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I was wondering if there’s a thread here where folks hash out F1 conspiracy theories. My son’s a Hulkenberg fan, we attended Silverdtone F1 in 2012, last of the V8s! He was exstatic Sunday with the podium. My Dad was a car dealer, Dodge and Plymouth. He spoke of the “ring of steel” sound you experience in a collision, how it matures you. I asked about your experience because I wanted to know how real you view the possibility of an event, Yes my helmet is battered with black marks from contact with cage and the hard pads. We lowered me as much as possible. Notice heights of seats. I may do it with the 360R, lower just driver.

The Elise cage was installed by Dwight Wightman who did the cages for the Exige Cup cars. He said it weighs 90 pounds. It’s shaped to fit my knees and helmet and shoulder straps at good height, all that. No bar across the doors, depending on the high treshholds of the chassis. He also made custom sest mount to get me lower for the helmet. There is hard dense foam in helmet areas to sides. Six point Schroth. Seats reinforced to chassis. Always had neck protector too. Hard to compare to what Caterham offers, this car 750 pounds heavier even stripped for track. But I am just learning of how protective the Caterham offerings are. New here. I have to wonder. Have you been in many wrecks? Big offs? Spins? Ever been hit hard by another vehicle? In the words of my first driving instructor my Uncle Frank, “I’ve been in enough wrecks to know what to do when I get there” I’ve done all those things and more that I’m too embarrassed to admit. Stuff happens and even if it does not we prepare for it. You’re making a great effort.

Thanks for that information. The new build came this way I assumed it was oem “2022” 360R

I’m pretty sure I stand corrected.

Looking to install the 2nd level track day roll bar on the 360R. Plenty good info for the install of the bar itself, but I’m wondering about moving the third brake light to the new bar. Any guidance will be appreciated. Just looking at the factory third brake light there is no obvious way to remove it. I realize there may be no easy swapover or even a not easy swapover but I’d sure like to have this fine 3rd brake light stay on the car,

What have folks done to create a better security of the sest to the car floor? On the Elise we have reinforcement plates under the car.

My complaint with AI, no humor. I’m pretty sure that everyone reading this enjoys a good laugh now and again about our cars and ourselves as we pursue this adventure. That’s probably a good thing, we don’t want artificially contrived humor, it could get out of hand. Jokes so funny we’re not ready for them.

I’m calling it a Victory. After three times fully disassembling the steering column from the steering wheel quick release to the universal joint on the steering rack I have arrived at as close a straight steering wheel as is possible through adjusting splines alone. I’m also now an intermediate level at this procedure, learning and making new tools too. Took a test drive around the neighborhood to confirm the new steering wheel alignment and the seaworthiness of the amateur repaired machine. I’m satisfied that I’ve gone as far as I want to go for now getting it straight through aligning and rotating splines at the steering rack. The wheel is a Momo 270, 270 mm or 10.6” Circumference is 33.28” Divide by 36 splines and each spline rotates my wheel 0.92 inches. This is totally consistent with my clinical observation going through the neighborhood . About in inch counterclockwise. I could try to hit that one more spline but would need some help I believe being that precise at the steering rack ujoint. I’ll take it for now. Thanks for all the help. A major discovery is the groove in the lower column splines that allows the bolt to seat, helping locate everything.

The thing is, any sort of contact with a hard steel beam and your cranium is a sure lose. Unless well strapped down you or your passenger’s bodies can move quite a bit in an event. I don’t like driving my track prepped Elise on the street, full cage. My white helmet has a zillion black streaks and bumps from contact with the cage while I’m in a full six point harness and neck protector. Even with helmets we cover the parts of the cage near our helmets with a very dense almost hard foam material, anticipating a solid head to cage event.

The Momo 27 comes undrilled, Josh at Rocky Mountain drilled it. “Surgery” he said. I’m pretty spoiled from some of the cars and wheels we’ve had. A nice OMP on the Lotus track car is worn in but holds great memories. It’s just the best driving experience. My son pointed out though last night how cheap, “chalky” the material feels on the Momo, but I’ve made sure he’s driven new McLarens and such with proper alcantara. He knows like I do how good it can be from a driver’s perspective. Not for everyone but if you know… Since I want to recover with better material anyway red just fits this car and the Lotus legacy. Detachable wheel easier than shipping the whole car, gotta find the sesmstress though. It can be done.

I may give you time to use it a lot as I aquaint myself with Sevenland. I’d buy that premade red alcantara wheel if I knew of such.

And here we are, installed with lower steering rod splines reset. Not driven yet to confirm how straight it is. Anyone know of a service that could do a proper job to recover this Momo 27 in red alcantara and black stitching? Going for that classic look.The original owner choose the red leather console accents, I’m going with it.

Your ride has a lot in common with the one I have just taken responsibility for. The choice of safety equipment gets dicy in these cars. As I understand it from my experience setting up an Elise for full track, there are two ways to go with safety. * Three point and airbags * Seat secured to floor, full cage padded near head, 6 point harness secured to car and cage not seat, helmet, neck protector There are supposed hybrids like the 4 point Asm Schroth offers but I’m skeptical. One shoulder belt is loosely sewn to elongate as you are thrown forward so your neck is not over stressed= 😵 There are more advanced systems with netting on windows etc etc for racers. Arm retraints are appropriate with an open car. So anything else is a compromise. We are just choosing what to give up, what risk to accept. I don’t like driving my track setup Elise on the street because I’m in a twin shoulder harness with no neck protector and my head is near (padded a little) steel tubes with no helmet. I think many maybe most folks assume it’s curtains if anything happens. Eyes up.

That’s good information and probably the way to go. I appreciate your experience. But I’m still at the “blue stars” stage getting of familiar with a new car. I swear the Elise was more fun to drive after I’d changed pads and rotors and flushed the brakes system with a pressure bleeder myself. After I learned this on the Elise I taught my son, now 28, how to do it on his Nissan Z. Had 102 track days with her but some of the best fun was laying on cardboard under the car with a flashlight in my mouth. And it’s radical and racy to have blue brake fluid. At least to me.

Good information. And that’s why I asked. Confident of a useful response. I’ve methelene blue on hand I use with an aquarium system to identify a solution that’s NOT going into the system. Google says it’s glycol compatible.

It’s time to flush the brakes, the car has sat in storage over two years with original amber fluid. Some of us know about alternating colors of brake fluid to determine the flush is done. With the “brand new” uncolored fluid in there now there’s not much way to tell when the new arrives. The powers that be have contrived to make this unavailable to help protect the oppressed folks I guess. I have plenty from back in my track days but out of date now. Is there a way to get the blue brake fluid stateside? Meet someone at the end of a dirt road with cash?

And there you go. And literally a reflection of Lotus’ past. You can see the thin white plastic liner that actually touches the upper steering column. White tab on left lines up with the dogears going left and right. Could have easily pushed the bushing in too far, using the C clip on the column to push it in. Now on to the steering rack splines…

Just back from a few fun miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway, thanks to the help I’ve found here and Josh at Rocky MountainCaterham. The Momo so much more fun to drive than the beautiful (and available) flashy British wooden wheel. it was too easy to reseat the upper steering bushing. I used some red penetrating oil liberally inside the white plastic liner and on the outside or the dogesrs. I did trimmone slightly to make a more tapered entry. On my car the gray rubber bungs on the bushing orient to left and right. This fixed the squeak as well. So fun getting to know your car, they just plain drive better when we know they are put together right. I was hoping to be lucky but the D shaped wheel is set clockwise 45 degrees with the tires straight, so the next thread looks to be about aligning splines in the steering rack. Suggestions of established threads on this? Hopefully alignment and set up don’t require my attention too soon to get the wheel better. As it is now my left fist obscures the speedometer below 70. Handy.

This thread has been super useful to me. I’m running a thread with plenty of parallels. My car is back together and I’ve learned a bit. Many thanks Slonie.

Yeah I went big on that vise. Figuring my son will use it after I’m gone. My Dad had a big heavy metal table with a vise attached I wish I’d haved room for. The wooden bench I made that this vise is on is not really heavy enough for serious use.

Simple enough, I rigged a “gear puller” and it came right apart. Will be posting the fancy wheel and upper steering column as available. So now the next challenge, reseating the apparently undamaged upper bushing. Both dogears intact. Surely someone has found the trick to put the genie back in the bottle? I’d appreciate your experience reseating the bushing.

Thanks, those splines would make unscrewing it a lot harder 😊

I’m going to investigate having it recovered in red alcantara with black stitching and yellow stripe on top. And pad it out with tennis racquet grip to better fit my hands large palms smaller fingers) under the new covering. Easy to leave it at their shop now.

And it seems like we’re fairly close to center, not driven yet to test. I’d rather not learn about splines in the steering rack this week if possible. Much less alignment suspension settings….😱 Notice reflection of Lotus sign