Checco, when he joined the Red Bull team I thought he would be another good Botas type driver but he has shown more skill and commitment and risen in my standings anyway.

What a cracking weekend! Qualifying was exciting to watch with it really going to down to the final run and a race jammed packed with action! Fantastic to hear Zhou is doing fine, I saw a picture of the car on its side wedged between the fence and the tyre wall and it looked like a horrible situation be to stuck in. I think the new regs are certainly working and allowing the cars to follow a bit more and especially in high speed corners leading to closer racing. If I understood correctly this was the area the old gen cars really struggled as the following car just could not generate anywhere near enough downforce to keep up with the car in front. As a neutral it was great to see Merc finding some performance and the Red Bulls having some issues which helped bring the top 3 teams together and produce some lovely wheel to wheel action. I watched the race live but might rewatch the highlights again!

Awesome thanks for the feedback!

Stay tuned for a full report!

Just signed up for a full day on Sat July 2nd! Can't wait! I did the full Lotus licence a few years ago (and thought it was amazing!) but I've not done any track days for a couple years now so thought it would be good to refresh my skills a do a full day. Hopefully set up me up well for some more trackdays later this year!

Give it a rest Jos! In changeable conditions it's ultimately up to the driver to make the call when to come in for a change of tyres. The team can give advice on if the tyre window is approaching but only the driver can feel the car and the grip and balance it has in those conditions and make the prediction if swapping tyres will be beneficial or not. Sergio drove amazingly well and made a brave choice well before any of the top runners and in my opinion thats why he won and what well deserved win it was!

Congrats welcome to the club! Once you've had a while to get accustomed to the Evora I would be interested in knowing your thoughts on Evora vs Elise. As amazing as the Evora, I think I just have a preference for less mass. I don't daily drive my Evora as much as I used to so I think I can put up with the Elise's compromises. Regarding the mirror, try giving the folks at ES Motorsports a call. They have a bunch of spares in their shed, more than what's listed on their website or eBay shop. https://www.esmotorsport.co.uk/ For the under tray, replacing bolts is a good move. I have an aftermarket diffuser on my Evora and fitting was a pain as all the bolts had corroded and did not want to come out. I had quick look around but couldn't find a specific off the shelf kit. I looked on Deroure (https://www.bellandcolvill.co.uk/parts-shop) at the parts diagrams and ordered separate bolts my self. Possibly ES Motorsport can also help you out this?

Just caught up on the weekend's action! Oh wowza, what a great race for the neutrals (or Williams F1 supporters like me)! Lots of plot twists during the race. Felt sorry for Charles, did everything he needed that weekend put the car on pole and stayed out in front and looked like he was in control. Great to see Merc have the proposing issue sorted and the drivers have a car they drive with confidence. George put in a really good performance especially defending against Max that was some great racing. I think Hamilton had a great recovery drive, he only finished ~20sec behind George even though new got a puncture only a few corners into the race. I think the C4 coverage did not do him justice at all; he was right at back one moment and then by magic without any air time 30 laps later he is 6th and making his way up to 4th!

Ohhhfff! Far too expensive for what it is, needed to be closer to £4K.