Created by Petrolheads, for Petrolheads

SPR has been to Minister Power to have their Lotus Elise 160bhp Sport engine upgrade. This is the same upgrade Bell & Colvill offered on the S1 from new. It involves removing the head and polishing and porting to 160 spec, fitting of Piper cams and vernier pulleys, refit head with new head gasket, cam timings reset with replacement timing belt and tensioners, new aux belt and waterpump. Bigger injectors are added plus we required x8 new exhaust valves and x2 inlet valves (this may explain the slight loss of power we had been experiencing due to a slight loss of pressure as the valves had worn and were not sitting snug). Finally to gain the max from the conversion we fitted a new 4-2-1 replacement exhaust manifold to our existing sports exhaust. Our original aftermarket air filter set-up was retained as it was found to be working very well in conjunction with the new work.

In addition, to make life easier getting in and out, we fitted a quick release steering wheel mech, as a revised unit has recently come on the market following the old units failings and withdrawal from sale.

As Jeremy Clarkson would say we now have poweeeer! The car is significantly quicker through the whole range. Max speed is now at 135mph+ (in 118bhp tune we could barely touch 120mph with the roof on). A shake down test at Bedford is planned for this coming weekend when we will discover exactly what she is now capable of recording.

I think we will need better brakes next to deal with the extra power and increased corner approach speeds 🙂

Just returned from this years show, its bigger and better than 2010. Highlights included: 1) the E-Type sculpture outside Goodwood House, 2) Honda’s big wheel which gave a birdseye view across the park, 3) Morgan’s 3 Wheeler (sounded amazing), 4) McLaren MP4, 5) BAC Mono track car, 6) Jaguar C-X75 (looked very cool in real life), 7) Audi Quattro.

Need I say more, could this be my next motor…

Meet my new BBC work colleague. Next stop Silverstone.

Another warm and sunny day greeted us for our first trip to Donington Park. No drama’s, just lots of lovely grip on a very fast and flowing circuit. SPR had been fitted with new Pagid RS-14 brake pads all round to cope with the recent power upgrade (following the demolition of our Mintex ones at Bedford last month), these worked a treat with no brake fade throughout the day.

Goodwood FOS celebrates 60 years of Lotus with a spectacular display of F1 cars past and present!

Some of the best road cars on display included the NEW Lotus Exige and Evora GTE. The best of the rest included the NOBLE M600 and CLK AMG Black.

The clock is counting down to the first trackday of the year at Cadwell Park for SPR, just a week to go until the 7th July when a black ribbon of hell beckons!

Our Tyresure tyre pressure monitoring system has failed. It has come to light that after around 12 months use via thermal heat transfer within the tyre the transmitter valve units crack and stops working (it has become a known manufacturing fault). Image attached for reference. We are trying to get a replacement set under warranty, but unfortunately for us our system is 18 months old. Be warned all those considering, enquire first to see if they have upgraded the product to overcome this issue! Having said all this the product does work well, when its not overheating 🙂

The challenge was not Cadwell Park the race track, but actually getting the cars to the track. Here we are all broken down in a ‘Park & Ride’ car park near Hatfield. SPR’s exhaust had come apart and she sounded like a Typhoon Fighter Jet (brill on one level), the AA came and fixed, and it feel apart again after 7 miles down the A1(M). So I wore my crash helmet for 120 miles acting as an ear defender kind of thing – sort of worked. Managed to scare quite a few commuters, particualrly at roundabouts under heavy acceleration. Awesome noise!