The Evora 400 Diaries

[phil flash]

2 hours ago, chylld said:

Can't wait!!

Just curious... do you deliberately colour grade your videos the way they are? Added a bit of contrast for an alternative look...

Can have a lot to do with what you are viewing the image on. Too much saturation and no detail in the Evora wheels on my screen (calibrated with a Colormunki for photography purposes.) This looks better on mine but may not be on yours, though it had a bit more saturation when in Photoshop.  

[chylld]

I deliberately crushed the blacks for drama All valid options.

[JayEmm]

@auRouge I agree completely. I asked Lotus if I could get a 410 for review and they said no. I'm not surprised.

The Cayman owner was very kind so if next year someone here has a 410 and is happy to let me borrow it then I will make that comparison happen.

Despite the apparent on paper difference, the cars were much closer to one another than you might think. Any problems people have with either car are not actually going to be with the way they drive - I think most people would know which camp they were in before, but getting to drive both back to back was certainly interesting.

[GTK]

 

Can sympathise with Jay when it comes to producing flat images, as a professional he has to, and when it comes to doing post work on something like a Youtube thumbnail... it's a lot of extra work for something that the majority won't appreciate. All that being said I had to have a quick muck around... 

 

[JayEmm]

Come for the Lotus, stay for the unintentional photo competition

[phil flash]

33 minutes ago, JayEmm said:

Come for the Lotus, stay for the unintentional photo competition

Photo competition ?  Ha ha .. nothing like Photoshop for mucking about !

[CocoPops]

[Colin G]

Nicer in red! 

[GTK]

 

[chylld]

58 minutes ago, JayEmm said:

Come for the Lotus, stay for the unintentional photo competition

What have I started... 

[CocoPops]

Now we need the headlights swapping, perhaps other features

 

[auRouge]

3 hours ago, JayEmm said:

@auRouge I agree completely. I asked Lotus if I could get a 410 for review and they said no. I'm not surprised.

The Cayman owner was very kind so if next year someone here has a 410 and is happy to let me borrow it then I will make that comparison happen.

Despite the apparent on paper difference, the cars were much closer to one another than you might think. Any problems people have with either car are not actually going to be with the way they drive - I think most people would know which camp they were in before, but getting to drive both back to back was certainly interesting.

Looking forward to seeing it?? 

Maybe Lotus are waiting for the GT4 RS to be released before it allows any comparisons...

[JayEmm]

So I put the Evora 400 on the rollers at @Hangar 111 the other day. We had some issues getting a consistent run, the cars do not seem to like the dyno for whatever reason.

We did two runs - one with exhaust valve closed, one with it open. Both of those were in TC off mode.

Then we reset the ECU in an attempt to improve it, but it made a sideways improvement - better numbers but cutting the RPM lower down (at the "tour" limit).

Long story short, we never got the magic 400 number, however we also never got it to say it was doing 7,000rpm. The car was "only" doing 161mph in 5th on the dyno run when the rev limit cut in, but I know from experience that it will do 172 in 5th. So taking the numbers we produced, assuming it kept going up, around 400bhp is definitely accurate. I know Jean-Marc has said that many produce more.

On the final run of the day, my car did however produce 317lb-ft of torque! If it was still producing that at 7,000rpm the car was putting out over 420bhp.

My thanks to Greg, Marianne and the boys (Rob etc) at Hangar 111 for a good day and great Lotus related banter.

[Bravo73]

So, what (calculated) FHP did it produce?

[JayEmm]

Best reading we got was 390bhp.

There's definitely something odd with Lotus' own numbers though, assuming the 400 produces peak torque all the way to the redline (not impossible), the automatic Evora couldn't possibly be putting out 400bhp - only about 380 by my calculations. I think it redlines lower, only ever going to 6,600, whereas the manual goes to 7,000 in sport mode

IF the car really was putting out 317lb-ft of torque though, that IS 400bhp-ish at 6,600rpm

[pickle]

Did you do a video? I'd love to hear how that sounds in an enclosed dyno room 

[CocoPops]

Arrrange an Evora shootout in be spring?

Dyno run a dozen or so?

[JayEmm]

Did I do a video? Of course I did!

I have no idea how the sound came out, because I was wearing ear defenders and there was a LOT of noise in that room, not just from the car. However, one of the guys did mention you could hear the car doing its runs from within the office, two walls away. You could certainly feel it in the air as it reached the high rev range.

@CocoPops I don't know about an Evora shootout, but my local Pistonheads group sometimes do dyno days where everyone gets a power run and it's all a bit cheaper for everyone - like 20 cars at £30-40 a go or something. Maybe Greg would be interested in hosting one next year?

[JayEmm]

When I picked up my 400, one of the issues noticed immediately was an off-centre steering wheel. Stratton apparently fixed this but for whatever reason, I noticed recently it was definitely not centred properly. Either it had not been put back in place, or somehow it had worked it's way wrong again.

So when I had the dyno session done, we got H111 to check the geometry on my car. A couple of things were off, as evidenced by the sheet below. I had thought I had gotten used to the feel of the Evora, and maybe it just didn't feel that great anymore now I had the Elise. How wrong I was. With the geo correctly setup, the car drove sensational and the drive home was like my very first drive in the Evora S at Strattons in February. It was sublime again. This is something I'm going to keep an eye on.

[Hangar 111]

Good to hear that it is going well, James.

Thanks for choosing H111, nice to meet you.

Dave

[Bravo73]

19 hours ago, JayEmm said:

 

What's the story with the front left? The final figure still appears to be out of limits. 

[JayEmm]

That was my castor. According to @Hangar 111 it was not out enough to be causing an issue. 

[GTK]

To put it in perspective 15' is 1/4 of a degree. Along with the slightly differing camber values it could be factory dialled in cross-caster, Ive read that it's so that if you fall asleep at the wheel the car should drift towards the verge. But I've also read that that would only happen on a perfectly flat road, and that it's actually to resist the drift caused on crowned roads - which most are. It'd be interesting to know if that's the case. Maybe someone with a LHD Evora who had their values checked could show the report.

[Hangar 111]

1 hour ago, JayEmm said:

That was my castor. According to @Hangar 111 it was not out enough to be causing an issue. 

If you can notice 10 minutes of castor difference side-to-side, on the road, and you're not a professional driver, you might be in the wrong job

Whilst it is easier to adjust on the Evora than all the other models (it has eccentric cambolt adjustment), you can easily end up chasing yourself round in circles, as changing one thing affects another, so it wasn't far enough out to spend the time adjusting the whole of the front end.  You can see how adjusting the toe by 4 minutes affected the camber and castor a little.  You can spend a long time chasing the numbers, when in reality you won't notice any difference.

Dave

Edited November 14, 2016 by Hangar 111

[pickle]

Following on from this,  I also had my geometry looked at this morning. If anything it was further out than @JayEmm.  On the drive home in torrential conditions the car felt much improved to me, more stable and settled through corners. 

I'm now 2 months and 2000 miles into ownership and I have no idea how much the geometry being out was a result of the suspension settling over time and how much is due to it not having been checked before I collected the car - either way, if you're a new 400 owner is probably not a bad thing to get checked.