Eric and Rachel's Lotus Exige-S 240 Homepage

Custom Modifications:

(Some related pictures can be found in "Our Pics" section)

MULTIVEX MIRRORS

· 08/2008 - It is well known (also noticed during our test drives) that the Exige has some major blind spots. Apparently Lotus assumes that everything you see in front of you, will soon be far behind you. Basically these mirrors eliminate all blind spots except for 180deg behind the driver. The closest part of the mirror is spherical convex (like OEM), the outer edges are aspheric. By the time a car is out of view in the mirrors, they are in your peripheral vision. These are great mirrors and should be considered no matter what car you have. We actually purchased them in June, before we had the car. I installed them within the first week of car ownership.

REMOVED THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

· 08/2008 - This is technically the first thing that I did to the car when it was delivered. I know you are asking, "what is the deal with his fascination with mirrors?" I don't have one, but like I mentioned above, Lotus seems to think mirrors are unnecessary. The rear view mirror comes with the car, however all it does is take up space on the windshield. When you look at it, you see only the Exige-S 240's intercooler behind you. As nice as that was, I decided to just assume the engine is on the other side of my rear window.

INTERCOOLER AIR INTAKE FETTLE

· 09/2008 - It turns out that the air intake path for the supercharger's intercooler (aka the roof scoop) has some restrictions where the roof meets the rear clam (aka the engine hood). From tests conducted on track by Lotus Sport engineers it was found that it was possible via some simple bodywork modifications to increase the efficiency of the intercooler. Typically, ‘opening’ the apertures resulted in an increased frontal roof intake area of ~ 20%, which thus resulted in an intercooler efficiency increase of ~ 15-20%. Sounded like a great excuse to take off the roof and bust out my trusty Dremel tool!

CUP AIRBOX

· 10/2008 - Also purchased before I had the car and installed before 900 of the 1000 break in miles were complete... The stock airbox (box that houses the air filter) is pretty small. A small airbox can only house a small air filter (approx Height 32mm x Outside Length 267mm x Outside Width 107mm). This smaller air filter is only available via a Lotus part number. I installed a larger airbox that is only found on the Lotus Cup cars, this allows me to install an airfilter that has almost 2.5x the surface area of the stock air filter. As an added bonus the filter is also a 'standard' sized filter that is used on many other cars. I decided to use the same brand filter that I have used for 20 years (starting with my Mustang) - a K&N. The combination of using a larger filter (approx Height 29mm x Outside Length 308mm x Outside Width 184mm), and upgrading to a K&N which has a less restrictive airflow provides easier breathing for the car and hopefully a few extra horsepower. It also has an air-intake hole that is over 2x larger than stock, eliminates the "snorkle" which is a long foam/paper tube that Lotus put on the cars to quiet the intake noise, and also gets rid of the "flapper" that also restricted both sound and air below 4000 RPM. One thing it does for sure is allow me to better hear the musical noises from the supercharger.

GOTHAM 265 TUNE

· 01/2009 - This is a tune that increases the horsepower from the stock 240hp to 265hp. I plan on going to the dyno one day to get the more realistic 'at the wheels' HP numbers. Update: See "Our Pics" section for dyno graph.

SAIKOUMICHI OIL CATCH CANS

· 01/2009 - All engines experience some degree of blowby which results in some nasty gases in the crankcase, forced induction causes an increase in these gases. In a typical setting, these are run through a PCV system (one-way to prevent higher intake pressures from going back into the crankcase) into the intake stream. Some oil is invariably carried through the system and gets on/in everything as it's typically routed back to the intake source just downstream of air filtration. In a car running an intercooler, the intercooler commonly collects this oil. Obviously oil in the intake charge can cause knocking (detonation) as well. The idea of this device is to condense the oil out of the blowby gases before allowing those gases to be recirculated into the intake.

LARINI DE-CAT RACE PIPE

· 01/2009 - When not driving on public roads, I remove the stock pipe that connects the header to the muffler and replace it with a full 2-1/2" mandrel bent stanless steel pipe that reduces backpressure, weighs less, and produces less heat. I have also wrapped it in DEI Exhaust Wrap that can handle 2000deg to further contain the heat that would otherwise be released into the engine compartment.

UNDER TRAY 1/4 TURN KIT

· 01/2009 - This was also purchased before we actually had the car. If you look underneath an Exige you will find that it is totally flat. Aerodynamically this is a great help, however for convenience it is a great hurt. Apparently Lotus employees get paid by the bolt because there are just under 4.0 x 10^7 torx and other miscellaneous types and sizes of bolts holding the three under trays to the car. That means to change the oil, your first 25 minutes are spent unbolting one of the under trays. Want to work on the exhaust? You guessed it, another under tray and another 25mins. What about in the front of the car? I think you know the answer. To solve this problem I have replaced all but a few bolts in the mid and rear under trays with phillips screws that only take a 1/4 turn to put on or take off. Now I can have one of the under trays off in less than 5 minutes with a simple screw driver and one socket!

RLS INTERCOOLER

· 02/2009 - Actually ordered in Dec 2008 - The stock tube and fin type intercooler is okay, but one quickly notices that it is prone to heat soak when you are not moving at highway speeds. After all, it is sitting on top of the engine. The Lotus Cup car comes with a larger intercooler but with the large price to match. Really Light Stuff (RLS) worked with Bell Intercoolers and made their version of the Cup car intercooler. Mine is clear anodized (stock was black). It is the same size as the Cup car intercooler and flows even better due to its bar and plate construction.

CORNER BALANCE AND RACE ALIGNMENT

· 04/2009 - The point of ordering a car with the "Track Pack" suspension was so we would have the adjustability needed in order to optimize the ride height and be able to corner balance the car. The car was lowered to the Lotus specified "Race" ride height, then balanced so that weights of the right-front and left-rear corners equal the sum of the weights of the left-front and right-rear corners with a driver's weight and 1/2 tank of fuel. Once that was accomplished, the car was dialed in with an aggressive alignment (within the limits of the stock suspension so as to meet class rules) as you would want for a car that would be primarily driven on the track or at an auto-x. To get this right takes a lot of patience!

POLYURETHANE ENGINE MOUNT INSERTS

· 05/2009 - Because the engine is directly behind you, Lotus uses very soft engine mounts to help prevent vibration / noise in the cabin. Soft mounts = a lot of engine movement. Perhaps this is why I have a window behind my head to view the motor - to make sure it has not flown out of the engine compartment during spirited driving! I installed Manly's inserts to almost eliminate the fore and aft movement/rotation of the engine while still providing some insulation so as not to perform like solid motor mounts (aka engine strapped to your back). Some of the advantages of not having mushy engine mounts are: improved throttle response, more immediate weight transfer during corning with throttle, less stress on the exhaust system as it is fixed as the engine tries to move, and improved shift accuracy when engine is under high load. There is now a little more low frequency vibration from idle to about 1500 RPM but that is far outweighed by the benefits.

INTERCOOLER RADIANT HEAT BARRIER

· 05/2009 - I took a day off after Memorial Day and I had some extra time so I finally made an intercooler heat shield. I had seen this on race cars before and thought that it might help prevent the intercooler from heating up due to the immense amount of heat coming from the engine. Again, the intercooler in this car is mounted directly on top of the engine, not the best location to keep it cool. I basically bought some thin sheet metal and applied gold heat reflective material to the underside of the shield.