Recently in Lotus Category

Back in June I wrote the short story From Elise to Exige - a sad story, a happy ending and a road trip in-between. Brendon and I filmed a short movie to go with this story and now it is finished.

A HD version is avaliable here on YouTube.

On Sunday Brendon, Josh and myself decided to test the aerodynamic efficiency of a mars bar and cheese twisty on the roof of the Exige. We felt it compromised high speed stability slightly and reduced the power-to-weight output of the car also slightly, but we noticed if we breathed out for long periods we could counteract this but then began to loose vision.

We did run into the risk that several hungry men in taller vehicles (basically anything on the road) were temped to reach out and grab our test food products when we stopped at Red lights.

The Snakata cheddar flavour on the central roof section didn't last long, we ate them.

Thanks to the assistance of Brendon's dog for applying the scientific Blue tape.

There have been a few emotional speed bumps to my Lotus ownership experience over the past 6 months, here's how it all came about, so if you're sitting comfortably I'll begin.

Back in December 2009 me and friend Ash swapped cars for a short afternoons drive. His was a 2 week old new BMW M3 and mine the recently supercharged and one of the quickest series 2 Elise's in the country. We took the cars to crystal car wash to get waxed and buffed and enjoyed a quick beer in the pub next door.

What we didn't know was the lovely Indians at crystal car wash gave a good liberal serving of 'back to black' tyre shine to the rear wheels of the Elise. Ash had only jumped in the car for a 2nd time and made 100metres from the car wash before the back of the Elise lost traction, skidded along 3 parked cars on the left side of the road, before doing a 180 and stopping in the lane of oncoming traffic.

It could of been a lot worse but the conditions were good for other drivers to see the wreck. After much damage accessing by the experts, the chassis had a small crack in the front left suspension area and the little Elise which was my pride and joy for 2.5 years was a write-off.

Sad sad graveyard for the 'Little Loti'

Chassis cracked (unrepairable) near join to front left lower wishbone

Rest of damage to car was superficial and repairable (with deep enough pockets)

So insurance paid up in full, and I hunted for my next car. I knew it had to be another Lotus, there just hasn't been another car I've driven as rewarding to drive that didn't have a $200,000+ price tag attached to it.

I didn't want another Elise, that itch had already been scratched and to be honest I didn't  want to replace what a perfect owning experience I'd had with a Elise already. So the logical step was an Exige, essentially the slightly harder slightly more track focused version of the Elise.  I knew I also wanted something the same age if not newer than my 2007 Elise.

So the hunt started, phone calls to ad's and recommendation from friends all came and gone until I found this Black Exige S in Melbourne by a seller named Blair. He wanted close to $90k which was too much but the spec of the car Sports pack & Super sports packs was a perfect match of the rawer edged car I wanted.

The original advert on Carsales.com.au

I did have a mid bargaining fling with a slightly older and much higher km's car that I even went to auction and bid for. In chrome orange and at my max limit of $55k it was a bargain, but I stuck to my set limit and I was outbid and so it just wasn't to be for me.

Back to the Black Exige S in Melbourne and after 4 months we came to a good deal! Over the weekly emails back and forth with Blaire, we built up a bit of a relationship and it was agreed to seal the deal, 2 bottles of Penfolds Grange wine at a cost of $1100 we in order. Fine by me as it was still a deal even with that inclusion and anyhow, how many car sales have been done with bottles of Penfolds Grange exchanging hands, arguably some of THE best wine in the world!

Over email the deal was done, so good friend Brendon agreed to join me for the trip to Melbourne and if I didn't buy the car after the test drive, he would pay for the flights back for both of us "but that's not going to happen is it!" he said :)

Down to Melbourne on a 6:30am flight (I don't do early mornings well) and we met Blair in the Airport as he was returning from visiting a mate in NZ. We got to his beautiful house in Richmond and took the car straight out for a test drive in the wet wet rainy cold Melbourne weather. The car was a perfect example Exige S, only 14,000km's and very tight and solid, it honestly felt like new.

All the paperwork and insurance was done and the Penfolds Grange  was handed over in a ceremony (ok not really) which was accompanied with a Penfolds book I was given when purchasing the wine.

The two beautiful bottles of Penfolds Grange 

I wrote a short note to Blair in the book:

To Blair,

The title of this book (The Rewards of Patience) couldn't describe our negotiation for the sale of the Lotus any better! It will be going to a good home and I hope you enjoy your Grange in the many years to come. Keep in touch.

Best Regards Mark Bedford

The handing over ceremony! (ok just handing over the cheque) 

The air was a bit emotional as Blair kind of air kissed the car away as we drove his old baby away.

We had plotted a recommended route via the snowy mountains thanks to Robs son Alex to take in some great driving roads and a night was booked in Thredbo in Robs shared ski lodge there. If you have driven through the snowy mountains before you will know there are a LOT of stones on the alpine roads, so Brendon intelligently brought some Blue tape to protect the nose and sides of the car.

Well that was what we started to do, but we got a little carried away being egged on by the local car wash guys who came to watch and offer advice like 'you should do that bit' 'and that bit' 'don't forget to do the wiper!'.

You can never have too much Blue tape on your car! 

Paying attention to Blue striping the details 

To just Blue strip the car is amateur, you have to blue stripe the drivers too! 

Leaving Melbourne in the pouring rain and the tape was holding up at motorway speeds 'just' and proved to entertain passersby :)

Getting closer to the mountains and the NSW border on a long clear motorway and Vic police decided to ping me as I slightly ventured over the 110kph limit whilst checking our location on the map. I was only just over the limit but Brendon straight away said 'Vic police have zero tolerance, they'll book you for sure' and sure enough they did.

Wasn't a bad experience though, the copper, a older guy, was professional and to the point. We did have a giggle out of it though when he asked 'what's with all the Blue tape' well I said 'well there's a lot of stones between here and Sydney'. With that I saw him eyeing up the bits of Blue tape on the roof and said 'not that bit, that's just for show' which resulted in him smiling and a laugh, we left on happy terms.

Victoria Police do not like Blue tape :(

The weather for the whole drive was just ABYSMAL. We left the last town before the snowy mountains ski resort of Thredbo very late with a young girl we bought some supplies from telling us in few words we were CRAZY to drive to Thredbo this late and in this weather. If she knew we were doing it in a Supercharged Exige with semi-slick tyres that run like butter in any standing water, well she would have phoned for the 'men in White coats' I'm sure.

We did get to Thredbo safe and sound around 9:30pm, about 4 hours after dark. Highlights of that part of the drive were a short 'Blare witch project' style video we made during a stop in the middle of nowhere and when 4 deer were spotted on the verge just as we were on them with me nearly browning my pants.

Thredbo was COLD minus degrees through the night and as it was summer in a ski resort, everything was closed, dinner was 2 packets of crisps, a chocolate bar and a bottle of Shiraz wine to share.

In the morning the car started perfectly from the cold and amazingly all the Blue tape was still there! Still raining hard we took a bit of footage on the video camera and soldiered on towards Sydney.

Blue Tape 'just' about holding up after 500km's + in heavy rain

Even sitting out in the rain near freezing all night
the car started beautifully in the morning

The driver wasn't starting so beautifully though
in the damp cold alpine morning air

Driving home the car performed flawlessly and it was nice to have the Lotus traction control there to catch the wheels when you pull away with a couple of cm's of rain on the road.

After arriving to Brendon's home just south of Sydney, we pepped ourselves up with a hot coffee at his local favourite coffee shop and pulled off all the Blue tape for the last 80km's back to mine, our thinking was to allow the rain to blast off some of the tapes glue residue. 

Arriving back at mine in central Sydney and the cars trip counter had passed the 1000 km mark and gone back to 45km. What a great drive and eventful trip we had, the conditions were not suited to test the cars driving dynamics out, but we tested it in many other ways in some terrible weather conditions. Thanks Brendon for sharing the experience with me.

Washing the grime off after a long 1045km drive

Next up is to personalise the car a little as my own, no that doesn't involve me leaving my scent in there! Maybe some stripes, some carbon fibre body panels, maybe a supercharger upgrade could be some of the options on the menu, I'm sure you'll find out.

Cheers Beddy aka 'Beddo'

At the recent Lotus Australia xmas Party/concours I whipped out my video camera and did the rounds of filming, well after a few evenings on the computer here's the video.

"A short movie of the Club Lotus Australia 2009 xmas Party/Concours at the Lovely Shakey Tables Restaurant in the Hunter Valley. It was such a windy day we picked up so much wind noise on the microphone, hence the lovely christmasy music. Enjoy! "

Cheers and HAPPY CHRISTMAS Beddy.

I had to disguise myself as a qualified dentist along the same lines as my dentist and friend Angelo to sneak my way past the dealer and into the driver's seat of the new Evora.

Why do you say? well he got a very lucky drive of the car just last week as just one of the select chosen few as the car isn't even shipping to customers in Australia yet.

Would you believe it, the $2 disguise worked, it was that good and I managed to get a good 45mins drive of the Evora around the eastern suburbs twisty roads.

'intelligent' glasses and 'Qualified Dentist' stick on post-it note disguise

Ok so what did I think? Well you can really feel the Lotus DNA from the Elise/Exige/Europa shining through in spades. I can best describe the ride and chassis feel like an Elise/Exige with a bit more weight which allows the imperfections in the roads to be soaked up better, akin to a more German chassis setup.

What does that mean? Well there is all of the mechanical grip and feeling like you get from an Elise/Exige, but with none of the crashing when you drive over potholes or large joins in the road.

Outward visibility, I noticed the rear view is obstructed quite heavily by the plastic engine cover shroud. Although the side mirrors are much larger than on the Elise/Exige, and more than make up for the lack of view from the center mirror.

Steering is precise and communicative like in the Elise/Exige, if a little more weighted in feel, great.

The gear action is similar to the Elise R/SC/Exige's 6-speed but with a slightly less 'notchy' feel which suits the cars character better. The pedals are perfectly spaced like on the Elise/Exige for heel and toeing although I found the engine doesn't respond as quickly as the 4-cyliinders when carrying out a heel & toe change.

The 6 cylinder engine idles and plays out its song much more beautifully than the 4 cylinders we are used to in our cars. Its vocals over around 3000 rpm sound lovely, not throaty or raw, but rich and warm, defiantly nicer to listen to over the Elise/Exiges standard exhausts sound.

The performance, well I think I'm spoilt a little coming from a 4 seconds flat supercharged car but it was a little lacking for me in a straight line. There is more show of torque when flattening your foot in a high gear on a hill, but for me where the perfections of all other areas of the car excelled, it desperately needed more power.

Don't get me wrong though, as I said I'm a bit spoilt so if you came from a naturally aspirated Elise/Exige you would be happy with the performance until inevitably an official or 3^rd party supercharger kit will come out for the car and you'll be laughing all the way to the track. =)

Have covered 600+ km's and 1 track day at Oran Park Raceway so far after the supercharger install and I'm still very impressed with the VF Stage 1 kit.

On the straights at track days, pre-supercharger I would be level with the likes of BMW M3's, and modified EVO's would pull away slowly, now it is just pulling hard right past everything on the track right up to 210kph in 5th, where I eased off at the end of Oran Park's straight. Sanna now says ‘Little Loti has big balls’

I look forwards to getting to a track day soon where there are some exotic supercars, if I can stay level with them on the straight I'll be more than happy as I'll get them on the twisty bits :)

Friend Brenden from the Lotus club has also fitted a fire doodah for an extra insurance policy using one of his great brackets (highly recommended if you don't want to drill into your metal floor).

Looks just like it could have been a factory fitted option, just what I was looking for, thanks heaps Brenden.

Over the past few months I have been slowly taking footage for a video I have always had in mind to finish off. It completes the 3 part video of a detailed look at the Lotus Elise R, and now it has all the parts I really wanted to put into it.

All the footage was filmed on the excellent (but bumpy at times) roads of the Sydney Royal national and Lane Cove national parks. Flatmate Damien and good friend at work and fellow petrolhead Cameron were my camera team.

The in-car footage was recorded using the sticky pod Professional camera mount system stuck to the lower left hand side of the windscreen. My Sony HD HDD video camera was attached to the sticky pod. Video editing again as done with my good friend Adobe Premiere Pro, although a real bitch to start to learn, its very powerful and loaded with professional level features.

I’m certainly no professional on camera but I think it went well for a bit of a laugh, and it was good fun with friends making it. Enough with the babble, watch the videos! :)

aka 07 Elise R go Supercharged project – VF kit Stage 1

aka The Elise Lotus ‘should’ be making

Well I kept it a bit quiet but the supercharger upgrade to the Elise R is fitted , tested and complete. The results so far on the road, well I’m totally chuffed and a very happy man and I now have a Lotus induced headache from the excitement of driving it :)

The cars just ticking over 12,000km’s now so it is still feeling fresh and new but like all owners, I yearned for a bit more power & torque from my little Elise.

Time for some forced induction!

The back story….. After looking around for nearly a year researching all the Elise supercharger kits available, Katana, BRW, SSC’s OEM based kits and becoming very very close to trading up to the Exige CUP 260, I finally drew down to the VF (that’s VisionFunction) kit jointly developed in AU and the US.

Vision function currently produce Stage 1, 2 and in the works stage 3 kits for the Lotus Elise R, Exige customers wanting a bit more power than is on offer from Lotus but I went with the Stage 1 kit which provides more than enough power and torque levels (see below).

After the order was in with Turbo XS team in Hornsby (the licensed kit supplier and installer for VisionFunction in AU) they promised the kit would take 2 weeks to fit.

This time was mostly down to the ECU having to be posted to the US for the legendary (well on the international internet forums level) Charlie X, to work his code onto the unit and post back to AU. The actual physical parts of the kit only takes the guys a few days to fit and its all rear body clam on work.

I should say what is in the kit, well all the details and technical data can be found here www.visionfunction.com but the kit contains:

• Eaton MP62 Supercharger (same as used in all supercharged Lotus Exige’s, not in the Elise SC)
• Custom Intake Manifold
• Intercooler (tests show 50% lower intake charge temperature, very important)
• New fuel Injectors (440cc)
• Charlie X Custom ECU Reflash

The kit cost all up $13,000 which included all labour, posting of ECU to the US and back, and 2 years parts and labour warranty. The guys at TurboXS kept to their word and the car was ready in a little under the 2 weeks they said. So far Stage 2 kits have been fitted to 2 cars in Melbourne but I am the first customer to have a Stage 1 kit fitted in AU. The kit produces a fairly hefty increase in power, here are the figures:

At the crank = 219.98Kw (295hp)
At the wheels = 183.82Kw (246.5hp)

The day before I picked up the car the guys took the car to be Dyno tested to do a before and after comparison, here’s the results and a video they made:

On the graph above, Red is the old power and
torque outputs, Blue shows the new. 

I picked up the car today and so far have driven it for just less than 100km’s around the city to run it in a bit. First impressions are the car goes as hard as the Exige CUP 260 did when I tested it 2 weeks ago, I'm serious. 1st and 2nd gears are just over in seconds and are really quite scary. Car weighs in at 885kg with no driver so 0-100kph should be a clean 4 seconds if you know how to launch it correctly. Pushing hard over slightly broken tarmac, the traction control light blinked a tiny amount as you feel the rear tyres fighting for grip to put the power down.

Last weekend a few of you know I was lucky to have a Porsche GT3 for the weekend. The Elise now feels like it pulls the same if not actually ‘quicker’ to 100kph now and over that nearly as hard as the GT3 does. I feel the chassis would start to not cope so well if more power was put under the hood, I dunno.

Before and after comparison shots, the installation is neat & tidy

New air intake system 

The guys were very helpful to make up some supercharged badges that I supplied in JPG format to them, this was an unplanned item for them and they happily obliged, finishes off the car visually quite nicely:

Supercharged Logos I put together in Photoshop
and they applied to the car

Oh and I have not mentioned the sound! The mashing of the superchargers gears as it chomps up the air makes the most incredible and crazy sound! Pushing the accelerator to the floor there were pedestrians hearing it coming and thinking ‘what the hell’s that sound’. It sounds a lot like when a Jet plane is on the runway throttling up its engines, just crazy. It is FAR louder than the MP62 sounds in any of the standard Lotus supercharged Exige cars, it must be the free’er flowing air intake system I would think.

I am looking forwards to getting the thing out of the city and letting it stretch its legs to really see what nearly 300hp and under 900kg’s of weight feels like :)

As the VisionFunction.com website says:

Head turning looks, CHECK!
Phenomenal lateral grip, CHECK!
Eye ball yanking braking, CHECK!
0-60 acceleration of a Porsche 911 Turbo, CHECK!

Sanna says after a drive ‘yeah it goes really fast!’, Damien says ‘It sounds Good!’

I will check back in once I’ve got a few more Km’s under its wheels :)

cheers

Well the drive of the Lotus Exige CUP 260 managed to come through and yep I was the only person allowed to drive it before it went to Targa Tasmania to compete, and bloody amazing it was to drive too. A pure race car for the road it felt, totally un-driveable for the road, totally un-practical, totally FUN!

Queue cheesy smile for the camera!

My full article write-up of the drive is live on TheMotorReport.com.au site right now right here: 2009 Lotus Exige Cup 260 First Test Drive

The Cup 260 competing on Day 1 of the Targa Tasmania 2009

Jump 2 weekends on and I had booked a weekend (Friday night to Monday morning) with my dream car the Porsche GT3. This one was provided by the supercar club and it came in White with only a couple of small options thrown at it, perfect. I think the Porsche GT3 looks best in White, it looked great, if I was ever to buy one it would surely be in White, I was in love. For years now my dream car has been the Porsche GT3 & its rarer GT3 RS cousin. The proof, I have a large framed photo of a Orange GT3 RS on the Nurburgring ring on my hallways wall :)

But back to driving the Porsche GT3……. By far the best highlights of the car were its rock solid suspension feeling, totally direct steering feel and above all an engine you couldn't fault and made me smile inside with every push of the accelerator.

With its 415HP the power from 4500rpm surged massively and was more than enough for the road. As you pressed your foot to the carpet, the rear would squat down and push into the road as it accelerated hard.

The sound from the flat 6 cylinder 3.6 litre race bred Porsche motorsport derived engine sounded like it was truly from the race track. It sounded just like what you hear when watching the Porsche Carrera cup races on TV. For the good reason too that it’s the same engine used in those cars, just in this road car form its carrying a bit more lard up front. Still 0-100kph in around 4.5 seconds cant be snuffed at.

I did find it a tad loud from the exhaust on the motorway sections of which I did a few 100km’s in the end. After returning the car the supercar club representative Mark, said it sounded like the exhaust baffles were jammed wide open, giving it full volume all the way. Still I agreed with him, I would of rather them jammed open than jammed shut :)

So GT3 or Audi R8, both the same pricing here in Australia? After driving them both just 1 month apart and both for more than 500km’s I would say the R8 just pips it to the post slightly, and I mean just slightly. The R8 has the advantages of the all-wheel drive grip on the road, much more advanced magnetic adjusting suspension and a V8 that delivers around the same power but crucially all through the rev-range.

I’d still take the GT3 in White though :) Second hand one’s are now coming on the market for $190k, give it 12 more months and it could be attainable to the likes of Mr. average Joe blogs armed with a bit of finance like me :)

Took the Aston Martin DB9 out at the weekend, covered 500km's over 2 days in the end. The DB9 being the current Aston Martin range topper was a good car to be enlightened to the whole Aston Martin experience for the first time. Great long distance tourer, a sports car it is not. There were a couple of times I pushed it a bit too hard and it became unsettled (loosing traction), the stability control kicking in and fixing things up quickly and effortlessly. Speeds and corners I could push the Elise or Audi R8 through hard, the DB9 got upset with me.

Still as a GT it was amazing, it reminded me a lot of my dad's BMW 535 with its effortless torque and its relaxing ride, the DB9 has 80% of its torque from just 1500rpm, beautiful to drive with.

I managed to kerb it doing a reverse park during a photo shoot at Olympic park yesterday and made a 6cm rim scratch. Before the club called I phoned around for 3 quotes to fix it to prepare myself for the shock and they were all around $250-$300 to fix it, amazing. The club called mid-morning and they said they noticed a large scratch on the alloy which was fresh. They said no worries, just put it down as wear and tear basically, I thought that was a pretty good call of them.

Yesterday during the photo shoot a friend arrived with a lovely example Lotus Esprit Sport 350 he bought last week. Only 5000km's on the clock, only 45 made worldwide and only 1 in Australia. The Sport 350 was the 2^nd to last rare edition Lotus made specials before shutting down the Esprit production line. A few cyclists in their 40's turned up and it was obvious to them this was a childhood poster dream of theirs as they were growing up; they were besotted by the car.

Later this week I'll be lucky enough to get a road test of the Lotus Exige CUP 260 before it gets transported down to Tasmania for Dean Evan's to race in the famous event. I think Lotus are super keen to get me into it to give me and Sanna a drive before it goes to Taz to act as a Lotus PR machine.

That's my ramblings off my mind for now...