WOW! That’s all I can say about the way the car ran at Anglesey.
What a day… It started off very wet indeed, but Anglesey is famous for its ‘funny’ changeable weather. The car was very quick on standard road tyres even in the slippery conditions and I felt comfortable the the driveshaft issues experienced at Cadwell Park were well behind me. Sure enough Metcheck was right on the money and the sun shone all afternoon. I popped in the video camera and got some great footage.
The first video shows a number of clips throughout the afternoon, how much fun? (including a surprise just after the start/finish). I had my bravery boots well and truly on and was giving it beans (in my book anyway). Not much came past me all day and you can really see in a few clips how good Honda powered Elise’s really are compared to Lotus’ standard fare.
The second video shows me following a friend Ian in his Link-Up Honda conversion. There really wasn’t much to pick between ours cars. Same engine, suspension and tyres. Only differences worthy of note are that Ian has a sports exhaust fitted, his engine produces around 230BHP - a whole 13 more than mine and I was carrying a passenger. See for yourself - we had a great time - both of us faster than a Lotus 211 on this occasion
Next track day is at RAF Valley, again on Anglesey.
The fuel protests made for an interesting and reasonable stressful start to the proceedings on the 15th. I’d just come back from my holiday with the family to find my spare set of road wheels hadn’t been balanced and the country’s Shell stations were running low on fuel. My car is specially tuned for ‘V’ power and I didn’t want to chance anything else. After a few crossed words with the ‘nice lady’ at my local Shell station I managed to get 60 litres of fuel loaded up and I went off to get my wheel balanced.
The trip across to Lincolnshire was uneventful and I arrived at the pub / B&B ready for the bar to open at 7pm. Far too many pints of Guinness led to a poor night’s sleep and a thick head.
In the morning we were greeted by beautiful sunshine at Cadwell Park - happy days!! The Car was running great until just before lunch, ‘clunk’ over the ‘Goose neck’, ‘no drive’ and I coasted down the hill and around ‘Mansfield’ to a stop and wait for the pickup truck - receiving my second red flag in 4 yrs! I was towed in thinking that I’d broken the gearbox and sat there recalling the week I’d spent putting the car together and the thought of changing the gearbox left me feeling a bit peed off. 180 miles from home with a broken car isn’t a great feeling.
I took off the race suit and gave the car a quick inspection. This revealed that the driveshaft had popped out of the out board CV joint - I was quite chuffed! Not a major drama and I was back on track within 2.5 hrs (after stripping down the offside suspension and hub assembly, much to the dismay of many other track users). I wasn’t alone either, a fellow track driver broke the driveshaft in his VW golf clean in-half.The driving tutor said it was quite common at Cadwell. News to me but I can understand why it would happen a lot on this track as the ‘Mountain’ section has to be hard on your transmission.
I’ve not had chance to rebuild the shaft yet but I’m guessing that it wasn’t put together too well in the first place? I suppose one major advantage with a DIY job is that you’re just not phased by problems and can fix them without having to re-mortgage the house.
Here is the video (I know, I know… I’m a bit of a girl’s blouse at the end of the straight).
I’m at the great ‘Anglesey Coastal’ track on the 11th July, so I need to get cracking and rebuild my driveshaft and fit some new suspension bushes to the front of the car.
Hope to see some Lotus fans there… p.s. I’ve bought and fitted a tow bar to my diesel Mondeo - no more driving my track car to track days for me! Mmmm comfy seats!
Some video from Anglesey on the 22nd. My car stood up well against a turbo charged 270 BHP Exige.
…great day at the Coastal circuit, which is proving to be the most popular layout at Anglesey.
Also met a bloke with a Tony Stansfield kit fitted, the second I’ve seen. Looks like a nice install. I now know 3 owners of the Stansfield kit so its looks like a popular choice for the non-DIYer. Still waiting to see a Link-up…
I’ll be at Cadwell on the 16th of June and Anglesey again on the 11th of July. Hope to see some more flavours of Honda install.
I’ll never see Milton Keynes in the same way again. The home of the concrete cow is also the home of Advance Motorsport Engineering (AME) (www.advancedme.co.uk) namely Dan Turner. A product of Cosworth’s F1 apprentiship scheme he certainly knows a thing or two about tuning cars.
“…you have what I believe to be the best available ECU for your K series engine.” - Dan Turner, AME.
First track day of this year at Oulton Park last Friday (the 25th Jan). What a day out!!
Firstly, lets discuss the issues I had (well issue)
I lost the nipple off the end of my throttle cable. Easy fix as I had a spare with me.
That was it… no other problems, car ran like clockwork and I’m very very relieved that it did. Obviously I’ll be taking the under trays off v.soon to make sure everything is done up properly.
This is the final part of the build, by this stage you should be well versed in the world of Lotus and Honda - you’re Type-R iVTEC K20A engine is purring and you really want to drive it.
I’ve been running my car for a few months now and here is my running report and general thoughts.
A quick picture I took up Moel Famau in North Wales. As you can see I’ve added a new logo - I had some stickers done and they look quite cool.
Speedo and temp gauges running via Lotus Ecu
I’ve had a few issues to iron out in this department. Mainly to do with the dials - these are resolved now and my car is starting to feel complete again. I had 95% of the fix completed but was seeing some erratic readings on the speedo and no temp reading. I found a great post on Seloc with the ECU pin-outs and went back through my notes. From this I worked out that I was missing a switched 12v supply to the engine side ECU plug - it now works!!! Fixing this has been in someways more rewarding than getting the engine going in the first place. I’ve recently posted a new section on wiring etc - take a look at my nice diagram [here] and there is a link to the Seloc post.
Heater issues - cold feet
I have noticed since the install that my heater is v.poor indeed. Not an issue in the summer but its been below freezing in North Wales and it really gives me no pleasure to drive in the cold. I don’t drive the car much but when I have I’ve had to pull over twice to re-scrape the windscreen. Anyway - this has focused my mind on finding a solution.
When I fitted the kit (which seems like ages ago now) I though that the heater would be an issue due to the nature of the plumbing. Other Seloc users had posted their views on this also and they were right. So I considered making up some pipework to route the original honda heater outlets into my heating circuit. Anyway my brother called me with an idea, he suggested using a pump to circulate the coolant around the heater circuit. Good idea - so I’ve done some reading (as usual) and discovered that the Lotus VHPD coolant circulation pump should be ideal. I’d also looked at some alternative bike engine pumps but the Lotus (Bosch) model is £40 or so cheaper.
Trackday season starts again soon
I’ve booked in at Outlon Park on the 25th Jan if anyone wants to see the car. This will be the first shake down on-track so I wonder what I’ll unearth that day?
Focus on finishing the site at last
The past few months has been a time for hibernation for me. The run-up to Christmas is always busy especially with two toddlers at my feet.
Anyway, I’m going to make an effort to finish the site over the next few weeks. I’m starting to forget what I did during the build.
Poorly email
Some users have reported email issues via the nick.morgan@elisetyper.com - if you too have any problems and want to ask a question / make a comment then contact me via ‘morgannick2000‘ on the Seloc website. EMAIL NOW FIXED!
This is probably one of the most contentious issues with this conversion. To be honest I was a little worried about this part, but after completing this section I’m happy that the strength of the car has not been compromised. It also means that the conversion is not reversible unless you have a spare rear sub-frame.
