John, Ralph
The full story?.. rang up the factory on Friday, got my email confirmation through and set off early on Saturday for a 10am start at Hethel. Straight in, no queues, no traffic, parked on the end of a line of Elises and Exiges. Mine was the oldest car there except for an Eclat (I think). One S4 and one +2 arrived later in the day. Signed in for the ?Vehicle Safety Check and Evaluation? the ?Inspection? and the ?Engineer Drive Evaluation?.
Up on the ramp the (young) techy- who builds racing 2-Elevens, sevices Elises etc during the week was a bit lost when it came to my ?older? car, so he called in Nick Adams - Lotus Chief engineer - to help. Nick was able to guide him on where to look for the weak spots, foibles and idiosyncrasies of our cars. He?s had a lot of Elans and raced a lot of Elans and won in a lot of Elans too. With the car up in the air he suggested a locking nut under the rollbar to shock absorber nylok nut, did a spanner check over the underside and helped with adjusting the front wheel bearing. Just over an hour was spent on the car, at one point with four techies, looking, adjusting and suggesting.
Overall, after a forty point check list I wasn?t unhappy with the things they found - bad earth on rear indicators - N/S/F brake hose just about rubbing on the steering rack (fitted a length of cable tidy/spiroflex stuff) - front wheel bearing play - those front antiroll bar nuts were tightened - a lower wishbone nut could have been tighter. We compared notes on modifications, him the seasoned, winning, Lotus Chief Engineer and me the Numpty Novice - Oh how we laughed at the handfuls of cash we?d given over to our hobby. The young Techy said he was really pleased to have gone over my car because usually it?s only ever the newer Lotus? that come to these days.
After this came the Engineer Drive Evaluation - I was hoping and I hope Nick was hoping, that he?d take me round the Hethal track, but minutes before we were due to go out he ricked his back - enough to have an ambulance called! - (No privacy on the world wide web eh!) Another young driver/engineer was to take his place but suggested Alister McQueen who was visiting for the day would be more beneficial. Alister said he?d been a test engineer and instructor at Lotus since 1966 and if my car wasn?t a kit would probably have driven it after it?s build in 68.
After signing the indemnity and collecting our Lotus supplied open face crash hats, Alister and I made ourselves comfy - odd to be the passenger in your own car - a steady but not slow first lap to get to remind himself of the Elan then a few flying laps. At the end of lap two we took a ride around the circle at one end, Alister pushing the car wide - full understeer then lift off oversteer - Alister said Lotus cars have always been designed to make the driver feel confident immediatly, but he wasn?t feeling that 100% from mine. His notes read: ?diagonal pitching - feels nose down during cornering -low front rebound damping -check rear toe?. I understood what he meant, perhaps I?d just got used to it. what I also noticed - as a passenger - was a bouncy rear from the corner under compression - suggestions? I was thinking maybe my bumpstops are too small (which they are) - maybe? What I also thought about as a passenger was how much pressure I put on the door and hoping I?d put the door locks together as well as I hoped I had! Four laps in all with Elises going round at the same time, nice to feel the car on a track again, it’s been a long time.
All in all a really good day, rounded off by Classic Team Lotus testing the 79 there as well.