radiator exit on Lotus Elise

Diary for July 2005

Modifications:

I am continuing the modifications to remove all the plastic grilles from the car. I have removed the side grilles, front grilles from in front of the oil coolers and the radiator exits. I placed some wire mesh in front of the oil coolers in order to protect them from flying rocks. I left the side grille off and have only painted some of the shiny objects that are visible flat black to hide them.

I spent a lot of time creating the radiator exit grilles shown above. I removed the slats from the original grilles, leaving only the frame. I filled the casting holes left by the removal of the slats and sanded the frames. The material is difficult to work with as it is flexible. Finally I mounted some zip ties to the back side and used them to attach the stainless steel wire mesh shown. One side is bright and the other side painted black. I have to decide which I prefer.

I installed a smaller mirror, mostly as an experiement. It needs to be redone.

Lotus Elise clam on front lawn

I removed the front clam because I wanted to see what the hidden Lotus engineering looked like. I replaced the anemic horn with a loud air horn and placed the wire mesh in front of the oil cooler grilles while the clam was off. I also took pictures of the extruded aluminium hinges while the clam was off.

autocross at Marina

Driving

The Golden Gate Lotus Club and Club 111 found there were many new owners of the Elise who did not know how to take full advantage of the car's performance. Some people are getting into trouble. The club put on a car handling clinic, a training autocross and asked some of us older members to act as instructors. The picture above shows me taking a student for a ride in my car. Later in August and again at the beginning of September two more practice autocross sessions were held, allowing all owners to practice their technique.

many Lotus Elises ready to autocross
my old NSX

NSX

I received a nice note from the current owner of my NSX. He continues to drive it and enjoy it. I was astounded that the car now has over 104,000 miles on it. It had its clutch replaced, a weak point on the car, but other than tires and oil changes, it continues to run. He has toured at high speed over great distances and enjoys it still. I am amazed that the high performace engine has been so reliable over the years, especially after both of us using it for high speed touring and competition.