jimrankin

Love the shift light!! I have mine set so it goes all red just a bit before the rev limiter kicks in because I just hate that nasty sound/feel when it does. I keep expecting parts to fly out through the hood every time I run up into it.

Hi RNR, Since the mirror is only bolted through the three existing holes used for the current hood latch, and yours and mine are pretty much the same, you can try it out next time we get the cars together.

I had the small mirror and it was dash mounted, better a bit further forward like yours as you get a better field of view. No way to have a single leg mount on a mirror as large as I installed so went with the overkill. Kept it in my line of sight but high enough that no loss of road/track view ahead. Easy to drill and thread in the ends for the mirrors to mount on longer round stock.

Since I'm not Italian or a sexy professional race car driver the statement "What'sa behinda you is'a not importante" just doesn't apply to me. I've done a few mirror mods like making longer mounts and going to the larger Spa "sedan" type mirrors (bought flat, probably should have got convex) but still did not feel I could properly tell just what was happening behind (center mirror just shows me my roll bar) or right beside me. After spending a track day driving a closed car with a big convex center mirror I decided I had to get one for the seven. My biggest concern was that if I didn't like it, or if I didn't want to leave it on for street use I didn't want to have a bunch of holes in the hood where it had to mount. Settled on just doing it "the hard way" since most of my projects seem to end up that way anyway. Did a complex bend of a sheet of aluminum to match the curves of the hood of the S2K and am using the hood latch (which now bolts though to an added set of backing) to hold the complete assembly in place. Have a thin rubber pad glued to the bottom of the base in hopes it will protect the paint. I was going to just mount the mirror without any aero fairing but was afraid it might just end up shaking too much to use, so as mentioned, did it the hard way by fabricating an epoxy fairing. I can now reset the side mirrors for just that, side view, and have a good rear view without having to take my eyes off the track too long. Will be on track again in a couple of weeks and will see just how much of an improvement it is. If it's a real help I'll do a bit better on the spray can paint job and leave it on "as is" or think about a permanent mount that does bolt to the hood without the massive base.

I just gott'a get me one of those white lab coats for working on my 7, will make me feel like I know what I'm doing. ;-)

I have a set of noise attenuators I use when street driving for dual purpose. One, they cut down the wind noise and a bit of car noise and two, most important, the top band keeps my hat on my bald head at speed! ;-) Your right, I'd rather not be disturbed by an audio track from any device because I prefer listening to the car singing to me. Will look forward to you information being published. I have a whole string of mods I've documented but being an old "analogue" type of guy my computer skills for posting up to a file sharing site are about nil. I live close to RNR (a digital age type of guy) from this site so one day will have him come frustrate himself by trying to teach me how to do some rudimentary task. I saw that you were in Michigan. RNR just did a 2K trip, time to best him with a 3K!!! LOL.

Gotta love these cars and yours looks great along with going like stink! I keep mentioning to Loren to do some business cards but I guess he is too busy with other projects to get more into the S2K's. Can't go for a ride, a "cars and caffeine" gathering or a track day without spending half the time answering questions. Bring that thing out to Northern California and visit three of the most fun tracks anywhere, all within a few hours drive from SF. Four if you add Button Willow in Bakersfield, only a few more hours away. Going to do the heim joint replacement this winter without fail, getting a bit looser/noisier every event.

Went out and took a picture of the pedal mods. Usually sit about 1" deeper into the box when I'm on track. Where they are now it's comfortable to slip my left foot under and past the clutch pedal so I can cruise with my foot straight out at rest instead of having to keep my stiff old knee bent.

I'm only a size 10 but I have wide feet, hard to get into most shoes, and I like the pedals quite deep into the car. I ended up modifying the PEDALS since I couldn't do much about the foot well. I made the gas pedal as narrow as possible and moved it as far right as I could, then to allow for my foot not being caught under the break pedal every time I went from gas to break I cut down the lower right edge of the break pedal. To allow for left foot breaking without stabbing the clutch or moving too far right and pressing on my right foot (not good!!)I cut down the right side of the clutch pedal. None of this had made the pedals harder to find when you want them or detracted from every day street driving. Even with thin soled driving shoes the pedals still feel "stock" and I'm a lot more comfortable on track.

Hard to explain frost heaves to a Florida resident. :-)! Just think of Florida sink holes that the road crews "overfill" so that cars and trucks can pound them flat. Only problem is coming across one before the heavy high clearance cars have flattened it out. At least in Canada you have frost heaves to blame, here in Cakifornia it's just bad road repair,

When you think about what you pay these days for a mass produced stamped metal and plastic "performance car" that drops value about as fast as you can count the dollars this seems like a no brainer. More fun and probably keeps a good bit of its value over the years if you can keep your right foot from putting it into a wall.

I've never even seen the top/side curtains/doors for an S2K and only a couple of windshields, interested, do you have any photos?

If I install mud flaps do I get to have chrome "naked lady" silhouettes on them :-)? Always wanted some of those. LOL. Pi7ot: I wouldn't think they have that much coverage, pretty good sized paddock. If the damage hadn't been contained to just the fender I would have walked the site trying to find a car or trailer with my paint and plastic film on it.

last one

hopefully....

Decided to go with the "patch" repair for the rest of the year, maybe do something better in the winter, maybe just keep tracking it and not worry it. Got most of the dent out by making a wooden block with a radius just larger than the undamaged fender, lined it with a thick piece of leather and then slowly tapped it into shape from inside the fender well with a body hammer and dolly. The fender paint was cracked near the main body from the large initial bend so had to carry the repair all the way across. Did a tape outline as close to the damaged areas as possible and then made a paper template I could reverse to duplicate the outline on the other fender. After sanding and cleaning I painted it with a textured truck bed liner spray can to make it look like a stone guard. The damage was a bit more than "that'll buff out Dude" but not too bad so pretty quick fix. For some reason the pics won't load so I'll send this and then try the pisc as a separate post

Our local chain hardware store sells a hard rubber tape that is sticky on one side and smooth on the other, sticks in place on the mount so you can remove it with no residue left on the roll bar but compresses tight enough that it won't slide around. The tape is fairly thick, sub 1/8" but not by much and does compress a bit. Should take up any problem with undersized tune stock.

My upper control arms had the right sized bolts but the only real "failure" I had was the drivers side upper rear heim joint, really pounded out the actual ball and enclosure and had imprinted the thread pattern into the bore from the constant movement. Really makes you want to check everything on your car when you find something as obviously miss-done as a 1/2" bolt in a 5/8" bore.

Going to get it as straight as possible, aluminum seems to be more bent than "stretched" so should be pretty close. Then going to use some of the spray on black bed liner type material shaped to look like a stone guard (I know, usually only on the front of the fender) on both rears so they match. Should look OK and if not, I have two new spare fenders so I'm in good shape. Mostly just pissed the other track day driver didn't stop. Would have let it go without cost to him as something under the "shit happens" rule if he had.

I fell much better now, only hope that some day the jerk is parked and some other low life comes along and does a "karma" key job on his baby. :-)

Maybe her boyfriend was using his "dipstick" somewhere it shouldn't have been and she found out. :-)

Whenever you choose to take your car on track, be it autocross, track day or actual racing, you always have in mind and are OK with he fact you can have damage, be it just stone chips and rubber all the way to wrecked through your own mistake or another drivers. What you don't expect is for another racer to damage your car while it's sitting unattended in the paddock and then leave without letting you know. I was up at a great track day at Sonoma yesterday with the Golden Gate Lotus Club sharing the day with a Mustang Club and while RNR were over getting breakfast after our full hour morning session someone decided to not use the marked driveways and cut through our parking. I hope they drive better and are more courteous on track than they were in the paddock. The attached photo is after the fender was pulled out as best possible so I could continue with the day. It had been bent clear into the tire and you can see how it buckled out the upper outer edge of the fender and also in against the body, both much minor in the photo now than before the pull out. I don't think anyone could have hit it that hard and not known it, even with a trailer being the item doing the damage. I just hope it was a late arriving Mustanger, wouldn't want to think a fellow Lotus member did it.

These specs work for me but my S2K is a bit of a pig at well over 1600 pounds. Running 17" wheels, 8" front, 9" back. Could use a bit more negative camber if I was track only but this is a good track/street compromise. The shop that did my alignment has a lot of experience with Lotus cars and "one offs". RNR's car may be pretty close to this and he's fast on track.

I have used GoPro cameras for years and always laugh at the "over 100 MPH use closed case" note, more like "over 40 MPH just give up", (see cheezy music note posted by others). When the Hero2 came out I jumped on it and after a few trys have had good luck (in an S2K) with stereo mics, one inside the passanger footwell deep under the dash for motor and one mounted in the boot for rosd sound, both with a dead pussy covering it (see great post by others). I do have to admit that my loose suspension sounds like a cheap coffee can and pebbles percussion group till the car comes up to speed but then you get some good tire noise. Don't remember the brand but non-powered and about $75 bucks for the pair. Haven't had any problem with headroom on the unpowered mics. GoPro does have a limited power supplied to the mics so you don't need to supply an outboard power unit

Probably only matters in Fleamomt and kind of funny in retrospect but does give you the idea of what the 10% cop can do to dick up your day. I was stopped in Fremont CA. for no other reason than the local cop, who was actually in overalls and supposed to be stopping trucks, ran me down and wasted the best part of an hour dicking with me and writing litterally pages of violations. He had no undestanding of SB100 or the "meet 1960 auto requirements" written into it by default or that the car wasn't dated by the "first registered" year but by year 0000. After I wouldn't sign it, even under threat of tow, he was forced to radio then cell call his office and came back with the only violation that stuck, no front plate. He was still playing hard ass and said that he had me entered into the data base (he could of been full of shit with that) and that if I got caught again with the same ticket the next fine started at $600 and the car being towed. Puts you into being a scoff law or something to that effect. BTW, I was nothing but pleasnt to him, even the Jerkier he got, but did have to mention to him when I was returning his clip board that it had been a lot more fun than the crappy meeting I had been on the wat to, thanks.