TLF GT430 Club

[ricvx]

Good work @blindside congrats! Will you be hanging around for the breakfast meet at Leven’s on Sunday morning? @C8RKH and I will be there with our Sport 410’s. 

[blindside]

Thanks @ricvx

Yes, I’m picking the car up on Sunday mid-morning so will hopefully get a chance to catch-up with you both👍

[freefall_junkie]

31 minutes ago, blindside said:

Thanks @ricvx

Yes, I’m picking the car up on Sunday mid-morning so will hopefully get a chance to catch-up with you both👍

Congratulations. I have seen the Leven orange 430 up close and it is a stunner. May I ask the colour and mileage of your 410?

[blindside]

@freefall_junkie Metallic black, 4.5k miles. Perhaps best to pm me if you need more info.

[LoW8]

Look forward to seeing some pics. Congrats!

[Trevsked]

Congrats on the new car, youll absolutely love it I'm sure.

 

Trevor.

[Bibs]

[blindside]

Thanks @Bibs ! Picked up the car during the Leven Lotus owners Sunday breakfast BBQ meet. Interestingly there were several Porsche owners (GT2 RS & GT3) there as well! Overheard one of them enquiring about a 430 Exige Cup to add to his collection. 😂 A sign of the times I suspect! Also managed to catch-up & compare notes at some length with fellow TLF Sport 410 diehards  @ricvx & @C8RKH 😎

The team at Levens were also a pleasure to deal with.

The 3 hour drive to the ferry was hugely enjoyable. First impressions were that unsurprisingly compared with the 410 the Ohlins damper set up gives a much stiffer feel to the car on rough road surfaces. The car felt very precise and predictable on the motorway. More speed provided noticeably more stability. It sits much lower than the 410 and this in combination with the carbon front splitter will make negotiating speed bumps, ramps etc. a far more difficult proposition. (The 410 simply glides over them). The engine map is noticeably more aggressive at mid range (aided by the exhaust valves fully opening at 4500 revs). The aero features in combination with the carbon are stunning. The burnt orange and Matt black wheels/callipers really helps to accentuate this and with the carbon buckets gives the car a very functional race/track oriented appearance. I was told that Scott Walker had a personal hand in the detailed spec of the car. Hats off to him as it suits the car in every way. Some real fun to be had over the rest of the summer!

[ricvx]

Massive congratulations to you again Jimmy. It was great to meet you and great to see this car going to a well deserved home. You'll be turning heads everywhere with that thing!

[C8RKH]

A super car in the hands of a super owner! After out chat Jimmy I'm looking at planning an Irish road trip for next year. Anyone interested?

[edp]

Definitely the best colour but I am biased!! Congratulations! 

[electro_boy]

Congrats on the purchase, it's a gorgeous car! 😍 I am slightly biased owning a burnt orange Evora NA with SR wrap so yours is effectively a better modern updated version of mine, some of the short fallings corrected and all the good bits remain but turned up a couple of notches.  I'm glad someone took it off the market as I was starting to look into selling one of my kidneys to finance buying this lovely machine!  😉😄.   Wishing you many happy traffic free miles of motoring!

A super car in the hands of a super owner! After out chat Jimmy I'm looking at planning an Irish road trip for next year. Anyone interested?

Oh yes please, I was in Galway last year and the roads on outskirts looked amazing with great views.  I was also in the south many years ago and same there too, lovely scenery and windy roads.

[scotty435]

9 hours ago, C8RKH said:

A super car in the hands of a super owner! After out chat Jimmy I'm looking at planning an Irish road trip for next year. Anyone interested?

There we go again have to agree with you 😂, Jimmy is a top guy and his new car is looks  amazing. 

[The Pits]

Some stunning roads in NI, great place for a road trip, no better guide than Jimmy in a GT430!

[Sizona]

10 hours ago, The Pits said:

Some stunning roads in NI, great place for a road trip, no better guide than Jimmy in a GT430!

I've driven a lot of the NI roads in some great cars when I was in Ecurie 25 supercar club - we had a base up there so went many times.

Agreed, some great roads.

Congrats on the GT430 Jimmy, from another owner. 

[blindside]

On 02/07/2019 at 14:20, C8RKH said:

I'm looking at planning an Irish road trip for next year. Anyone interested?

10 hours ago, The Pits said:

Some stunning roads in NI, great place for a road trip, no better guide than Jimmy in a GT430!

Very happy to act as a route suggester and badly behaved translator & chaperone. 😉 As you probably know there is a big motorsport following and petrolhead community in N. Ireland. Any significant 'posse of Loti' would definitely get lots of positive interest. I'd suggest that with our extreme damp weather levels (like Scotland 😎) the 'high summer' months between June & August would be the best time to run the trip. There are lots of great roads, especially the North Coast including Donegal, good places to stay in/visit and its not too crowded.

[C8RKH]

3 minutes ago, blindside said:

Very happy to act as a route suggester and badly behaved translator & chaperone. 😉 As you probably know there is a big motorsport following and petrolhead community in N. Ireland. Any significant 'posse of Loti' would definitely get lots of positive interest. I'd suggest that with our extreme damp weather levels (like Scotland 😎) the 'high summer' months between June & August would be the best time to run the trip. There are lots of great roads, especially the North Coast including Donegal, good places to stay in/visit and its not too crowded.

Please tell me that unlike here in Scotland, the dreaded midge is NOT an inhabitant of your lovely Isle?

[blindside]

Not a problem here and not anywhere near the same levels, or the ferocity as you get in the Scottish Isles in summer. I've seen grown men running into the sea fully clothed to escape their mass formation attacks!

[C8RKH]

2 minutes ago, blindside said:

Not a problem here and not anywhere near the same levels, or the ferocity as you get in the Scottish Isles in summer. I've seen grown men running into the sea fully clothed to escape their mass formation attacks!

Are you sure that wasn't the Queen Midge they weren't running from? 

 

Right, I'll take this talk of an Irish Road Trip to a new thread so we can continue the focus on the loveliness that is the GT430!  

 

[mik]

GT430 put on the scales.

 

[C8RKH]

Thanks @mik. I'm sorry to say I won't be surprised when we get the usual doubters harping on how Lotus always fiddles it's numbers etc lol.  I do love the Motorsport Green colour and it would tempt me out of a red, especially when you see the sun hitting it... :)

[blindside]

I’ve now spent a good few hours, (around 500 miles worth), driving the GT430 on a variety of roads in good weather. It has included long motorway cruising and B road blasting on some rough road surfaces. But no track sessions yet!

I thought it would be interesting to draw a direct comparison with the Sport 410 which I had from new for 2 years & 4.5k miles. Some direct comparisons have already been made by others on here,  notably Jonny @The Pits who has accurately nailed the differences, but it is probably worth providing another perspective. 

The 430 is a more precise and uncompromising car. 65-70% track as opposed to road orientation. The 410 is the other way round 75% road and 25% track oriented. (Roughly from my subjective view).

Both cars are quick, but the 410 runs out of puff a little in any gear beyond the 5-6000 rev range. The 430’s power band has clearly been adjusted to concentrate at mid-range and it is a complete ‘rocket ship’ from 4,5k revs all the way up to the red line. You also know you are going fast!

The 410 is better able to cope with the variety of poor road surfaces usually encountered in the UK. The ride height and suspension allows the car to flow smoothly and easily at speed down any B road. Unsurprisingly the 430 is not able to cope as well. The Ohlins dampers are uncompromising and the ride height & front splitter do not lend themselves to spirited B road driving without damage to the car, your spine or both! For this reason the 410 has greater utility and ease of use.

Ergonomically there is nothing to choose between the two when the carbon buckets are fitted. The steering feel is a real strong point in both cars, but is a little more precise (verging on skittery) in the 430 probably because there is more rubber on the road.

Summary & residuals. If you want a performance car that has a wide utility on road and occasionally on track the Sport 410 has got to be the bargain the century. The GT430 is more focussed car and in terms of engineering & aero perhaps represents the absolute high water mark for Lotus in their analogue ‘petroleum driven’ era. It is very doubtful that we will see anything like it in future. For this reason my 430 is a definite keeper and will be driven and enjoyed. It is a beautifully aggressive, “does what it says on the tin” thing to look at. Hopefully it will hold, or increase its value in years to come. 

[C8RKH]

Really nice balanced summary - thanks for that. Glad you are enjoying it!

[The Pits]

I guess coming from an Exige Jimmy I see more of the benefits of the GT430 as a proposition for longer distance road drives. The Exiges on the road are certainly thrilling of course, but not as comfortable or accomodating as an Evora. I guess coming from another Evora you aren't really gaining any road ability like I did. The big benefit of the Ohlins over the 410's Bilsteins is the adjustability of course. Might be worth checking where yours are on the settings and make sure they are set to the recommended road settings. You can easily try it a couple of clicks softer than that if you live near rougher roads. At least when you pay for Ohlins you get a good range of adjustment where you can really feel the difference between a few clicks.

I test drove a Focus ST and Golf R recently. Driving home on the same roads in the GT430 immediately afterwards I was amazed that it had better ride quality than either. The Golf was had the adjustable damper option too.

Totally agree about the Sport 410 though. Been banging the drum for that car since day 1. 400 owners still won't hear it but the 410 is a special thing. Absolute steal at the moment.

[DarrylV8]

We feel the suspension is much better over the crappy roads than our previous Evora S indeed the suspension on the daily (VRS) driver is much firmer than 430 road setting 

totally agree on 410 comments