Supercharged Exige - Finally !
31 August 2001 | 09:55 AM
#1
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After 18 weeks waiting.. TurboTechnics finally finished modifiying my Lotus Exige.
I managed to get more sleep that I thought I would last night, and fortunately I had an early start to get to TurboTechnics so I wasn't hanging around the office clockwatching.
Arriving at TT's offices the car was sat outside, nicely polished and ready to go.
Rob Yeomans took me through the nitty gritty of looking after the car (using the correct oil is <B>essential</B> due to the nature of the supercharger mechanism), what service intervals are etc.etc.
Peter Bland (engineer) then took me through a few points on the car, where the filling points were on the chargecooler and how to empty the catch tank (never done it before !)
Unfortunately they'd managed to drop something on my door sill chipping a bit of paint off, but nothing horrendous and hardly noticeable. Unlike dealers, they pointed it out to me rather than waiting for me to notice, and they're footing the bill for the repair.
One of the guys brought the car into workshop for me to look at the car as the heavens had decided to open (typical).
First impressions of the car running was that it's <B>quieter</B> of all things (which I don't mind) and deeper sounding.
After handing over my final cheque and waving goodbye to the TT boys it was time to head out onto the road (with cold brakes - remember, the RedStuffs don't work until warmed up).
I'd forgotten that you need to keep the revs up on the Exige to stop it kangarooing, so I think I amused those following me for the first few miles.
The road was still damp but figured I'd give it a squirt to see what would happen.. as the revs grew I could hear a jet-fighter sound whine rising behind me as the car surged forwards.. very nice..
I decided to provoke it some more, a bit more enthusiastically this time and promptly got the rear wheels spinning and the car sideways.. D'OH ! Sobered, I decided to wait until it was dry before trying those shenanigans again ! I then drove home <B>very</B> carefully !
About an hour ago the skies cleared, the sun came out and the roads dried up.. time for fun ..
I took one of my colleagues out for a 10 minute spin to, well, show off basically !
Now in the dry, I got a better idea of what the cars new performance was like.. and I think "violently fast" kind of sums it up.
In first gear (once rolling) applying a firm but not flooring right foot catapults the car forward and hits 7000rpm in no time (redline is still 7800) and time to change gear. Jeepers it's fast. Like <B>bang</B> fast.
OK, now for the 40-100mph kind of acceleration test.. I wouldn't publicly admit to speeding on the Queen's highway, but suffice to say that we passed 4 cars and a lorry they were following in less than 10 seconds.
1st, 2nd and 3rd gears are just a blur of violent acceleration where you feel more like a pilot than a driver, trying to keep the car straight and horizon-pointing without the back-end breaking loose.
The thing with the "old" 190 Exige was that in the dry and while accelerating out of corners I was pretty much guaranteed traction unless I was really provoking it (due in part to the super sticky tyres).. With the TT car I'll need to respect the car far more, learn it's limits and understand the feedback it's giving me.. this will take time.
So, was it worth the wait ?
That's comparing apples with pears. The wait was extremely painful, but the rewards appear to be sweet, and only more trackdays and open roads will tell the full story.
I managed to get more sleep that I thought I would last night, and fortunately I had an early start to get to TurboTechnics so I wasn't hanging around the office clockwatching.
Arriving at TT's offices the car was sat outside, nicely polished and ready to go.
Rob Yeomans took me through the nitty gritty of looking after the car (using the correct oil is <B>essential</B> due to the nature of the supercharger mechanism), what service intervals are etc.etc.
Peter Bland (engineer) then took me through a few points on the car, where the filling points were on the chargecooler and how to empty the catch tank (never done it before !)
Unfortunately they'd managed to drop something on my door sill chipping a bit of paint off, but nothing horrendous and hardly noticeable. Unlike dealers, they pointed it out to me rather than waiting for me to notice, and they're footing the bill for the repair.
One of the guys brought the car into workshop for me to look at the car as the heavens had decided to open (typical).
First impressions of the car running was that it's <B>quieter</B> of all things (which I don't mind) and deeper sounding.
After handing over my final cheque and waving goodbye to the TT boys it was time to head out onto the road (with cold brakes - remember, the RedStuffs don't work until warmed up).
I'd forgotten that you need to keep the revs up on the Exige to stop it kangarooing, so I think I amused those following me for the first few miles.
The road was still damp but figured I'd give it a squirt to see what would happen.. as the revs grew I could hear a jet-fighter sound whine rising behind me as the car surged forwards.. very nice..
I decided to provoke it some more, a bit more enthusiastically this time and promptly got the rear wheels spinning and the car sideways.. D'OH ! Sobered, I decided to wait until it was dry before trying those shenanigans again ! I then drove home <B>very</B> carefully !
About an hour ago the skies cleared, the sun came out and the roads dried up.. time for fun ..
I took one of my colleagues out for a 10 minute spin to, well, show off basically !
Now in the dry, I got a better idea of what the cars new performance was like.. and I think "violently fast" kind of sums it up.
In first gear (once rolling) applying a firm but not flooring right foot catapults the car forward and hits 7000rpm in no time (redline is still 7800) and time to change gear. Jeepers it's fast. Like <B>bang</B> fast.
OK, now for the 40-100mph kind of acceleration test.. I wouldn't publicly admit to speeding on the Queen's highway, but suffice to say that we passed 4 cars and a lorry they were following in less than 10 seconds.
1st, 2nd and 3rd gears are just a blur of violent acceleration where you feel more like a pilot than a driver, trying to keep the car straight and horizon-pointing without the back-end breaking loose.
The thing with the "old" 190 Exige was that in the dry and while accelerating out of corners I was pretty much guaranteed traction unless I was really provoking it (due in part to the super sticky tyres).. With the TT car I'll need to respect the car far more, learn it's limits and understand the feedback it's giving me.. this will take time.
So, was it worth the wait ?
That's comparing apples with pears. The wait was extremely painful, but the rewards appear to be sweet, and only more trackdays and open roads will tell the full story.
31 August 2001 | 10:35 AM
#3
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Joined: Nov 1998
Posts: 1,785
Likes: 0
Morelike ~270bhp
Along with another Elise, it's the first car TT have done to the 260bhp spec (260 being their estimate of what the engine was capable of), so TT were pleasantly surprised when the 260 engine returned 272bhp on the Emerald dyno.
[This message has been edited by DavidBrown (edited 31 August 2001).]
Along with another Elise, it's the first car TT have done to the 260bhp spec (260 being their estimate of what the engine was capable of), so TT were pleasantly surprised when the 260 engine returned 272bhp on the Emerald dyno.
[This message has been edited by DavidBrown (edited 31 August 2001).]
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