Rosteri's 410 Sport

[rosteri]

Hi!

I recently purchased a 2019 Exige 410 Sport, to which I plan to do some mild upgrades. Some of it will be custom work, so perhaps interesting also for others to see it documented. 

I'm sure the audio can be made really nice in these cars, however I didn't want to add any more weight and components, so out came the horrible Clarion head unit and the front speakers. The radio will be replaced with the Porsche tray (9965522530101C) and while I could put back the original grills, I decided to make some cover plates instead. 

 

 

 

Next it needs some bead blasting to make it matte and some black anodising. I think I'll also make a second set with some more material removed, as most of the work is now in the 3D and CAM. 

[rosteri]

Then a little about the harness. To my surprise there really isn't a good solution for a 6 point harness, as the Schroth 4 point asm really isn't ideal for a Hans/Simpson. I also didn't like any yellow texts with my red/white/black interior... 

Sparco makes a 2" set with a center to out pull direction that I prefer and the colors work, so I got 2 Sparco sets for a total of 400 Eur. I'll have the belts customised at a specialty shop to make new ends, here an image of the test fitting with and without shoulder pads:

 

Shoulder belts will go to a harness bar, the lap belts will get the Schroth end mounts and they will be mounted at the attachment points together with the original belts (which I'll keep on as well) and the crotch part will be mounted to the floor with Lotus parts A127V0001F and A127V0002F. 

Unfortunately these parts have been a long time on backorder, so I guess I'll just have to make them as well.

Edited October 16, 2022 by rosteri

[rosteri]

I made the crotch belt mounts out of 4130 Cr-Mo steel:

 

Also version 2 of the speaker covers was machined in the same go, this time weight optimised.

The thickness is now only 1 mm in the center area and the rim/edge is 6 mm, so they fill the space nicely. 

[C8RKH]

Those speaker covers would have looked fantastic done as per the Lotus roundel with initials etc.

[rosteri]

 

4 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

Those speaker covers would have looked fantastic done as per the Lotus roundel with initials etc.

Sure, the Lotus logo would have worked as well. But let's see how they look after bead blasting and anodising... if they still reflect from the windshield, then an alcantara wrap will do.

[rosteri]

I opted to paint the covers after bead blasting, as anodising would fade away fast. The hardest part was the finding black 3.5 mm screws with the original pitch…

 

And they turned out really nice:

Edited November 15, 2022 by rosteri

[rosteri]

The Seriously Lotus harness bar arrived and I’m not very impressed - it seems over-engineered, rather than engineered = very heavy. But it was the only bar, where there was some info, that it works with the carbon seats. Fingers crossed.

Next in line is the modifications of the belts.
 

[rosteri]

I tried to fit a standard plastic holder for the front number plate, but the spacings didn’t work out, as our EU plate isn’t symmetrical. So I made my own, which now also provides easy access to the tow hook location. 
 

Edited November 21, 2022 by rosteri

[rosteri]

I also had the cooler resevoir fail and ordered a replacement, revision D. But unfortunately the old cap somehow didn’t screw on - the new had less threads to contact and the cap just jumped off, when tightened. It also had some coolant leak marks, two fails on the same part?

Old reservoir is the upper:

Some tuning of the new resevoir:

But no, the cap wasn’t secure even with more threads. The original cap was a Stant 10238, so I ordered 3 equivalent versions

 

Out of which 1 was a little tight and 2 fit perfect. Just in case someone has a leaking cap, here are alternative part numbers:

T-38 / MOTORAD

RC0159 / CALORSTAT 

28-0635 / MAXGEAR

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by rosteri

[MrD]

Great story here, you sir know your stuff👍

[rosteri]

And the belts came back from modification:

 

I mounted the lap belts to the original mounts with the Schroth hardware. I did have to enlarge the Schroth hole a few millimeters. Originally there is a spring on the lock side, which I cut in half.