Carbon Fiber Body Recreation Project Exige V6

[fjc27]

Do you apply teflon lube on the rubbers only, or also on the hard top parts which are in contact ?

Do you have to wait before mouting the hard top again ?

[El-RGB]

18 hours ago, fjc27 said:

Do you apply teflon lube on the rubbers only, or also on the hard top parts which are in contact ?

Do you have to wait before mouting the hard top again ?

Applied the dry-teflon lube on both the rubbers on the car and on the hardtop where they meet in contact (basically the rubber on top of the windshield, the one on top of the roll bar and the one on the hardtop). My mechanic also applied some on the mounting inserts where there are rubbers. The good thing about the dry-teflon lube is that they don't damage the rubber nor do they drip down everywhere like other lubes do. 

The dry-teflon lube will dry very fast as soon as you applied on the rubber, so you don't have to give a wait time.

Hope it helps, and enjoy the squeak-free ride.🤞

Frank

Edited July 15, 2022 by El-RGB

[fjc27]

Thanks

I ordered some dry-teflon lube to test (and wondered if silicon lube may be better)

 

I hope it will improve my squeaking problems 😠 but  i think there is also a problem located under the roll bar cover

[El-RGB]

More carbon bits! After six months of waiting, they are finally arrived! Thanks Greg from GRP for all the email updates and keeping me posted every other weeks. 

Some complimentary from GRP that came along with the oversea package. 😆

Looking splendid! Can't wait to have them fitted.

 

With future plan to complete the project with full carbon, a license plate light carbon fiber cover is made. 😝

This part is from another Exige owner, who runs an installation art workshop, and his team played around and made this test sample for me.

His dustless workshop.😂

 

Taking his badass Exige S240 for a spin.

 

Some daily shots in town.

 

Further making the project even lighter, some sneak peeks for special orders of full titanium system from Aerie.

Hope the rest of the packages will be arriving later this week. Fingers crossed.🤞

Frank 

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by El-RGB
pictures repeated

[El-RGB]

The mirrors are off, and ready to shed more weights.

The oem chunky mirror is 626.1g

The GRP GFWilliam carbon mirrors with glass is 182g

Calculating in a pair would come down to around 888g (almost 1kg) saved. 😆

The installation was a bit tricky due to the three bolts were deep in the pocket holes. 

I watched this installation video many times, and my mechanic dropped them in the first try.

We found out it is much easier using the magnet stick through the door wiring loom. After taking out the wiring loom cover, the opening is very accessible. It is much much easier to retrieve the lost bolts than how they did it in the video. 

Looking through the deep pocket holes.

These are the bolts when they are in placed. We used the tapes provided by GRP and stuck them between the bolt and the tool, so the bolts won't felt into the door. 

I did some hand crafting to cut the black vinyl. 

 

And the finished product is amazing! Here are some finished pics:

I'm loving them a lot, especially comparing to the oem ones which we all knew that they are from some other car.

Unfortunately, I cracked one of the glass when installing one of them mirrors at the final step. Thus, if anyone buying the same mirrors, be ware of fitting the glass in the last step as they do crack fairly easy.😭

Frank

Edited August 30, 2022 by El-RGB

[RENDERMAN]

On 12/03/2022 at 19:26, DangerousDave said:

If your going that far you may as well get it widened like the jubu car. In which case i'd be interested

https://www.jp-zero.eu/

I want that defuser, that is an insane looking car!! 

[Day1zero]

Looking awesome!! - following!!

[El-RGB]

 Finally!! After almost a month and a half waiting for the shipping and clearing the custom, the packages of the complete titanium exhaust system from Aerieperformance arrived at last! Many thanks to Jason @Aerie for helping the ordering and tracking the shipping all the way! Big thumbs up!

I spent around six months reading almost the entire selections of exhaust for our car, and there aren't a lot of options for Exiges'. Most of all owners would go for popular choices like Larini's, but I also looked at other options and even rarer ones like: 
Quicksliver and the crazy sound Kreissieg.

Nevertheless, I nailed down my final option at the full titanium exhaust by GT Australia from Aerie, because of.... the one and only reason - the weight! Let me break it down as follows:

The factory box was actually not that heavy: 16.35kg. And to my surprise, it was made by Jansport, which it was an upgraded sports option back when I had my Elise.

However, the GT Australia titanium box was just crazy 6.2kg. It took me by huge surprise!

Here's a side by side comparison, despite the material difference between the two, the dimension of the muffler box was much smaller.

The Y-pipe, neglecting the sexiness of this bad boy, there was also a weight saving of 2.25kg ti compared to 4kg stock.

The welding looking inside was not bad, as quite smooth as they should be.

My mechanics did some test fitting this baby, and boy, it looked super sexy!!🤣

Hooray, the headers...!

The stock headers were looking pretty nice pair of quality products, and the stock cats were built-in to each of the headers. I remembered the weight savings on the headers are around few kilograms. I will have to look back at the notes later.

These GT Australia headers were special ordered from Jason and had to wait on the separate package.

The Cerakote high temperature coating was worth the wait. It looked pretty darn awesome, and so far during the test drives, the engine bay temperature was noticebly lowered. I checked the water temperature and it was shockingly staying at constant reading 86C (it was 92-96C before with stock exhaust), so I was pretty assured and happy to say that this coating really worked!

 

Some more misc pics:

I got a new set of 02 sensors just in case. Definitely would not like to see any codes showing up which could potentially be triggered by anything regarding to the 02 and the cats. 🤞

 

I hate to say that this could just be a long post after a long time, but I remembered the writing that I wrote for the overall weight saving from the headers, Y-pipe, the sport cat and the muffler, to be around 15KG saved overall!

And this was the reason why I chose this exhaust to be the final choice. Simply put, this was the lightest exhaust that I could find, compared to all other selections that I came acrossed. (I will be sure to posted up some clips of the sound later... All I can say now, with the valve opened, this exhaust sounded insane!) 😂😂

Frank

 

[stephenwhyte]

Good work👏🏻👏🏻😎……it’s crying out for a rear wing though!😉👍

[El-RGB]

The car went on an alignment and corner balance, and we found an awesome news of the weight saving had worked on the results that we found out today!

The car first went on an initial alignment, then gone for adjustments at another lift. I'm lucky to came to this shop, which later I found out they are the only one of the two official Nitron representative in China.

After removing the shims from the front upper control arms, we found out the numbers of the shims on the left and right are different, which were 5 on the right (with one thicker than the other four) and 7 on the left (all seven were same thickness). Interesting Lotus engineering. 😆

It was time for the car went on the scale for corner balance. This part was most heart lifting!

With full tank of petrol, which was 40kg, the car was sitting at 1133KG! Minus three quarters of the tank of petrol, the car can be well under 1100KG.

I'm happy to say, after the carbon fiber clams swapped, forged wheels and the full titanium exhaust, the diet plan so far worked. 🤠

With driver (this car is a LHD), the corner balance comes out nicely. The plan now is to change out the battery to a lithium, which would be perfect to balance out the weight now at left rear corner.😎

Further plan would be to change out the rest of the upper half of the car to carbon, and maybe the doors too. Altogether, hopefully the car can get to the goal at the beginning of this thread, which was getting close to 1000kgs.

Frank

[El-RGB]

On 13/10/2022 at 22:45, stephenwhyte said:

Good work👏🏻👏🏻😎……it’s crying out for a rear wing though!😉👍

Thanks, I have a thing for keeping the car wingless for now, and I am tempted to see how the final result would look like after the car is all completed. 

But, it would eventually on a wing, since the car was noticeable unstable at a high speed.🤣

 

To anyone who is interested, the car is now sitting on Cup2 Connect at the front 215/45-17 with 17x8 wheels.

The rear is temporarily on PS4 275-35-18 with 18x10 wheels. It would be eventually changed out for Cup 2 285/30-18

The geo is now:

                 FL                  FR
Camber: -1.18deg         -1.16deg
Toe:         -0.03deg       -0.02deg

                  RL                  RR
Camber:  -1.13deg         -1.19deg
Toe:          0.04deg          0.04deg

This setting had not following the factory setting. The technician suggested on conservative setting for now on the street. However, the car is not stable going over 120km/h

The Nitron setting:
Front rebound 9         Front Hi/Low Compression 6
Rear rebound 9          Rear Hi/Low Compression 7

I found the car is very settled for holding speeds at corners. However, it is too soft and feeling lazy for me.

 

It was time for me to gone for a check up on the exhaust. The color was awesome to see how it turned all golden. Again, the sound is mental when the valve is off, and I will be sure to upload a clip of how it sounds. 😆

 

Questions:

Does anyone see the same situation on your front upper control arms? The rubber inside was obviously slipping out, and I'm not sure if this is still able to survive for a year or two.

Frank

PS: my inner toe link rubber was shot. To anyone who owned a S2 Elise/Exige before, the toe links were easily snapped and opted for change. And I haven't heard much of the toe links at this generation could be a problem; however, mine was asking for a change as the car had gone around 22000 kilometers.

[IanA]

Did you replace the upper wishbone castor shim (washer) stack and any snubber washers as per the factory pre-set? (which will vary a little side to side)

If not then that may account for the pressure at the front of the rear bush in your pic above. But I can't see the front bush area to assess what is going on.

Edited November 4, 2022 by IanA

[El-RGB]

On 04/11/2022 at 10:06, IanA said:

Did you replace the upper wishbone castor shim (washer) stack and any snubber washers as per the factory pre-set? (which will vary a little side to side)

If not then that may account for the pressure at the front of the rear bush in your pic above. But I can't see the front bush area to assess what is going on.

Thanks Ian, you are absolutely right. I've looked up the service manual with the mechanic here. I will confirm once taken the car at the next service.

Funny thing is that this upper control arms have always never been taking off since purchased new.

Frank

[El-RGB]

Enjoying the car at the West-Sicuan mountains.

The Lotus is obviously smaller than the GTR by far and even to the Z4 too.🤣

Frank

 

[Five50]

Car looks great - congrats. I actually really like it without the wing - very clean look. 👍

[El-RGB]

Last weekend, the new F4 circuit in here finally got its first opening ceremony (although the official track open in Oct this year), it is still something to look forward to.

It was such a privilege to have a Lotus service car here. Lotus China has customized a super van for the owners in here and provide portable services in circuits in different cities. We felt the blessing to be Lotus owners in here. 😎

 

The service car made such a consistent crowd of attractions that day. I wonder what other people who owned a much more expensive cars felt like.

It was so much fun trying out the Triumph Speed Triple at the event.

 

***********

 

Also.... some goodies arrived yesterday. 🤘

Looking at the goodies. It was a long but worth of waiting from the latest dry carbon version of Aerie.

The quality of the dry carbon roof was just subline. Totally in love with the under side of the roof. 🤩

 

 

In couple of days, there will be a nation wide 75th Lotus ceremony in Shanghai circuit, and the car will be shipped to there for the event. Hopefully, they can be put together in time and can't wait to attend the probably largest Lotus ceremony ever in China soon.🤞

Frank

[pat_t]

Awesome build. Love the look without the wing. You are lucky to have such mountains nearby! 

I have a deadweight industries Lithium battery in my Evora 400. I can recommend it

[El-RGB]

On 30/03/2023 at 17:36, pat_t said:

Awesome build. Love the look without the wing. You are lucky to have such mountains nearby! 

I have a deadweight industries Lithium battery in my Evora 400. I can recommend it

Hi mate, thanks! Seems we are looking at the same page, I'm also looking for a lithium battery. 😛

Too bad the oversea shipping does not allowed battery to be shipped. I will look for some alternatives here locally.

Frank

[El-RGB]

Part I – Four days rehearsal.

Made it! At last, the car completed the installation of the carbon tops in time and made it to the Lotus 75^th ceremony in Shanghai Raceway.

 

The arrival:

Along with five other Lotuses shipped from Chengdu, and a total of twenty Lotuses shipped from other regions of China to the event. We were invited to be part of the opening parade and took roles in the opening video.

We arrived four days prior to the actual date of the ceremony, so that we spent all the days we had to do parade rehearsals. We also received great hospitality from Lotus.

 

Lotus took this ceremony very seriously. They reassembled a model of the Lotus plane on site, so that classic photo scene of Collin Chapman can be facsimiled on site (later shown in the event photos). There were also three actual classic Lotuses shipped on site: the Mark 1, the Eleven and the 99T.

 

My car and I were also put on track for the shooting of the ceremony opening video. As a diehard Lotus owner, it was such a privilege to be part of the Lotus ceremony sequences.

 

There were only a handful of Exige and Elise in China, and even less for the Esprit, which was just one out of one Esprit V8 in the country. The love for Lotus was truly scarce started up with this small gang in here. 😆

Frank

Part II continues...

 

 

[El-RGB]

Part II – The prime moments

Like all Lotus events, there was a high respect paid the old owners. The 75^th ceremony was started by the twenty old Lotus owners, which this gang was led first by Jenson Button in the Emira.

The opening parade was such a success. It was told that many audiences were touched by such a cue of diehard owners from different regions of the country. 

 

There was an engine rev-ing part after Clive Chapman's speech. I can assure you that my car with Aerie's exhaust was the loudest among them all. I had a little video that moment and will be sure to upload it soooon. 😆

 

Prior to the parade, there was a stationary show at the beginning of the ceremony. The 1/1 Esprit was put in front of the plane to reminisce that classic moment of Colin Chapman.

 

 

During the parade rehearsals, we had such a great time talking to Mr. Chapman. And of course, getting his autography on our cars was the prime moment of the day.

 

 

The small gang: the five happy Exige owners from Chengdu.

We had so much fun from the overall experience of the ceremony and the rehearsals, although in few days, I had to wake up at 6 in the morning. Again, for such a scarce love of Lotus in China, it was the special moment for the loyal Lotus fans to get together; through this ceremony, we hope to spread the love of the brand and the community to more car-loving folks out there. It was such a meaningful event acquainted with this thought.

Frank

 

 

Special thanks to Jason @aerie for rushing the latest batch of dry carbon tops to me. The quality of the dry carbon was ridiculously dope. If anyone interested, I can do another thread showing details of the V-weaved front access panel, the roof and the rear louvre.

[Bibs]

Fantastic, thank you for sharing

 

[El-RGB]

I always believe that it is normal to have some sort of anxiety and fear while driving a Lotus. Being into a deep state of paranoia, I see an engine light popped on this random day. 😆 

With the history of past eight years owning Lotuses can turn a person into an average joe mechanic. I stayed calm and bought an ELM327 OBD reader.

With a simple app Torque installed on an android phone, Wola, the mysterious engine light got decoded: P0172 and P0175. The engine was running rich! 

I had intake and full exhaust changed out to non-oems, and I told myself that I should have knew better that this day would come.🙃 However, Imran's Alias23 intake gave me nothing bad but only good things for all these years having it installed (since 2019), and the Aerie full titanium exhaust was such like a cherry on top of the driving experience, I'm reluctant to do any change. The power felt so much much better with them installed!

 

Started the trouble shooting with the throttle body first, and bingo! Look at how oil vapors can cause all these junks at the throttle body.

It made total sense, which from the greater volume of air from the new intake, and the engine ran better with the smoother exhaust bringing the air out, I can see why all the high revs that I did in the past and caused serious oil vapor contamination back into the engine.

After cleaning everything and lubed up with the new filter oils, I was lucky that the MAF sensor was unharmed. The gunks caused by the vapors were sucked in beyond intake tunnel where the MAF sat. 

In a short conclusion, the car was calling for an Oil Catch Can asap (especially for going to the new track soon)! And I would recommend this to anyone who would bring their cars to the tracks or any spiritual runs. I can't say enough for how stable the engine idled now (it almost felt like a luxury sedan)!

Frank

[El-RGB]

More parts arrived!

Excellent products from Spitfire and awesome service from Gary(Gaz)! Many thanks for the process of ordering and shipping. Gaz was very patient and helped solving all the bugs via. all the emails. 

The VRSAS and toe links came in exactly as the way that they should be. Sealed up wrappings and great package. Beautiful quality!

I can't wait to them installed and have the car alignment dialed in again. 🤘

Frank

[El-RGB]

This meant to be a long post after such a long while, since I've been drew attention from this: 

😆

Back to the topic, the Spitfire VRSAS system and links have been installed and alignments have been done a few times after.

The quality is much more robust than the factory ones, and the VRSAS arms gave stunning over -3 degree cambers at the front. I had to put back the shims in order to get less negative cambers, as shown below:

The Spitfire VRSAS system is definitely very nice for those who wish for ultimate negative camber, and this can be achieved without other modifications involved.

However, due to my driving habits and intention at the moment, I had to detune the adjustment. The VRSAS system also gave me faster steering and wider angles. I had talked to Gaz and he told me it's normal, at full locks, the inner side of the tires would slightly rub the wheel arch cover, which can only happens at low speed parking.

After two months driving this system, I highly recommend this to anyone opting for more suspension tuning and safer system driving on track. 👍 

 

[El-RGB]

More fun bits, I'd installed Radium dual oil catch cans and more carbon fiber stylish bits on the Exige. 🤘

As posted earlier in this thread, I found the oil vapors were quite heavily congesting the throttle system. Factory vacuum system helped this engine passing the environmental requirements, but did not help it running on high-rev cycles in a long run, which factory CUP exige's acquired oil catch cans as standard.

I've found other 2ZZ owners don't have much oil debris in the same set up. Nevertheless, this could be a peace of mind to have if anyone running your 2GR on the circuits. 

And yay, more carbon bits shipped from Aerie.

The scoops are great quality and definitely awesomer to look at; however they are tiny bit heavier than the stock scoops, which does not fit my goal of loosing weight in this project. 😂

Jason from Aerie had just released a new batch of revised scoops, which he claims would be a lot lighter, and I will wait for the newer batch to come.

However, with more the carbon bits, I just had chance to weight the car during last alignment, and the magic number now came to 1082.6KG without driver. 😋

Frank