Lotus Cup Europe 2006

[Mark H]

Developed by Lotus' motorsport division, Lotus Sport, the Exige Cup car is produced in limited numbers specifically for the Lotus Cup Europe series that visits several circuits around the continent as part of the European GTP weekends.

 

The Exige Cup car is available in two versions, 190 and 240 hp. Both feature the Toyota-supplied 2ZZ-GE engine in either naturally aspiratedor supercharged forms.

 

Lotus Cup Europe continues to grow with two types of competition, Race and Regularity. Regularity events are open to all types of Lotus Elise, 340R and Lotus Exige road legal cars with competitors being assessed on consistency of their lap times as opposed to pure speed. The Regularity event is a single-day programme and normally consists of 2 x 25-minute training sessions followed by a 30-minute Regularity event.

 

The 2006 season will continue in the same format as last year whereby Race events will take place on the same weekends as Regularity. These races will be 75-minute format and are only open to those with a Lotus Exige Cup car

 

The Lotus Dealer plays a central function in the Race and Regularity series and is the direct contact point for the customer. Registrations/entries can only be completed at the official participating Lotus Cup dealer. The Lotus Exige Cup car is only available at the official Lotus Cup dealers. All events are co-ordinated by an external Cup organisation with the official support of Lotus Cars Ltd.

 

http://www.grouplotus.com/generic/generic....=13&page_id=338

 

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Cup_20Europe_202006.pdf

[Ian_km]

Does that mean that Lotus Sport will continue to make Road Cup cars for the UK this year?

[simondann111s]

This is great, Lotus just keep on supplying all the evidence I need.

I’d love to be in the pits to hear the comments about the brakes..

 

As far as I know Lotus have now built the 50 limited edition Cup 240 cars. I assume that the standard Cup car continues as before as it was not a limited run.

[Mark A]

This is great, Lotus just keep on supplying all the evidence I need.

I’d love to be in the pits to hear the comments about the brakes..

 

As far as I know Lotus have now built the 50 limited edition Cup 240 cars. I assume that the standard Cup car continues as before as it was not a limited run.

 

 

Perhaps I'm missing something in the press release but what 'evidence'?

If you mean when they all have problems, which I assume is what you are expecting to happen, it could work against you if they don't. I've spoken to a couple of 240R owners who have had no issues with their brakes so I guess they aren't all having problems.

[chris_h]

Did any of the exiges including the Exige S from the lotus factory have any problems at donnington on Saturday.

 

Some people including the red S were breaking very late and very hard lap after lap.

 

I didn't here of any problems when i was there on Saturday and there don't seem to be any posted up on exiges.com yet.

[simondann111s]

Perhaps I'm missing something in the press release but what 'evidence'?

If you mean when they all have problems, which I assume is what you are expecting to happen, it could work against you if they don't. I've spoken to a couple of 240R owners who have had no issues with their brakes so I guess they aren't all having problems.

And I have spoken to a few who have, SEE HERE

 

Did any of the exiges including the Exige S from the lotus factory have any problems at donnington on Saturday.

Some people including the red S were breaking very late and very hard lap after lap.

I didn't here of any problems when i was there on Saturday and there don't seem to be any posted up on exiges.com yet.

 

If it's a problem thats specific to my car then Lotus should have no problems in fixing it. Robs (to his great credit), has already replaced the brakes once, Lotus have done nothing and now want a further 6 weeks to gather information.

 

I went to Bedford on Saturday as a PASSENGER, leaving a £45K track car sat in the garage because it won't do the job it was designed for.

 

I don't mean to have a pop at anyone on here, but you have no idea how angry I feel at the moment…….

[Mark A]

Perhaps I'm missing something in the press release but what 'evidence'?

If you mean when they all have problems, which I assume is what you are expecting to happen, it could work against you if they don't. I've spoken to a couple of 240R owners who have had no issues with their brakes so I guess they aren't all having problems.

And I have spoken to a few who have, SEE HERE

 

Simon,

 

I understand your fustrations but on that thread in SELOC, which I read at the time, there is only one other person (KAMAR244) who has a 240R or Cup who has had an issue. If as he said the cup cars in Europe are having problems then Lotus should know about this. The problem is that his comments are very much 2nd hand.

 

There are a lot of people saying that they brakes are crap but who don't actually have experience of that brake set-up. Yes other Elise/Exige brakes are very similar but they aren't exactly the same.

 

This, I'm afraid, is the way Lotus will look at this issue, yes they will probably try and work out what the problem is with your car but that thread won't actually help you.

[speedyK]

This is great, Lotus just keep on supplying all the evidence I need.

I’d love to be in the pits to hear the comments about the brakes..

 

Have I missed soimething here? Do you have problems with the pads or the discs?

 

My Cup has the Bemani 265bhp S/C. I was driving it fairly hard at Hockenheim last month and did not experience any problems: >CLICKY<

 

(On the same track, my Speedster (VX220) on Pagid RS14s cooked its stock discs on this track day: >CLICKY<

 

I also cooked Porterfield carbon-kevlar racing pads on track in my 300ZX TwinTurbo in the session here: >CLICKY<, so I assume I'm pretty hard on the brakes).

 

My dealer has said that, should I experience any overheating, running ducts would be a simple job.

[Greg.g]

NICE clicky

 

quote...

 

My Cup has the Bemani 265bhp S/C. I was driving it fairly hard at Hockenheim last month and did not experience any problems: >CLICKY<

[simondann111s]

Ok, lets put this in to perspective. I bought what is currently the Lotus flagship model, one that is specifically designed for track use and advertised as such, one that has no official upgrades available that would make it more suitable for that use.

 

I have taken the car on track twice and both times had the brakes fail. Pagid have confirmed that this is due to excessive pad transfer to the disks and questioned the running temperature for the brakes. These facts are not in dispute, and I have demonstrated the problem to the dealer who agrees that all is not right with the car.

 

Question 1 must be: Is this problem specific to my car or others in the range?

As the dealer replaced the pads, disks & fluid after the first event I find it unlikely (but not impossible) that the problem is with just my car. Others have experienced the same problems, so that would tend to indicated that the problem was more widespread.

 

Question 2 must be: What is going wrong?

Having received Pagids’ opinions it is clear to me that excessive heat is the problem. This can be caused by poor cooling, in which case it’s a design issue. If the temperature cannot be controlled by cooling then either the disks or the pads need to be able to cope with the heat. Given past experiences with the RS14 pads, and given the experiences a lot of other owners running these pads, I feel sure that the problem does not lie in this area. So that just leaves the disks. Disks that were designed when the car was about 150Kg lighter, with half the power and running skinny tyres designed for road use. This, I think is the route of the problem.

 

Question 3 must be: Driving style?

The other possible cause is that my (and the others who have experienced this problem) driving style is far more aggressive then either the Lotus test engineers or those who are racing with the cars (if Lotus claim this is an isolated case). This must surely bring into doubt the testing that was carried out prior to Lotus releasing the car to the general public.

 

The last instance that gave rise to a complaint was on the 18th March. It was reported to the dealer, who having done all he possible can, reported it to Lotus Sport.

7 weeks have now passed since this was reported. I have attended the factory, when with prior agreement, Lotus were to inspect the car, they failed to do so. They refused to state if the car is safe to drive, and have done nothing else to resolve this issue. They now want a further 6 weeks to “gather information”

 

I think the solution would be to fit the AP racing 3000 series disks. That is my opinion, based on what others have done to get round similar problems. This would cost me about £1000, but invalidate my warrantee and runs contrary to my agreement with the finance company. Out of principle, I’m not willing to fix myself something that I consider should have been fit for the purpose that it was advertised to fulfil in the first place, not given the specific advertising and the cost of this model.

 

My pataince with this issue has now been worn very thin so please excuse my short temper. Thankfully, I have legal insurance as part of my houshold policy and will follow this route as a last resort. The fact that all other owners of this particular model have not experienced this problem does not concern me. The fact that I have, and that the dealer agrees that all is not right, is enough to force Lotus to agree a fix, prove that nothing is wrong or refund my money.

 

Sale of Goods Act 1979 (amended) "the law now states that if you are claiming replacement, repair, full or partial refund within the first six months of ownership, the onus is on the trader to prove that the goods were acceptable when they were sold. This is called the ‘reversed burden of proof’.

 

After six months, it is up to you (the buyer) to provide evidence to support your claim that the car was defective when it was sold, so you may need an independent report."

[Rich111s]

What a headache for you Simon. IMO Lotus should do the honorable thing and sort out your car NOW. Can you imagine Porsche doing this to a customer? Good luck

[Martin R]

Simon, ive been following your story with interest. IMO your quite right it should do what it says on the tin. Thats what you paid all that money for, irrespective of driving styles. Am i correct in thinking they dont appear to have the same problem on the 240r and this may be down to the different wheels giving better cooling to the discs ? If im correct its a shame you cant do a track day using 240r wheels.

[simondann111s]

Simon, ive been following your story with interest. IMO your quite right it should do what it says on the tin. Thats what you paid all that money for, irrespective of driving styles. Am i correct in thinking they dont appear to have the same problem on the 240r and this may be down to the different wheels giving better cooling to the discs ? If im correct its a shame you cant do a track day using 240r wheels.

 

My feeling is that the wheels certainly have an effect on the cooling and may help the 240R in this regard. I'm not convinced that this is the only reason for my current problems. Remember that the disks are vented from the rear so the wheels will not force cool air in, just increase the circulation abit.

 

Given that the brakes are clearly a safety critical component, I would have expected the failure/problem threshold to be set far higher then I or any Joe public trackday punter could ever reach. When I design our modular buildings there is always a 15% safety factor on the worst case scenario, a practice in common with most if not all structural engineers.

[Martin R]

Simon, some things on are car should surely be over engineered, brakes being one of them. Yours are patently not. On the other hand you have put Lotus in a tricky position if they admit yours are not fit for purpose they lay themselves open to claims from all the other 240 cup owners and possibly the 240R owners. Keep at it and good luck

[simondann111s]

On the other hand you have put Lotus in a tricky position

 

GOOD, I'm going to make it a dam sight harder for them if they don't get it fixed soon. I've held off with legal action so far, but not for much longer. The SMMT are next.

 

I couldn't care less if it forces a product wide recall and cost them hundreds of thousand. The is our safety, just what would it take of them to sit up and listen. Remember they STILL havn't even looked at the car so can have no idea of whats wrong, or they know what wrong and don't want to do anything about it...

 

At least now I have an agreement that a service engineer will look at the problem - only taken seven weeks!