shiftR111 Fitment into 1ZZGE & V6s

 Our shiftRs have been successfully fitted to cars overseas that we don't see in the US.  Clients have fit them to Exige V6s and Elises with 1ZZGE engines.  Right Hand Drive has also been done.  Our new shiftR111 2.0 version should work as well in these fitments.  Since these cars have different gearboxes, our TRANScables will not work.

Broken OEM Shifter

 The factory shifters on 2008 and later Elise/Exige/Evoras all feature a blue plastic pivot ball.  These are failing on cars.  We have a '09 Exige with only 7k street miles that is beginning to crack.  See the pictures below:

Though the shifter continues to work, it will eventually fail.  The shift cables on this car have also begun to fail and the client complained that the car was hard to shift on ocassion.  We've documented this even on the Evora: HERE.

So it is important to inspect not only the cables, but also your shifter on a occasion.

shiftR111 2.0 Developments

We started working on a new version of the shiftR111 last year to help address a few market demands. The biggest being the cost increases that we have been facing these last couple of years. We first introduced the shiftR111 in 2016.  Itt has been a success making the shifting a true joy on the Elise, Exige and Evoras.   Of course for some owners of these cars, it was a great alternative to the broken blue pivot ball in their stock cars.

 We had made small iterative improvements to the original design over the years but this is a much larger change. We believe this solution should perform as well as the original but fit better into the stock center console.   Overall we attempted to employ the KISS principle with this design!

 We have a partially 3D printed prototype that we will test fit this week. If this goes well, we will produce a working proto that we can actually take on the road & track to test. 

Several design changes have already been made to the kit to reach this stage. Reduced parts will help get our costs down and will shorten assembly time for us as well.  An obvious change that you can see from these pictures is the deletion of the reverse lock-out cable.  This design should also aid in better clearance with those leather wrapped center consoles.

Producing a RHD version is high on our list of priorities.  We intend to make that happen soon after releasing the LHD this Spring.

Stay posted for updates.

111RS Brakes + shiftR111 + More

 We are at that stage where most of the parts are in house and we simply need to bolt them on.  We have less than a week before unveiling her at WCLM so...

The brake calipers were vapor blasted and look amazing.  Rene took the opportunity to spray them with some matte clear coat.  A local shop suggested this will hold up fine but I am curious to see just how well the clear will withstand the nasty environment found within a wheel.

Our ULTRAdisc rotors have been the gold standard for these cars since 2005.  Clients have been getting 50k miles out of them and over 50 track days.  We made them too good!  Seriously, we are proud of how they have performed and super happy to be partnered with a first-class company like Girodisc.

The DNA front and rear sway bars are part of this build allowing us to run softer springs: 250lb & 350lb coupled to our Racetech SCCA Singles.  The sways manage roll stiffness while the soft springs provide the compliance needed on a fast canyon cruiser.  In the past, we ran heavier springs to flatten the roll on the car but gave up compliance in the bumps.  No longer - this is the sweet combo!

The shiftR111 Ultimate package is going in and will make each shift a joy.  This car is getting the close-ratio KAAZ gear set.  We have not driven this solution on the street so are interested to see how it fairs.  Our client has another Lotus with this gear set and is a believer.  

Evora shiftR111 Progress

The earlier S1 Evora shifter is a derivation of the '07+ Elise/Exige shifter.  As a result, it also suffers from poor feel and durability. It has the same blue plastic ball joint that has broken in Elise/Exige/211.  We are now seeing this failure in more and more Evoras, as well.  Clearly, we felt there was a real need.

We took apart an Evora shifter system to see if our shiftR111 might work.  Lotus does a nice job of integrating various requirements to really drive down the cost of a component.  This shifer housing clearly serves a few different functions.  The key was that the overall height of the shifter and the mounting points at the front would work for our shiftR111.  It appeared with a change to our hand brake brackets, we could create a shifter kit for the Evora.  So we got to work on a design.

Shown below is our design for the Evora.  We are now getting a prototype made to test fit into a car.  We remain overtly optimistic.  8^)

We have already sorted out shifter cables and our innovative ESWkit for the Evora so a shiftR111 will complete the package nicely.   

shiftR111 Track Testing

We brought our ArtCar v2 to SMMR and ran the 2.4mile Fangio B course. We managed to get about 100 track miles put onto her. No issues. The shiftR111 felt great. Watch the following video from inside the car showing the shiftR111 in action going up and down gears 2 through 5.

We recruited a couple of long-time Lotus owners who have run countless track miles on their Lotus cars. I wanted to get their objective opinions about our new shifter. Watch the video below:

Our next step is to confirm fitment into a stock Elise, finalize the reverse lock-out cable length and then kick off production. Yes!

shiftR111 Update: Generation 2 Prototype

Our Lotus shifter, the shiftR111, is making progress.  We are shooting for a late Jan/early Feb release for production parts.  Watch the video at the bottom of this blog entry to see it in action.

 We've installed the Generation 2 design into our Elise (ArtCar v2) and have conducted some basic street testing.  This second design is simpler and less costly than our first design.  The image below shows them side by side vs stock.  We learned a great deal from the Gen 1 and applied it to making the Gen 2 even better.

We're still employing the same basic mechanism as the first gen design but have taken out several machined pieces.  One area that was simplified was the reverse lockout mechanism.  Our Gen 1 used several machined parts that we ultimately deemed unnecessary.  In fact, we also chose to reuse the factory reverse collar in the Gen2.  We still need to spec in the final cable length to validate the operation but that will be quite simple - compared to most everything else!

Additionally this new design allows the factory center console to fit completely.  We know that some clients would prefer to keep their cars looking stock.  But we also know that many clients would like to have our shiftR111 exposed.  We will be designing a simple bracket that will hold the Emergency Flasher, Lock and TC buttons.

The shifter feels nice and smooth with throws that are similar to stock.  The LETSLA kit we installed on the Gen 1 version allowed us to shorten the distance to our preferred throw.  We will install it into this Gen 2 after we have completed our track testing.  Street testing has been great as the shifting is predictable and smooth.  Heel and toe downshifts have been great.

We head to the track later this week to start testing.  I'll recruit some Lotus owners to drive her as well to add to our findings.

The finishes shown do not represent the final product.  Most of the sheet metal pieces will be black and other machined parts will be hard anodized or left as raw stainless steel.  We are shooting for a technical look that is not to bling-bling.  We'll make sure it looks properly cool.

Watch the video below: