GFWilliams Purple, Slightly Modified, Exige V6

[lotus_exig3]

On 18/12/2021 at 07:04, GFWilliams said:

Hopefully this is interesting to some!   Won't be too long until it's actually being painted now... 
 

Keen to see your car come together. Must be very exciting!! Thanks for sharing your journey, I have been watching all your videos. Big Fan.😄

[GFWilliams]

Visited KSD yesterday, clam is getting closer. Looks mad with the splitter, I can’t wait to see the finished car…

[GFWilliams]

Binnacle with external shift lights has now been trimmed.  It was never going to be the prettiest solution, but I’m happy with how it looks!

[Toqcars]

Not happy with the AIM dash-integrated shift lights or not happy with the dash angle/height?

[GFWilliams]

@Toqcars - I couldn’t see the shift lights built into the MX2E, so the external module was my best option. I can see these really well, but to me they still look like an afterthought.

[geartox]

awesome job ! 

[MrD]

What did you do with the buttons George?

[GFWilliams]

Front clam is now in primer!  A nice step forwards!

@MrD - the buttons on the dash are under the material and can still be pushed. I know where the buttons are, and rarely actually use them, so I figured it was nicer to keep them a bit hidden.

[GFWilliams]

Still making steady progress forwards. I went to the body shop today to see the front clam get painted.  I thought the process was super interesting and will show more in the video at a later date, but after the primer stage above, Ken block sanded the whole clam to get it as smooth as possible, then did the following stages yesterday:

 - mask up carbon louvres

 - clean up body using lint free cloths and some alcohol sprays

 - same, but with a water based spray that stops static and dust being attracted to the body

 - primer in dark grey.  We chose a dark grey vase as it was similar to the carbon colour so when doing blends etc it would be a closer match

 - let primer cure for 20 minutes and mix up the body colour paint

 - wipe down again to make sure there’s no dust

 - paint two coats of the body colour, then a dust coat 

 - remove masking on the louvres and then do two coats of clear lacquer 

 

This took quite a while, and with most paint jobs, you’d let it bake, then polish it.  We’re going above and beyond to make this paint job really special though, so the next stages are now:

 - block sand the lacquer to get it as flat as possible, remove any dust specs (there aren’t many, but this is a good time to sort)

 - back into the booth and clean it all ready for paint 

 - airbrush on front logo (yellow, then black)

 - tint carbon louvres 

 - clear lacquer 

 - cure

 - polish 

And that’s just for the front clam…  

Also, big thank you to @Seriouslylotusfor sending out my Liteblox battery.  It’s impressive how light it is (2kg), and the app is super easy.  I needed a smaller battery than the original OEM as the chassis mounted wing would have had clearance issues. I debated getting a cheaper lightweight battery, but after so much effort has gone into my car, I didn’t really want anything but the best parts for it and the quality of the liteblox is on another level to any other battery I’ve ever seen!

[GoldenGun]

Looks great @GFWilliams!!

can’t wait to see the end result. The paint prep looks painstaking, but will be a testament to the end result!

that battery is incredible. Other than cost, what’s the disadvantage of such a battery ?  

[DangerousDave]

On 25/01/2022 at 23:01, GoldenGun said:

Looks great @GFWilliams!!

can’t wait to see the end result. The paint prep looks painstaking, but will be a testament to the end result!

that battery is incredible. Other than cost, what’s the disadvantage of such a battery ?  

If you dont drive it once a week it's gonna die and they dont take well to being discharged. Really hurts the life cycle of the battery.

If you've got an alarm with a tracker forget about it. The only way i'd do it is for track days and swap back to normal battery otherwise.

[GFWilliams]

@DangerousDave - I’m sure you’re probably right, and i always avoided lithium batteries when my car was in a garage without power. Now I have a nicer garage, I intend to always keep my car on charge so the worry of discharge isn’t really a concern in my usage case. 

[DangerousDave]

Put on the lotus quiet exhaust and leave it plugged in i' msure you could fool a bird or two thinking it's electric

[Paul_D]

I thought one of the advantages of the liteblox was that you could turn it off using the app. Effectively replicating a physical kill switch for when you want leave the car for long periods?

I don’t know what the capacity is compared to the Super B lithium batteries, but mine lasts much longer than a week without the car being driven. 

[GFWilliams]

The figures from Liteblox are 300 days with the cutout engaged.  I think low temperatures can reduce this significantly, and they also will if you let it fully run out of battery.    Some people have had less fortune with these figures, but Liteblox are also very good with customer service if there is an issue.

[GFWilliams]

Provisionally putting it out there that I might be selling my Nitron 3 way dampers.  They'll be dyno checked (and serviced if required) by Raceshocks.uk before the sale (need about 4-5 weeks before they can come off my car). They had new springs fairly recently, and I have a variety of different spring rates (IIRC, 550 and 750 front and 850 and 1100 rear). Personally I much preferred the softer spring setup and I think the car is more compliant while also offering great feedback with this setup. 

Can only find this photo at the moment from when the rear springs were changed in April.

 

[GFWilliams]

I’ve now spent a few days with Ken while he paints, I’m probably a bit too OCD about things, but the attention to detail on this paint job really is on a level you’d more associate with Pagani or MSO.  

The latest part to be finished is the Komotec carbon A panels. I honestly wasn’t too sure about these when they arrived, but seeing them in paint has absolutely transformed them, they’re a lovely shape and the quality is incredible.  We left the vent in exposed carbon, and then behind the vent it has tinted carbon that fades into body colour, so it’ll blend into the door nicely.  It’s actually more subtle than it looks in the photos, but gives you an idea.
 

This looks much much better in colour than it does in this B&W photo, but I want to keep the build thread going as we progress, so I’m sticking to B&W photos until the colour reveal!
 

[Toqcars]

Love combination of an exposed carbon and paint on the same carbon fiber panel. Looks awesome 👌 Thanks for the idea 🙂

[mayak]

Very much looking forward to the revelation! Thanks for sharing the progress with us 👍

[Exx]

Why are you changing dampers ?

[GFWilliams]

@Exx - I'm changing to Tractive Semi-Active Dampers:

https://raceshocks.uk/automotive/tractive/semi-active-suspension/

Basically, instead of just having compression and rebound to adjust, they can react to your inputs, stiffen up and soften off individual dampers on demand (reaction time 6ms) using an accelerometer, plus you can adjust the pitch & roll amounts on front & rear axle using the touch screen. It's a clever system as it means I can run softer springs and let the damper control the movement of the car more, so should allow for a more compliant ride most of the time.  Hard to know if it'll be as good as they say it will be, but I am willing to be the guinea pig on this and give it a go.

[CocoPops]

Funky! Interested to see how they perform!

[GoldenGun]

22 minutes ago, GFWilliams said:

@Exx - I'm changing to Tractive Semi-Active Dampers:

https://raceshocks.uk/automotive/tractive/semi-active-suspension/

Basically, instead of just having compression and rebound to adjust, they can react to your inputs, stiffen up and soften off individual dampers on demand (reaction time 6ms) using an accelerometer, plus you can adjust the pitch & roll amounts on front & rear axle using the touch screen. It's a clever system as it means I can run softer springs and let the damper control the movement of the car more, so should allow for a more compliant ride most of the time.  Hard to know if it'll be as good as they say it will be, but I am willing to be the guinea pig on this and give it a go.

Intrigued to see your (re)view!

[Toqcars]

1 hour ago, GFWilliams said:

@Exx - I'm changing to Tractive Semi-Active Dampers:

https://raceshocks.uk/automotive/tractive/semi-active-suspension/

Basically, instead of just having compression and rebound to adjust, they can react to your inputs, stiffen up and soften off individual dampers on demand (reaction time 6ms) using an accelerometer, plus you can adjust the pitch & roll amounts on front & rear axle using the touch screen. It's a clever system as it means I can run softer springs and let the damper control the movement of the car more, so should allow for a more compliant ride most of the time.  Hard to know if it'll be as good as they say it will be, but I am willing to be the guinea pig on this and give it a go.

Really? I am also thinking about the Tractive. Actually I decided for them before buying an Exige, but need to finish at least one season on Nitrons 🙂

Can't wait to see the integration report from you... and drive report as well. This is very promising 👍

[550superfast]

3 hours ago, GFWilliams said:

@Exx - I'm changing to Tractive Semi-Active Dampers:

 

Have they got a kit ready to go or is it something bespoke for your car? Assume you will need dampers, the control screen and a loom, a DSC and some additional sensors?