grouplotusplc: Looking for something for the weekend? Check out this Lotus F1 teaser:... http://t.co/vu9bvtyt

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"loose crank bolt " Thought this may be of interest...


Monday - I noticed , engine pitch had changed, sounded to me like alternator was on its way out, couldn't see anything, informed mechanics at my place couldn't see anything.

Tuesday - on way to work, noticed noise was more pronounced, like alternator was about to fail, eventually slight rattle, heard the sound reverberating off cars as I passed, knew it was mine . I was in queuing traffic, rattle became louder, then battery warning light came on, eventually sounded like my exhaust had dropped off and rattling, at this point I cut the engine off, fortunately I rolled into a junction to a halt.

Had a look in engine bay smelled slight like burnt plastic, noticed one of the pulley cogs looked like it was at an angle, AA man came checked it out had a feel, said he thought it was idler pully collapse, bu it was a loose crank bolt which had caused pulley to collapse. So decided to take it to the garage...seconds away from the end here's what we found...










Fortunately the engine is safe, it was seconds away from being destroyed a very close call. From what I understand here is what happened. Bare in mind I had my cambelt changed about 18months ago by Peter Smith Lotus during a costly C-service. As you can see it appears the bolt hasn't had any lock tight put onto it during the timing belt change (very worrying, considering this was done by a "former" Lotus Garage). It appears because no lock tight was put on it, its allowed the bolt to come out over 18months, this has forced out causing the key to shear off, pushing out causing the pulley to slack, causing the alternator to fail (no power being charged to battery so light comes on), then pulley completely collapses (loud noise), forcing the cam belt to edge out, which slices the bottom cam cover in half and forces it off completely till I turned engine off with only a few mm left of the cam belt still on. Fortunately the timing mechanism was affected and this was a very close call... its good to be paranoid about sounds and if in doubt, kill the engine. Thankfully its all repaired, I have to thank mike at MGW racing for getting me back onto the road quick as its my day to day car.

Very lucky, really really angry though with the fact my last Cservice with PS lotus appears to have been a cowboy job, feel free to comment.

Lotus F1 Team - E20 teaser

Lotus F1 Team is pleased to announce that this year's Formula 1 challenger will be named the E20, with a new nomenclature commencing to commemorate the twentieth chassis designed at the team's base in Enstone, Oxfordshire.
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...was that it was awful and bump steer was terrible .. or something along those lines. That's my excuse why Tim and Miles were always faster than me

Hopefully it'll be sorted next week

Vitaly Petrov post Indian GP qualifying interview

At the end of Q1 today, Vitaly stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field after posting a time of 1min 26.181secs. In Q2, however, he was unable to improve on this time and finished 11th fastest. As a result of his five place penalty -- following an incident at the Korean GP -- he will begin tomorrow's Indian Grand Prix in P16. We caught up with him tonight to get his reaction to event.
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