What is the point of loading up on features if you don’t enjoy the benefits?

Our beloved cars can be special things.  I like to think of my car as a dance partner.  The key is balance and harmony. When it clicks it’s exhilarating, light, effortless and exciting. When it’s wrong it’s just awful.

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A case in point was the Lotus Elise that came to us for work. The car had undergone a power unit swap from the Rover/ MG based engine to a much more powerful engine. As is my habit, we started the process with a drive. It’s a good way to meet the car and to bond with the owner in it. I get to listen to their story while I drive the car, putting the two together into the same picture. I also like to see how the owner drives their own car. That can be very revealing indeed.

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an impressive shopping list of features

There was an impressive shopping list of included features:  Fully forged internals, 250kw, big injectors, big turbo, uprated gearbox etc etc. Things sounded exciting but that was before I started the car and explored the controls. My first impression was that the throttle on this Elise was awful. It was slack for 50% of its travel, gave a horrible “click” and then was stiff and hard to moderate.

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The second glaring issue was the gear linkages- heavy, vague and difficult to find/slot gears, especially 2nd gear. A bit like stirring rocks in a bucket with a wooden spoon. Then we got underway and as soon as we built any speed, strange signals began to arrive in my hands and bum from the rear axle. It was fighting the front axle and there was no harmony at all, the car was nervous and fidgety. These Elises are wonderful handling cars but the suspension must be set up correctly. This one felt dreadful.

The engine was certainly strong but went from feeling a bit flat to lurching violently into boost. Turbo cars are fun and fast but require an extra level of skill to drive at the limit as the torque delivery is non linear. It also didn’t feel THAT strong, so I suspected that it wasn’t actually making that much power.

he just thought it was necessary to live with these challenges

I pointed out these issues and the client agreed on all counts, he just thought it was necessary to live with these challenges. As if it was necessary given the “upgrades” and features that were loaded into the car.

We tackled the job with the fundamental goal of making the car a pleasure to drive. We redesigned the gear linkage and throttle systems, set up the suspension and then got the car down to Hermann from HAT Dynamics to take a look at the map. 

Hermann immediately spotted several issues, one being that the engine had too much compression and too much fuel pressure. It was boosting quite hard but couldn’t handle any ignition timing without pinging. On the right fuel it would certainly make big power, but not on 95 unleaded. The injectors were so big there was no way to get the engine to idle without a misfire as one or more injectors dropped out. One  solution was to run the car on ethanol but nobody wants to be mixing up fuels for that Sunday morning drive experience.

keeping mixtures where he wanted them

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We decided to detune the engine- we dropped the fuel pressure and the boost. Hermann rewrote the map to focus not on ultimate power but rather on throttle response. With less boost, he could add ignition timing and with lower fuel pressure, he could fire the injectors at idle while keeping mixtures where he wanted them.

Short version, the car is transformed.  Even on much lower boost, power is roughly the same as before. The engine now feels responsive and eager. It no longer lurches into boost but builds smoothly and is much more progressive and predictable. When pressing on, the car tracks true and gearshifts are natural and effortless- never the case before when second gear was hit and miss on downshifts.

These features were not necessary

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The owner is thrilled. He now feels comfortable pressing on and can enjoy the car. The balance is back and so is the fun factor. What of the expensive list of features that aren’t being fully exploited? The special conrods, pistons, big turbo and injectors?  These were not necessary. The key is to get everything in balance so that the car feels like an extension of the driver- as if his mere thought is translated into action. The driver becomes a superhuman and loves the experience of driving his car. He resents having to put it away.

What is my point here? Don’t automatically chase a shopping list of expensive features and parts, rather focus on maintaining the correct balance of performance parameters and your motoring experience will be massively enhanced.