2-Eleven in Northern California

[Burgundian]

Hi - My name is Mark Gallop and have just received what may be the first 2-Eleven in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm originally from New Zealand but have been living in the SF area for the past 20 years. I've been tracking an Elise over the last couple of years and was delighted to recently get an allocation of a 2-Eleven through Silicon Valley Auto Group. I had Eric Gauthier from Suspension Performance in Mountain View check out the stock set-up and corner weight the car, and I took it for it's inaugural track outing at Thunderhill this week with the Hooked on Driving folks. While I was certainly not pushing more than 75%, it was instantly apparent that this is quite a different animal to the Elise, most notably through high speed turns on the track (i.e. turns 1 and 8) where at comparable speeds the greater downforce and stability of the 2-Eleven is very welcome. Turn in is also much more laser-like and overall I was certainly impressed. The more pronounced rear weight bias compared to the Elise was evident and was a little reminiscent of my GT3 with regard to trailing throttle oversteer. I had a hard time getting much heat in the front tires, but perhaps this will be less on an issue once through the break-in period. It's definitely going to be a fun ride!

[Bibs]

Hello Mark. Welcome to the forum, you're our first American member to take delivery of the new batch of cars which have recently arrived in the States!

Looks like you're having fun already, you're not the first to comment on the brilliant turn in and excellent downforce of the car and as you get more used to it I'm sure you'll enjoy it more and more!

PS I edited your post to make your picture easier to view

[Burgundian]

Bibs:

Thanks for the welcome and also for the picture edit (wasn't clear to this rookie how best to upload pics to the text box!) I'm most definitely looking forward to getting to grips with the car in the months ahead.

Cheers!

Mark

[Guest Jack]

Congrats, Mark.

I just got mine in Southern Cali at the end of August and love it. It's definitely more of an "oversteerer" than my Cup255.

I concur the 2Eleven's handling characteristics remind me more of my former GT3 than any of my previous Lotus Elise/Exige variants.

Drive it in the best of health!

And since we're posting photos....

[pgn340r]

Welcome Mark, you will really enjoy the car as you get used to it. I will also say the handling is very similar to my GT3RS except instead of slow in fast out its fast in even faster out

[Burgundian]

Paul:

I like the sound of fast in and faster out. I'm realizing I'm going to need to re-learn the braking reference points at all my local tracks as I found myself dramatically overbraking the 2-Eleven in comparison to my other cars. Discipline and patience will be necesary!

Jack:

Are you planning on keeping your Cup255 or is the 2-Eleven destined to be a replacement?

Mark

[Guest Jack]

Jack:

Are you planning on keeping your Cup255 or is the 2-Eleven destined to be a replacement?

Mark

I haven't decided yet....it's always good to have a spare track car, isn't it?

The difference between the two is much greater than I had anticipated. It will be difficult going back to that heavy, boat-like Cup255. I'll be putting some more break-in miles on the 2Eleven later this week at Buttonwillow. I can already tell this car has soooo much more potential than the Exige.

Btw, do you post on Rennlist, same handle?

All the best,

[Burgundian]

I definitely agree about having a spare track car. I originally thought I'd use the GT3 as my main track beast but one taste of the 2-Eleven has convinced me that a light-weight, purpose-built machine trumps power & luxury, despite how competent the 997 is. I'm keeping the Elise also - it's destined to become my back-up and girlfriend's track toy (I bought her a 3-day Skip Barber Miata Race School outing at Laguna last week so she's keen to graduate to the Lotus). I do check out Rennlist on occasion (same handle) but haven't posted much (if at all).

[Guest Jack]

On the exhaust issue I concur that more aural feedback would be welcome. However one of my three regular local tracks (Laguna Seca) has very restrictive sound enforcement (92 dB) so I wonder whether something like the Larini exhaust can be tempered as required?

Mark:

The Larini 6" will not work for Laguna...the 8" may or just use the stock exhaust for Laguna days. It's not that time consuming or difficult to switch out mufflers -- just make sure to use a new muffler clamp. The muffler has a habit of walking to the right. I've got the 6" and it does sound great, looks good and appears to be well made.

Also, the "enhanced" motor mounts will make a significant difference...it will help shifting and reduce a significant amount of unwanted engine/tranny movement. A must-do mod for track only cars.

[Burgundian]

Jack & Bill:

Thanks - the motor mounts sound like a "must-do". Will definitely follow up on this. The Larini exhaust option may take a little more investigation. Will also be very keen to hear how the replacement fuel cell works out.

Cheers!

Mark

[Bibs]

*NB - I've split this topic out and made the fuel starvation issue its own topic here. This is the introductions section and it's unlikely people will look here for technical info, that topic is now listed under 'Engine & Ancillaries'.