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Lotus in the Peak
28th - 30th June 2024

Blogs

Lucy lives on!

All, It has been some time since I last updated the blog.  All these years on, the little Lotus is still going strong.  She is now 20 years old and looks and drives as good as ever.  The love for this iconic car remains.   My days of mods and getting under the car every weekend are over I think.  I now simply enjoy the ownership experience and driving!  Oh, I also do a little bit of polishing - just a little. This car is simply pure magic and medicine to all gloominess. 😁

mambosasa

mambosasa

New Door Pins

One of the more popular mods over the years has been replacing the original door pins with the slightly thicker pins from either Eliseshop or Eliseparts.   Now, before I replaced mine, I didn't quite realise just how much my doors rattled during normal driving or even worse, when you hit a pothole or something.   This mod is straight forward and took me about 10mins to complete, however I have read elsewhere with some folks taking them as long as an hour to line up the doors.

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mambosasa

Led Fog Lights

For some time now, I have been keen to do two things. Firstly, add a bit of symmetry by adding another revers light, and secondly move the fog light to the where the original reflector light is.   What held up things was the fact that I needed a round LED light that would fit the original reflector recess. Anyway, they finally did it.   Credits: Thanks to Matt C for finally finding the right type of LED required for this application. One of the brighter minds   What you need:   1. Dri

mambosasa

mambosasa

2 Years On.

Well it's been 2 years now since i bought my M100. No serious problems to report apart from a puncture and the loss of the radio code after i replaced the battery. Just took her in for a second MOT and you guessed it she failed on the BRAKES, not having sufficient pressure and being biased on one side. Garage have recommended new callipers or having the original refurbished. Have gone for the refurbs as I want to keep the car original. Fingers crossed it works out. Watch this space. Thanks

Keith Simpson

Keith Simpson

Dash Cam

The popularity of dash cams seems to have increased immensely over the last couple of years, no doubt driven by the Russian YouTube videos and awareness around 'cash for cash' cons.   The range of webcams our there is mind blowing. In my daily driver, I have a Blackvue, wireless version which is probably one of the best in the market and looking at some of the captured videos, it would be hard to disagree.   My Choice   Personally, I wanted to install something that was both small and low

mambosasa

mambosasa

Lotus Elise Side Skirts

This is a mod that I have been thinking about for a while now. Doing my research over the years, it seems that there several options out there, made from various materials, ranging from carbon fibre to plywood. Now, having choices is a good thing, but one thing I struggled with was the cost. Hence me trying to come up with a solution of my own.   The Design   I was keen to design something that looked good, looked functional ( you can never test these things unless you have a proper wind tun

mambosasa

mambosasa

Trickle Charger External Port

Like most folks who own these little cars, it sometimes ends up sitting in the garage for weeks on end, especially during the winter months. Traditionally, what I tended to do is lift up the front bonnet and connect a trickle charger every time I suspect that I am not going to be driving it for a while.   This method works well, however it is a right pain in the back side as you would then have to pop the bonnet again, remove the terminal before driving the car out. Over the years I have toyed

mambosasa

mambosasa

The Epiphany

I had given up looking for a track car. I had resigned myself to the fact that there was nothing I actually wanted to buy out there in my price range. Imprezas, which could be had for that money, were so rusty they needed medical insurance and the word on the forums was that they were hellishly expensive to run on track days, and tended to ingest engines and gearboxes. Then I accidentally went back to looking at the Elise. I'd always wanted one since they first came out. I'm a particular fa

Sanctum

Sanctum

First Love

So about a year ago, I decided I wanted to do some track days. I wasn't getting any younger and a mid-life crisis was in the offing. After a few months searching the classifieds for that £1000 perfect track car, I realised that my budget wasn't going to stretch to what I wanted, not if I wanted to be able to run a track all day without running repairs. Fortunately, I had a couple of friends who had shown some interest in this, so I suggested we go in to a car with a third share each. This w

Sanctum

Sanctum

Throttle Pedal Linkage

This is an upgrade that I have been considering for some time now. As most of you S1 owners will know, the original OEM throttle pedal plate and linkage are not the best. I get movements in all directions that has no impact on the actual throttle movement, basically, its bloody wobbly.   In the end, I decided to take the plunge and buy Eliseparts' version and see what I get.     The kit.   The kit itself is pretty basic, you get the control arm, bearings, washers and bolts. That is it rea

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mambosasa

New Owner

Just purchased my first Lotus Elan and due to collect it on Sunday. The car itself is in mint condition and has had 2 owners from new. I am buying it from the second owner. After looking at the car today it feels and looks like the car has just left the showroom. Bodywork and engine are pristine, the cars interior is as it came from the factory even down to the original radio. It has even been on display at some classic car shows in the North West. I feel like I have just won the lottery, Su

Keith Simpson

Keith Simpson

Charge Cooler Installation

Charge Cooling   As per my other blog entries, as it stands the car now runs about 317bhp on the Jackson Racing Super Charger and oil cooler.   I am still running Stark's standard 4:2:1 exhaust manifold as I am yet to convince myself that I can shell out the £1K plus for a 4:1 system (watch this space )   Anyway, as always I try to do something new/ different when it comes to the upgrades, only in name of 'why not'.   So once I decided that I want to go down the CC route, it was a matte

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mambosasa

Side Air Scoops

This is one mod that I have been wresting with for a while. Although I have dramatically changed/ updated my car, one thing that I have been trying to do is keep the standard look.   Unfortunately, with the addition of the SC, the engine bay temps have gone up somewhat and reading through various forum entries, it seems pretty inconclusive as to whether or not the addition of the side scoops actually makes any difference at all.     As the car is far from being standard anymore, I final

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mambosasa

Vw Engine Trial Fit

Next up was to test fit the VW engine and find out where it was best suited for fitting before making up the engine mounts, I wanted the engine as low as possible and as far forward as possible, but I still had to leave enough room to fit the Inlet manifold and throttle body as well as thinking about the driveshaft position and making sure that the engine was sitting square in the chassis. This all turned out to be a bit of a head scratcher at times! It took me a couple of hours messing around

Dazzx10r

Dazzx10r

Engine Removal

After marking up all of the electrical conections and removing the exhaust, gear shift cables, clutch slave cylinder and throttle cable the engine was finally rready for lifting out, I had a bit of trouble removing the o/s engine mount and the bottom gearbox mount as they were siezed in but luckily a bit of heat from the old oxy/propane soon sorted this I have a lifting beam in my garage and a 1.5t block and tackle, so lifting the engine out was a doddle!

Dazzx10r

Dazzx10r

Rear Clam Removal.

I removed the rear clam, I thought this would be quite a daunting task, but it was real quite straight forward othe than a couple of siezed bolts. I started following the guide on seloc but after 10 mins I soon realised that thier guide was based on a S1 so was'nt all that rellevant. I'm not going to start writing a step by step guide on how to remove the clam as It was over a month ago when I took it off! After taking the clam off I made a start on removing the exhaust then onto disconecting th

Dazzx10r

Dazzx10r

Lotus Elise S1 Headlight Covers

I have been toying with the idea of adding the headlight covers to the headlights for some years now. To be honest, the S1 looks really good both with and without the headlight covers, so it has never been something that I felt strongly about.   Anyway, I finally decided to give it a go.   The Covers   I bought the headlight covers from a chap selling them on eBay. These were originally purchased from Eliseparts and the chap never got round to fitting them on his car.     First step

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mambosasa

Shift Beeper Installation

So, if you follow my blogs, you would have noticed that many years back, I installed a Head Up Display unit to project revs, shift lights, road speed onto the windscreen. This turned out to be a great mod that enable me to read where 'things' were during hard driving.   Downside   Now, I am not sure whether or not this happens to with other, more standard installations (ie shift lights right in front of you), however with time, my brain seemed to completely look through the HUD on the windsc

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mambosasa

Intergrated Key And Alarm Fob

One of the most irritating thing about the standard key is the attached Cobra alarm scrotum. It's cumbersome and it does tend to break off. For years now, a few people have had a go at coming up with a workable alternative that would combine the key, with the alarm fob to have a more integrated key - pretty much inline with most car manufactures these days.   Unikey (I believe produced by Blackwatch racing) was the last real attempt at this, and reading the forums, it seems that they are curre

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mambosasa

Uprated Gear Linkage Assembly

As you may have read on the conversion entries, as part of the Stark kit, they provide you with a gear linkage assembly that bolts to the back of the gearbox. You end up having to remove the Honda original assembly, along with the original selection weight.   I have seen the gear cables being routed in two ways.   1. Through the front of the bulkhead and up between the firewall and the engine   2. Through underside of the engine, then up to meet the gear assembly on top of the gearbox ho

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mambosasa

Jdm Cams Upgrade

One of the simplest engine upgrade is to get the OEM cams swapped out with something a bit more aggressive. Once again, the forums are full of details around which cams are the best depending on what you are looking to achieve.   As for me, Toda A3 is where I really want to end up, however I am advised that for this, I will need to upgrade the springs too. Toda cams are somewhat expensive too.   In getting me on my way, I decided to start off with the simplest cam upgrade. I bought a set

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mambosasa

Oil Pressure Gauge

Some years back, I knocked up digital gauges that I managed to squeeze in dash and covered with sunglasses lens.   I was very keen not to have additional gauges mounted on the dash, spoiling the interior simplicity of the S1 dash. By getting the digital gauge 'hidden' in the dash, they are only visible once the car is on, however they are completely disguised when the car is off. The overall effect is pretty good.   On     Off     When I originally installed the gauges, I run the

mambosasa

mambosasa

Carbon Lorraine Pads - Cl5

So, nothing seems to divide opinions more that what brake (friction pads) to use for what application. I for one, have tried various compounds over the years and yet to really settle with a favourite.   Of late, I have been running SBS Pros all round and to be honest, I found them to be a big step from the Green stuff I used to have. Once hot, they have pretty good and progressive feel, with very little fade when pushing hard on track. To be honest, the only issue that I have with them is t

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mambosasa

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