Hi there
So was at Donnington last Monday in the Exige in 39c heat with Lotus on Track, even worse had to cover arms and legs, that bit was not fun, but I survived.
Second session out and the car has never felt so good, the car was literally insane, was not over taken once and pretty much over took everyone and started lapping people in just a 15 minute session, only car I could not get past was a GT3 RS, the way it pulls away on the straights, but the car just felt incredible and though it is a saying many people make in error it truly feels as close as you could possibly ever get to a go-kart with a car that has number plates.
Then disaster struct, I pulled out the garage for session 3 and I noticed my brake pedal felt off, rolled to bottom of pit lane and again pedal felt really strange, so spoke to the marshal to let me reverse up pit lane back to my garage. Which I did. Upon parking up noticed fluid on the floor. So removed the access panel and the brake fluid reservoir was empty and the signs of fluid running down bulkhead evident.
Now the major advantage to been with Lotus on Track was that Seriously Lotus was present with their mechanics, they diagnosed the pipe from the master cylinder to the bottom of reservoir had detached, something they have never witnessed before, anyway they proceeded to put life back into my brakes:
So reservoir fixed, topped up with Castrol and all the brakes bled, £40 later (gave them £60) as literally life savers, brakes felt better than ever, but unfortunately that was the end of the day, but at least I could drive home and even better take the car for its track outing at Curborough the following day.
Let the Mrs drive home into the sunset, her comments were wow I can feel everything, it is a little tiring but wow it feels amazing, like nothing I've ever driven before, she of course enjoyed the instant and pin you in the seat acceleration as well.
Roll onto Tuesday, an even hotter day with 38-40c in the Exige and GT3 at Curborough:
911 launch control:
Exige 410
More GT3:
Both cars were flawless, though the heat did mean runs were limited to around 3 minutes a time at pace then a good minute or two cooling off. Both cars were incredible but the Lotus really was the better car at Curborough but it weighs a good 300kg or so less so you'd expect as such.
The Lotus really is impressing me it is such a great car, it is by no means the fastest because the GT3 or 458 would be faster in regards to lap time at Donnington, but it really is a lot more fun and a lot more engaging and the way the car felt on Monday at Donnington until the brake fluid issue the car literally felt like I was a professional driver pedalling a full blown race car round the circuit and I've driven single seaters and stuff, the Exige is a truly exhilarating experience on track and it is quite an effective track toy as it does not destroy its brakes or tyres.
Lotus have also approved a new supercharger unit for the car as they believe the rattle noise the supercharger makes is not normal and as such a new supercharger at a cost of £6000 is ordered and will be fitted once the new supercharger has arrived.
Also Seriously Lotus were at Donnington with their DCT/500HP Exige, what a mental car, I think it is like 5.8s 0-100mph the transmission knocks seconds of the acceleration.
