Cold air intake

[dalepearson]

So tonight I decided to install the Radium. Took me about 1.5 hours (I really need smaller hands for these jobs ).

Unfortunately my car is blocked in at the moment due to DIY work and its to late to give it any mega revs so I cant say if its any good yet .

I need to finish off the install another night as I couldnt find my stanley knife to shorten the PCV hose, and I also want to add some more cable ties for the solenoid mounting.

Good news is no EMS lighting, woot. Hopefully at the weekend I will be able to get the car out and see what its like. Boy do I hope its good.

On a negative I think my car cover has lightly scratched my car So that going in the bin and I will have to get the polish out when I get a chance. GGGrrrrrr

[mdavies]

1.5 hours - well done! So it runs and idles ok. I guess you must truly be blocked in if you can bear to wait till the weekend! Without load it's quiet so you won't notice much, even at high revs; I think you will notice once you try mid-power mid-revs though! You'll forget needing a touch of polish!

[dalepearson]

Yup idles ok, and a quick blip of the throttle I could hear some induction noise so thats promising.

100% blocked in by a skip So until thats gone no testing.

[dalepearson]

So I managed to get the car out this evening and went for a 30 min drive.

Wowzers. I mean, its a total transformation.

Throttle response has increased and when you give it the beans its awesome as you near the limiter it properly growls.

Best thing is when you drive normally its un-intrusive.

Deffo glad I did this upgrade. I want to check everything over, make sure everything is still secure, no rubbing etc, but its to dark now. Maybe next week I will do another couple of videos.

Now back to suffering man flu!

[mdavies]

Dale, repeating essence of my post on the "Holy ******" thread - but the CAI is worth two! - I'm delighted you restate what I found: "total transformation" and unintrusive when you want it to be. Good not to be a lone UK voice any more!

Afraid it didn't cure my 'flu, but driving made me completely forget about having it!

[Mikie711]

Went to order one and would you believe it, the damned thing is out of stock

Guess I'll have to wait until after the new exhaust is fitted

[Bibs]

Hang on, Full Forum Members are about to get a nice discount on these courtesy of Radium

[dalepearson]

Nooooo price you pay for early adoption Would have been nice to save some $ to balance the duty

[Justin182]

We're only basic members anyways Dale

[Bibs]

The discount is more than the cost of FFM, plus you get a tonne of other discounts too. What's not to like!

[dalepearson]

We're only basic members anyways Dale

Yeah but I might have been tempted with full membership if it made sense

[Bibs]

What's not to like

http://www.thelotusforums.com/forum-supporter-benefits/

[anubis1]

The Radium CAI is an absolute win; yes. There is one point, which points negative: driving high speed for longtime (German Highway in the night) turns to a very loud event. The magic RPM is 3000 or max 3500. Then it gets really loud. I drove to Düsseldorf and back... but if you drive more than 170 km/h longtime ... it is not "the fine thing." But it was not built for that and as there are speedlimits everywhere, this negative point is just an addendum.

[dalepearson]

Semi off topic, but seeing as you mention high speed. It may just be that I still havent had the chance to do many miles and connect with the car, but I find the car feels to light to push on, kinda seems disconnected in a way.

Time will tell, it just doesnt inspire confidence when your pushing on.

[Bibs]

On the way back from Frankfurt last year I spent the best part of half an hour at no slower than 140, peaked at 157gps, see avatar.

At that speed the car was very confidence inspiring, even taking decent motorway corners over dodgy surfaces was no big deal

[TBD]

Semi off topic, but seeing as you mention high speed. It may just be that I still havent had the chance to do many miles and connect with the car, but I find the car feels to light to push on, kinda seems disconnected in a way.

Time will tell, it just doesnt inspire confidence when your pushing on.

I initially alsohad that feeling when I got the car. It turned out the front alignment wasn't quite correct. After the mechanic spent a good hour and did 3 test runs everything was perfect and I haven't had that feeling since.

The Evora is very sensible in toe and it makes sense to adjust it very precisely if you spend a lot of time on the Autobahn, as I do.

[dalepearson]

Thanks for the feedback.

The tracking / geo was all done prior to me collecting the car.

I will see how it goes, it may be me and not the car. Need to rack some more miles up to suss it out.

[Al]

I have never felt that other than on the winter tyres. They seem to tramline and wander a lot more IMO. Are you on them? From day 1 I always felt I could lean on it on the standard UK tyres. In fact on the way home from garagewhen new I did my favourite roads (i.e. 'test track') near home and felt I was going through corners in it faster than my previous Porker that I'd had for 5 years. It is for me the best overall part of the car.

[dalepearson]

No standard tyres (P-Zero) all in excellent condition and good tread levels.

[Whitey]

Hi Dale, done about 700 miles in mine now, and I would say its the most confidence inspiring car I have driven. It corners flatter than my 111R (with Exige susp) did, and the grip levels are superb. Just been for a blast for 40 mins on dry and damp roads and cannt really imagine anything better.

Would like to hear more from you on the CAI - might even ask to pop up to Worcester to say hello and to have a listen!

Cheers

[dalepearson]

I guess I should be clear, the confidence the car gives is indeed awesome, especially handling wise.

I was more referring to top speed situations. I have still not done many miles so I need to get used to it yet, roll on the dry summer days

Whitney with regards to the CAI, totally up for a meet if you want to check it out. I think its sounds awesome and improved throttle response.

[JAWS]

For those of you that have fitted the CAI, can you categorically state that it isn't intrusive at cruising speed? I mainly use the car for European trips, so there are a lot of autoroute/autobahn runs at 2k rpm for hours. I really appreciate the noise current noise levels and don't want anything intrusive. You will be held accountable for your comments , as I've got a trip to the Alps, Spa and Ring coming up this summer.

[Justin182]

I'm also interested to hear any ongoing reviews. I'm tempted to get one aswell.

What was the total cost in £ including all import taxes etc?

[mdavies]

JAWS, Justin,

As one of the CAI enthusiasts I must respond, but it's really hard to give a helpful answer.

JAWS, if you cruise at 2K rpm I guess you have the long box. 37 x 2= 74mph, so that's your cruising speed. At 2K rpm, the CAI doesn't do much, and from the Radium graphs may even be a slight negative. Subjectively that doesn't seem the case to me, especially with Sport on, but I wouldn't want to claim anything factual.

But anyway, it's the noise level that concerns you, and what can more subjective? The sound builds according to both rpm and throttle opening. Certainly at light throttle and 2K rpm there is no significant extra noise on my car, but with the long gearing a little more throttle will be needed than with the CR box (mine). (That's a complex matter, involving engine torque/efficiency at different revs etc, but generally, lower gearing will mean less engine torque needed for a given driving torque at the wheels.)

With my CR box, 74 mph means 2740 rpm. (The CAI is operating there, with the maximum standard engine torque up to 205 ft lbs from 191 at 2000 rpm, and with the CAI up to 211 - irrelevant to steady speed driving of course, but noticeable for acceleration, or up hill.) Also I have the Sports silencer, so for both reasons I can't even take a properly meaningful test drive or make recordings. Sorry - I would of course.

The CAI costs about $430/1.6 + about £45 carriage + about £70 duties = say about £400. (Bibs has mentioned a discount - the first batch was cheaper from Radium but they have put the price up now. MIne was not charged duty - that may be random.) So it's not a huge amount in the way of these things. Also it can be unbolted and the standard kit put back, quite "easily" (in the way of these things - if your tool kit consists of a screwdriver and one spanner, best ask for help.)

So in the worst case, it's a £100 or so down the drain (surely plenty in the UK would readily buy one SH for say £250) and a few hours fun under the boot lid. (Just make sure under the working area is packed with old blankets etc to catch anything dropped.) And you get the basis for lots of posts on here with your war stories! Not to mention that even if you take it off, while it is on you will experience a whole new Lotus! A sports car! (Ok, all my experience with the CR box and the Sports silencer.)

Really sorry, I don't think that responsibly I can help more. I hope someone with a long box, standard silencer car can help more.

Mel

[JAWS]

Cheers for the response. I've actually added the sports exhaust too and have found that it didn't have a detrimental effect on the noise level at 2k rpm so was hoping the CAI would be the same. I assume cruising at 60 (~ 2k rpm in CR Box) you don't get any noticable drone then?

Selling it on is a good option that was mention by a couple of friends when I asked their opinion.