Time to Wake Up...

[Perfectlap]

yeah this should be a sticky type thing, with those pics of the B&M SSK as well.

[xclusivecar]

Spring Check List? It's only February! Sort of like seeing Christmas stuff at the mall in August...Stop it you tease!

[BoxsterSbob]

Hi, xclusivecar can you describe your Lotus Elise experience? And, why you sold it? I drove one recently (stage II) and it was a hoot! Just curious.


04S
bob

[xclusivecar]

Originally Posted by BoxsterSbob

Hi, xclusivecar can you describe your Lotus Elise experience? And, why you sold it? I drove one recently (stage II) and it was a hoot! Just curious.


04S
bob

Sure...Had deposit down for 4 years. I was concerned from the beginning that the car would be basically a small, impractical, stripped down go-cart for the street but was advised that the US version would have "creature comforts" not seen before. Now...I DO NOT track cars. I wanted a fun little car that was neat for the streets and was told this would be. WRONG! This is a track ONLY car! Sure it can be driven on the street but you will get punished. It's loud, rattles, shakes, shimmies, and has NO POWER under 6500 RPM. The creature comforts consisted of a piece of carpeting and a radio. Wash the car and the trunk fills with water, touch the car and the paint falls off. DO NOT grab the windshield to get in/out of the car. It's just literally glued on and will snap off. You must get some sort of 3M starshield not only for the front of the car but for the rear quarters as rocks fly off your front tires and absolutely pulverize this area. The brakes had tons of travel before they grabbed. When they did grab it was almost surprising. Other drivers CANNOT see you! Almost died 3 times in parking lots as an SUV thought I was a speed bump. Headlights suck.
Like I said I didn't track the car and believe it would be great as a track car. There were probably other things but can't remember since I bought the Boxster and my memory has been wiped free of the loss I took to get rid of it. The Boxster is the PERFECT compromise between a track only Elise and a reliable, comfortable, sports car. Lotus need another Boxster type model to compete in the States. The Elise is not doing all that well. Only a couple thousand copies are being imported and you can find a year old one with 5,000 miles for under $37,000 now. I just received a flyer in the mail from my local Lotus dealership offering special financing on all remaining '05s.
Finally, check elisetalk.com for a bunch of info on the car. Great site!

[eslai]

Forgive my ignorance (don't have much of an issue with winter storage down here in SoCal) but couldn't a lot of that list be alleviated if one were to just start the car every week or so and let it run for a little bit?

I'd think it'd be easier to do this (stick some dryer hose or other such pipe on the exhaust and route it out of the garage--that's what we do when running cars in the shop) than to let the car sit that long without any exercise at all. Again, I've never parked a car for the cold cold winter before though, so maybe my perspective is wrong.

[MNBoxster]

Originally Posted by eslai

Forgive my ignorance (don't have much of an issue with winter storage down here in SoCal) but couldn't a lot of that list be alleviated if one were to just start the car every week or so and let it run for a little bit?

I'd think it'd be easier to do this (stick some dryer hose or other such pipe on the exhaust and route it out of the garage--that's what we do when running cars in the shop) than to let the car sit that long without any exercise at all. Again, I've never parked a car for the cold cold winter before though, so maybe my perspective is wrong.

Hi,

The short answer to your question is NO. Starting and running a Cold Car below 30° (the avg. Temp in an unheated garage in the NE and MW) adds significant Wear and Stress to the Car.

I've read reports which attribute 85% of a Car's Engine Wear to cold starts - that period between starting the Car and the time it takes for the Oil Pressure and Flow to rise sufficiently to Float the Crank and Flow to the Valvetrain. This is only exacerbated on a Car which has sat for a period of time in the Cold - it takes that much more time to get the Oil going.

In addition, everything contracts so much more at lower Temps. This means that Seals may not be tight and again, when you start the Car with Cold Oil, the Oil Pressure can spike well above normal until the Oil reaches operating Temp. This can cause some Oil to work past Gaskets and Seals creating leaks which would otherwise not have occurred.

Another issue is by running the Car, your create moisture which is absorbed by the Oil. Later, this can evaporate and condense on Engine Internals causing corrosion and pitting. And the same can be said for the Exhaust System as well.

You also can run down the Battery because you won't run the Car long enough to replace the draw from the Starter, and you will also run down the Fuel level drawing moist Air into the Tank which will later condense creating corrosion issues there as well.

Considering that you stored the Car rather than run it during the Winter, it is unwise to cause this much wear and tear when you're not even driving and enjoying the Car. This will only shorten the miles you can actually put on it in nice weather without having to make repairs which in many cases could have been avoided. Hope this helps...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[eslai]

All sensible, thanks, although do things change with the addition of a battery minder and engine block heater?