The Evora 400 Diaries

[JayEmm]

9 hours ago, Bibs said:

You mean the Lotus factory or Strattons?

Both, it is Lotus themselves who are generally being less than helpful though. Stratton have been really great to deal with.

270 subscribers to my channel now. It keeps going up. Given that a lot of that number must be people who just found the videos, I'm really happy with it.

[lotusmad2001]

9 hours ago, JayEmm said:

Like I said, if I thought the trim would come out without snapping I would do it. I just don't fancy breaking it and then having to pay for something unnecessarily. One clip comes out really easy, the others feel welded in. I don't have any trim removal tools here annoyingly. I did spend an hour in the car earlier with my seat trying to identify my creak and I think I have an idea.

I did fix my rattly window on my own, and I have a plan for fixing my wonky switches. Hopefully will be able to tend to those tomorrow. I am trying to work WITH Lotus but they aren't making it easy.

In other good news more than 2,200 miles on the car now. On Tuesday I am shooting a feature with the 400 Auto, and an old IPS to see how they compare. Will be interesting.

That does sound good, would be interested to see how well they've progressed with the auto box.

Keep the videos up! (early subscriber )

[mcx]

Well.. got to drive a manual one on Saturday and have just bought it! Am away at Le Mans this week so will have to wait until next week to collect. Thanks for the extra inspiration and vids James, also due to this pic in Car Magazine a while back..

 

[CocoPops]

@mcx which one did you buy? And from where?

400 is definitely gaining traction now, seem to be a few threads where people mention buying/ordering.

[mcx]

1 minute ago, CocoPops said:

@mcx which one did you buy? And from where?

400 is definitely gaining traction now, seem to be a few threads where people mention buying/ordering.

Hoffmann's orange one  

[lotusmad2001]

1 minute ago, mcx said:

Hoffmann's orange one

Will look forward to hearing what you think vs a 991

 

nice choice

[CocoPops]

13 minutes ago, mcx said:

Hoffmann's orange one  

Cool, they didn't have that long as a demo either! They're my supplying dealer too @Pat@Hofmanns is clearly busy!

When do you collect?

[mcx]

Just now, CocoPops said:

Cool, they didn't have that long as a demo either! They're my supplying dealer too @Pat@Hofmanns is clearly busy!

When do you collect?

Hopefully Tues 21st. @Pat@Hofmanns was really good, very knowledgeable and listened to my ramblings with no complaints...   Sorry @JayEmm for hi-jacking the thread btw. 

[JayEmm]

@mcx not a problem at all! Perhaps you would be brave enough to volunteer for a video, being a Porsche convert?

Orange is a great colour. Did that one have the cast wheels on it too? Hoffmans seem to like ordering those.

I wonder if @CocoPops has gone for Essex blue... that is a nice colour.

[mcx]

6 minutes ago, JayEmm said:

@mcx not a problem at all! Perhaps you would be brave enough to volunteer for a video, being a Porsche convert?

Orange is a great colour. Did that one have the cast wheels on it too? Hoffmans seem to like ordering those.

Yes would be more than happy to get the cars together, I'm not that far from you. The car does have the cast wheels, would have liked forged but the design of the cast is cool and I don't think they weigh loads more ( I read somewhere 1kg ea?) Once it is here with me I'll be in touch.

[spunagain]

11 hours ago, Bibs said:

If it were my car, I'd have had the panel off and had a fiddle or at least checked the amp and subwoofer connections. Seems like 5 minutes well spent to me but each to their own. 

It took me a few goes to convince my dealer that my sub amp (no 7 above) was actually dead. If it is the same as mine, they are a known weak point. It did not help that I had a prototype fitting of a pioneer head unit which was set up differently to the alpine one.

 

On an aside I am also enjoying your videos. How about one on the tendency of some lotus owners to mod their cars (usually subtly)?

[JayEmm]

11 minutes ago, spunagain said:

On an aside I am also enjoying your videos. How about one on the tendency of some lotus owners to mod their cars (usually subtly)?

Thankyou! That's something I am probably going to look at most in the "owner profile" videos. "What have you done to your car?" is a question I will ask, obviously older cars will be more likely to be more individual. I like that with Lotus it seems more acceptable than other brands.

As far as I know the sub amp is exactly the same as on the earlier cars, it's doing literally nothing so I bet it is fried and they're just trying to wriggle out of it. It'll get sorted.

@mcx - yup give me a shout when you've taken delivery. There are some superb roads around here which are ideally suited to the Evora's talents.

[Hofmanns]

@CocoPops you are right, 400 has got some real traction this year now which is fantastic - infact our only issue across the whole range has been replacing stock fast enough.. A wonderful problem to have as we are busy, but several customers have asked where all our cars are recently!

@mcx lovely to meet you at the weekend, and thank-you for the kind words. There is nothing wrong with talking about cars and trackdays and it definitely does not count as rambling! 

 @JayEmm its not that we 'like' ordering cast wheels, its just that several customers have commented on the fact that they wouldn't spec them if they were to place a factory order. Great work with the videos by the way!

[JayEmm]

Thankyou @Pat@Hofmanns. I did offer to come down your way and do some filming at yours but I believe you have that covered already? I'll be interested to see what you are doing, very nice showroom for it!

[JayEmm]

Further to my seat and subwoofer issues, the factory invited me to take the car directly for them to inspect. I am quite happy with that. Will of course keep everyone updated with how that goes.

Tomorrow I'm filming a feature on the 400's new Auto box at B&C, later this week I am finishing my 911 vs Evora video at SMC.

Any dealers or owners who have something worth filming, please get in touch. I went to bed last night with 240 subscribers, thought I would be very happy if I woke up with 250. Had 270! Result.

[CocoPops]

Yeah it got mentioned on the playground yesterday.

[Ccd]

JayEmm:

Saying you are filming a 911 vs. Evora doesn't tell me much.  The 911 comes in a ridiculous number of variations (991 vs an earlier version, then all the versions of the 991 (Carerra, Carerra S, GTS, etc).  Can you tell us which 911???

[JayEmm]

@Ccd I hope to do a few different videos. The first one is 996 vs C4S. Basically a nice 996/crappy 997 is about £20k here, Evora prices start around 30. So I'm posing the question if you have a 911 already will an S1 Evora feel like a step up, and do you lose anything in the process?

[goussama]

I'm considering a GT4 so I looked into the forums and reading a thread there reminded me of the talk on this one of the 400's issues. Seems a Porsche has some issues too. Post #32

http://rennlist.com/forums/gt4/897512-gt4-impressions-so-far-3.html

[purso]

very interesting read indeed, thanks for sharing!

[kokostrollet]

46 minutes ago, goussama said:

I'm considering a GT4 so I looked into the forums and reading a thread there reminded me of the talk on this one of the 400's issues. Seems a Porsche has some issues too. Post #32

http://rennlist.com/forums/gt4/897512-gt4-impressions-so-far-3.html

Thought this part was quite funny. 

Quote

"Oh, and there's also a seat cushion/bolster squeak that I haven't been able to pinpoint but starts annoying me after about 10-15 minutes of driving"

[anthonyyule]

20 hours ago, JayEmm said:

Any dealers or owners who have something worth filming, please get in touch. I went to bed last night with 240 subscribers, thought I would be very happy if I woke up with 250. Had 270! Result.

I've got a mildly tuned Evora S 430 (with an epic full 2ubular exhaust system) which might be worth a video some time  

[PaulCP]

Evora 400 vs EV430 Evora S conversion would be an interesting comparison 

[JayEmm]

@anthonyyulethat definitely sounds worth filming!

I am at Snetterton for a social thing, there is a track day on so I had the 400 noise tested.....

 

 

110dB! Peaked at 119! They said I MIGHT get through on the drive by, but it was unlikely.

[JG220]

5 minutes ago, JayEmm said:

@anthonyyulethat definitely sounds worth filming!

I am at Snetterton for a social thing, there is a track day on so I had the 400 noise tested.....

 

 

110dB! Peaked at 119! They said I MIGHT get through on the drive by, but it was unlikely.