Break-in, Testing & Failure: KATANA3, shiftR 2.0 & More

 

Testing continues with various new parts we plan to introduce.  We had some wins and one failure.  Running parts on our cars first is our mantra so our clients are getting the best experience.  Though this has not been 100% successful, it has kept us in good stead.

Let's start with the failure - new fuel pump.  Last year, we had trouble sourcing a Denso pump that we had been selling for years on cars making 300hp.  We decided to test out a new pump, from another OEM supplier, Delphi.  This pump was fitted to our last Outlaw and run for nearly a year, on the road and track.  It ran in our Outlaw that we ran up Palomar Mtn Hill Climb last year.  We transferred it to our latest 111RS to continue racking up miles.  Unfortunately it failed almost immediately.  But the 'failure' snuck up on us.  The car ran fine under 6000rpms - which is where we were running it for a 100 miles or so while we broke in our newly built Mountune engine.  Once we started dipping into the second cam, the car would hesitate.  We data logged and saw the AFRs going lean.  It took us a bit to get it figured out but swapping in a stock pump solved our problem.  The funny thing is that the Delphi pump is actually made by Denso.

The KATANA3 on our car is running great.  I hammmered the car up and down the mountain and our back canyon roads.  Our Calibrator, Brent, is coming in a couple of weeks to do some final tuning.  We will get it onto a dyno then and see how she is doing.  The engine still has less than 500 miles on it and it would be ideal if she had over 2000 miles before the dyno.  That is not likely this time so we will probably dyno her again later this Summer.

I'm digging the all silver colorway- with the cherry on top!

The shiftR111 2.0 version that has been in my car is doing fine.  We made a couple of tweaks as there was spring related issue that we had noticed and the reverse lock-out.  As it turns out, we were able to sort out the lock-out with shifter cable adjustments.  The spring issue was related to us not torquing the CG mechanism fully.  Sorted.

So far I don't feel any negatives with this kit.  The overall feel is better especially since the reverse lock-out works super smoothly.  This is a HUGE improvement over our previous version but tempered by the fact that you really don't use it that much.  Regardless, it now works better and each time you select Reverse, you will do it smoothly.  Shifting into each of the gears feels as good as with our original, if not marginally better.  The bearing design is technically superior so it should feel better...

Chillin' at the RSF Cars & Coffee

I am running a set of Nitron 46mm Singles on this car with softer springs than we used to run.  The car feels really good but we can make it even better.  I think we will call our man Dave T in for some Ride & Handling work.  Especially with Nitron setting up their North American operations here in town, we will be able to develop a kit suited to our over rough canyons.  

This car is also running the OS Giken LSD.  What an awesome bit of kit!  We introduced these back in 2010 and they have been favored by all the fastest guys.  It still amazes me how it allows you to put the power down sooner - especially on our bumpy roads.  This is really a must have for any pushing their Lotus hard - especially if you are about to get your gearbox rebuilt.