Saturday, October 24, 2009

Atom Rear Wing Strut is Finally Done


Steve came by the shop with the finished rear strut assembly. A few tweaks were made and the wing bolted on. We set the slot gap to 10mm. Additional wing adjustment was available for the main wing on the strut. We set this fairly conservatively. We had installed the front TMI wing a month ago. The car has the look of the current gen F1 cars with a large front spoiler and narrower rear wing. The dual element wing from ReVerie looks fantastic. It is an excellent design and should prove to be very efficient.

The struts are a work of art with a trailing edge that is almost too sharp. Steve built them on his own mill and will build them to order for us. Final production versions will have a tumbled and
anodized finish. Since these will be custom ordered, we can anodized them to colors chosen by the client.

We took a quick trip with the car around our test route. It had already gotten dark but we had to drive it! The added downforce was clearly evident on a fast bend on the route. Now we need to get this car to the track to dial in the suspension.

I spent some time driving it on Saturday. We were dialing in our new 7100rpm tune with Steve from Secant and the car ran well. The added downforce adds a high level of comfort as the Atom felt fully planted.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Nitron Uprights and More

Guy and his engineers have been busy developing some new products that stretch beyond his normal line. He has developed a line of race focused products that complement Nitron suspensions. New front uprights and rear uprights have been built with several key features. These will also take new brakes that have been developed for race use. New toe links with a novel new design have also been sorted. See the Nitron website for more detail on these items: Click Here

Nitron, Sector111 and Simply Sportscars have embarked on a global Technical Partnership that will strive to develop even more serious products for the Elise/Exige variants. Our goal is to sort out products that will be track and race focused with ultimate performance. Expect us to embrace the Lotus mantra of performance through lightweight so that we can extract every possible ounce of performance.

We have also made an investment in service for Nitron suspensions in the North America. A shock dyno has been ordered and will allow us to rebuild and revalve Nitrons to spec. Ralph at V2 Motorpsorts will be our partner in providing the service that will be required for anyone running these race shocks. Expect an even more comprehensive and customizable Nitron offering from us - with complete service.

Stay tuned for more detailed information.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

ReVerie CF Exige Hatch Update

Simon@ReVerie just sent me this pic of the near complete carbon fiber hatch. They are very light at 5.5lbs. He still needs to fit the rear slats in the intercooler portion of the lid. 1/4 turn fasteners will be included. Pulling weight from the top of the Exige is something that is not only noticeable - but fully benefitial. Of course they are built to the typical ReVerie quality: prepreg and autoclaved. Properly light and stiff.

We will have them priced at $2500 and expect to get them by the end of Oct.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

ULTRAlightweight - ULTRAdiscs

ULTRAdiscs have proven themselves on and off the track since 2005. A key reason for the success of the ULTRAdiscs is the gain in performance they bring, especially through weight reduction.

These ULTRAlightweight two-piece, floating rotors will save you 10 lbs of unsprung weight (weight not supported by the suspension, i.e. wheels, tires and brakes) by using strong and light materials and an innovative design.

ULTRAdisc’s two-piece design allows the hats to be made from strong and lightweight anodized aircraft 6061 T-6 billet aluminum. The floating rotors themselves are made with a high-carbon iron that is perfectly balanced for strength and lightweight.

More weight was taken off by designing each ULTRAdisc to be corner specific - we can claim to be the very first to develop this innovation for the Elise/Exige. As many of you know, Lotus uses one part number for all four brakes. The front and rear brakes are the same rotor even though the brake pads are of different size. The ULTRAdisc rotors are tailored to match the swept area of the smaller calipers in the rear and the larger calipers in the front. This correction eliminates 3/8” of heavy unused rotor surface per rear wheel. This alone saves 6 pounds of rear unsprung weight!

Adding power will make your faster in a straight line but reducing weight, specifically unsprung weight, enhances nearly every performance characteristic. By sticking to Colin Chapman’s philosophy of “simplify and add lightness,” you can improve acceleration, braking and cornering grip at the same time.

ULTRAdiscs will not only give you greater stopping power, but the loss of unsprung weight will give you more precise steering inputs and better turn-in characteristics.





All of this weight savings and durability has made ULTRAdiscs a favorite of the fastest Lotus Challenge Series drivers. Brent B.'s high-power, high-aero, race-winning Exige to our low-power, no-aero Project Nirvana Elise run ULTRAdiscs with excellent results. Reducing unsprung weight will improve your Lotus's performance no matter how it's setup.

Sector111 Podcast- Martin from Girodisc

We spoke with Martin, Principal at Girodisc, about our ULTRAdiscs and all sorts of other brake-related issues in the newest Sector111 Podcast. Martin talks about how and why he started Girodisc, the history of cross-drilled brakes and why manufacturers still offer them & what makes ULTRAdiscs so good!


CLICK HERE to listen to the Sector111 Podcast

Thursday, October 1, 2009

ULTRAproven - ULTRAdiscs

We developed ULTRAdiscs with Girodisc over four years ago. Since then, ULTRAdiscs have proven themselves in almost every manner possible. We combined Martin @ Girodisc’s years of automotive engineering experience (5 years of which were spent at Porsche Engineering Services) and our knowledge of the Lotus Elise/Exige to develop the perfect OE replacement brake solution, the ULTRAdiscs.

ULTRAdiscs have proven their performance and longevity on the street and race track since 2005. It’s the rotor of choice for the fastest Lotus Challenge Series competitors. ULTRAdiscs have been run on the track with fantastic results on cars with high power and massive downforce as well as on N/A cars with no aero. ULTRAdiscs have been proven time and again to deliver regardless of car setup or track.

The race track is a great place to test the performance of products. The extremes of track use are hardly ever duplicated on the street. However, actual street miles are just as hard to duplicate. ULTRAdiscs have spent just as much time proving themselves on the street as they have on the track. The Sector111 Spyder took a set of ULTRAdiscs over to 30,000 miles and still had life left in them! No other rotor on the market can say that.


ULTRAdiscs are the only aftermarket rotors to have been proven on the road and track for as long as they have. They were developed back in 2005 to be lightweight and longlasting. After being put to the test for over four years, we have proof these rotors will deliver!






When it was time to upgrade the brakes on our Project Nirvana, there was only one rotor up to the task: the ULTRAlightweight, ULTRAlonglasting and ULTRAproven ULTRAdiscs.