GFWilliams Purple, Slightly Modified, Exige V6

[Dani]

On 12/8/2017 at 14:26, GFWilliams said:

Right, after quite a few things it's time for some thoughts on paper. 

Forged Wheels

First of all I love the look of these new wheels, they look light and a lot more race car. The moment you get in the car and turn the wheels you notice how much lighter they are with lighter steering. My old wheels were never in balance so always gave me a wobbly steering wheel, these have solved that and it's lovely to only feel what you need on the road now.  I only drove with them once on standard suspension 

Pirelli Trofeo R Tyres

When I first go these I thought they were a bit rubbish. I was wrong!  Turns out that they just need quite a bit of scrubbing and heat in them to really come alive. Once you have got that heat in them they're sensational tyres!    I will go back to my old Nankang NS2R tyres on track at some stage to do a proper back to back to compare.  I think the Nankangs are a good tyre (much better than the Corsa for the Exige) but hard to compare as I didn't have a direct comparison due to changing suspension too.

Nitron 1 way adjustable coilovers

Nitron didn't pre set anything on these so when I first drove on them they were on full soft which was lovely ride comfort but far from ideal handling!  I promptly got Jez at Back on Track to set the car up for me and combined with the wheels and Trofeos it's genuinely difficult to unstick it even with 460hp!  A lot of the feedback I can give is on the setup more than the suspension, but there's still a tiny bit of understeer.  I'll be on track next week to get a proper feel of the limit handling.

Komotec KoBra4 Front Brakes

These are great and have great power. I think I need to change the fluid, I thought this was included in the package but turned out not to be.  Downsides are that they're quite noisy, you hear the J grooves and they squeak when you're doing normal driving.

Komotec ex460 package

It's quick. Really fucking quick.   It's such an impressive package as the power delivery is so linear and still easy to drive. I'd say that for the road it's actually too quick really and you have to be quite restrained to not get caught speeding.  A couple of seconds of throttle and you're at the speed limit...
The experience is now much more about the power and the supercharger noise.  I have a 2bular road exhaust and the noise has totally changed, IMO for the worse.  It's lost the lovely deep rasp of the standard car with a 2bular and instead now shreaks with the exhaust open.  Komo also changed the valve to a remote so I can have the exhaust fully open or fully closed at my choice which is better for me if I want to make quieter progress (I didn't like that the valve opened at 4.5k revs). Much nicer experience now. When you drive with the exhaust closed the supercharger noise really takes over!

So what's negative about the 460 package?    I was unlucky I'm sure, but it finished off my clutch within 200 miles of leaving.   The clutch had more wear than I think it should have done and a spring in the clutch went which shouldn't have happened. Komotec are going to talk to Lotus about getting me some money refunded as I still have a little (couple of weeks!) warranty left on the car but we'll see.   I do now have an Evora 400 clutch in the car which is much lighter which is lovely.
I also don't really like the look of the big silver charge cooler visible in the front grill. I intend to paint this black to make it less obvious.

Steering wheel spacer

As I have the tillett seats (B5) and like them quite leant back it makes a big difference to have the steering wheel spacer as I can move the seat further back and not hit my knees on the steering column. It also makes heel & toe a lot easier due to having my feet in a better position.

 

Aim is to keep the car looking as normal as possible so as much as I'd love some big wings and Aero, unless I feel it's really unstable on track I'll keep it looking factory.  I will put in Harnesses on the next pay day as I feel that's really important and I want a towing eye but don't want a bright red one so would have to get it refinished in black. Also want to get the wing stays re finished in black.

If anyone wants to go out for a drive sometime in Surrey/Sussex, let me know as it'd be fun to go out with some other Exiges!

Check lotusforsale section, I am saling a non used Evora 400 clutch and flywheel I got few months ago from Komotec 

Edited August 13, 2017 by Dani

[GFWilliams]

4 hours ago, Dani said:

Check lotusforsale section, I am saling a non used Evora 400 clutch and flywheel I got few months ago from Komotec 

Unfortunately Clutch is changed already, had to get it done quickly in order to get home from Europe!

[GFWilliams]

Just a couple of photos...

[Mark030358]

George, how many miles and track did you have on the clutch? Komotech upgrade seems to be fantastic  On my bucket list once I'm sure my car is all good.

 

cheers

Mark

[Dani]

22 hours ago, GFWilliams said:

Unfortunately Clutch is changed already, had to get it done quickly in order to get home from Europe!

Good .

Congratulations,  because you are having a stunning looking supercar ! 

[Hangar 111]

On 12/08/2017 at 13:26, GFWilliams said:

 I was unlucky I'm sure, but it finished off my clutch within 200 miles of leaving.

Sounds like your clutch already had issues.  Got a few cars out there on standard clutch with no issues as yet.  Obviously there is more load into the clutch,  but I generally advise people to wait until it gives up, rather than have all the expense at once - unless the box is off for diff, selectors, etc. in which case, change it.

Glad you like the new bits

Dave

[GFWilliams]

New Transforged lights!

 

[C8RKH]

They look wonderful George. Your car is one of the nicest Exige's I have seen.  Super car indeed.

[Mark030358]

yep, those lights look stunning..

 

Out of interest does anyone know if all exige rear light clusters the same size?

 cheers

Mark

 

[550superfast]

Wow, you have been busy! That is a serious amount of upgrading. Car looks stunning as ever.

Any track days planned to test them properly?

How many hours labour was the clutch replacement? And did you put a standard one in or the Evora 400 one or Komotec?

[GFWilliams]

2 minutes ago, 550superfast said:

Wow, you have been busy! That is a serious amount of upgrading. Car looks stunning as ever.

Any track days planned to test them properly?

How many hours labour was the clutch replacement? And did you put a standard one in or the Evora 400 one or Komotec?

5 trackdays booked for the rest of this year, will probably book a couple more too.  Need to learn to drive it well now and it's not appropriate to do that on the road.

Clutch was 9 hours, very impressive by Komo-tec.  I went for the Evora 400 clutch which as a bonus is a lighter clutch too.

[alias23]

13 minutes ago, GFWilliams said:

Clutch was 9 hours, very impressive by Komo-tec.  

WOW that is a fast change! Any idea how they short cut the dealers 30 hour quotes?

[Bravo73]

14 minutes ago, alias23 said:

WOW that is a fast change! Any idea how they short cut the dealers 30 hour quotes?

Was it because the rear clam was already off (due to the EX460 work)?

[GFWilliams]

Just now, Bravo73 said:

Was it because the rear clam was already off (due to the EX460 work)?

Nope, Clutch failed when clam was back on.

[NW76]

30 hours is for absolute beginners ?... 

[alias23]

6 minutes ago, NW76 said:

30 hours is for absolute beginners ?... 

It seems to be the case! It also nearly justifies shipping the car over to KT to get the work done and a 460 kit installed at the same time

[Hangar 111]

1 hour ago, alias23 said:

Any idea how they short cut the dealers 30 hour quotes?

Yes...

1 hour ago, Bravo73 said:

Was it because the rear clam was already off (due to the EX460 work)?

Clam doesn't come off for EX460.

Dave

Edited August 15, 2017 by Hangar 111

[C8RKH]

I take it that means that you can do it too in 9 hours Dave?

[GFWilliams]

1 hour ago, alias23 said:

It seems to be the case! It also nearly justifies shipping the car over to KT to get the work done and a 460 kit installed at the same time

Or get Hangar to do it and match the price of my Clutch change?  (Sorry Dave)

[Hangar 111]

9 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

I take it that means that you can do it too in 9 hours Dave?

That is the time we would estimate on an Exige, yes.  (Evora, different, whole rear end has to come apart).

9 minutes ago, GFWilliams said:

Or get Hangar to do it and match the price of my Clutch change?  (Sorry Dave)

Ha, not a problem - though Daniel must owe us many beers now!

Dave

Edited August 15, 2017 by Hangar 111

[GFWilliams]

8 minutes ago, Hangar 111 said:

Ha, not a problem - though Daniel must owe us many beers now!

Dave

Daniel probably wishes he just made you do my car 

[C8RKH]

1 hour ago, Hangar 111 said:

That is the time we would estimate on an Exige, yes.  (Evora, different, whole rear end has to come apart).

Dave

Got that. Been looking at potentially trading up my VX220 for an earlier Exige V6S that I would, ahem, err, improve!

 

[Steve Banks]

How noisy are the Kobra4 brakes? I was looking at upgrading, but I daily my Exige, so wouldn't make sense if they were really squeely etc. 

[alias23]

22 minutes ago, Steve Banks said:

How noisy are the Kobra4 brakes? I was looking at upgrading, but I daily my Exige, so wouldn't make sense if they were really squeely etc. 

There is a whirring noise from the discs when driving. You do get a little squeaks but nothing that bothers me and it's not always a constant just now and again...

[RedViper]

On ‎12‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 13:26, GFWilliams said:

Komotec ex460 package

It's quick. Really fucking quick.   It's such an impressive package as the power delivery is so linear and still easy to drive. I'd say that for the road it's actually too quick really and you have to be quite restrained to not get caught speeding.  A couple of seconds of throttle and you're at the speed limit...
The experience is now much more about the power and the supercharger noise.  I have a 2bular road exhaust and the noise has totally changed, IMO for the worse.  It's lost the lovely deep rasp of the standard car with a 2bular and instead now shreaks with the exhaust open.  Komo also changed the valve to a remote so I can have the exhaust fully open or fully closed at my choice which is better for me if I want to make quieter progress (I didn't like that the valve opened at 4.5k revs). Much nicer experience now. When you drive with the exhaust closed the supercharger noise really takes over!

 

Hi

its interesting you now have the full valve control with the 2bular back box. I presume you aren't running it forced closed on track days? I specifically asked Jim about doing this when I was ordering mine (ended up with track system) and he strongly advised against forcing the valve shut at higher revs, his main argument besides the obvious extra back pressure on the engine was the heat would destroy the exhaust valve, so be interesting to see what you find.  sounds like you have the best of both worlds and no faff with add on silencers..

also can I ask why you never went with the KT clutch and uprated flywheel please? I always had in the back on my head if/when clutch ever needs a change that's the system I would go for..... also great news to hear that H111 have managed to drastically reduce the time to swap a clutch.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2017 by RedViper