Quick VLOG showing the utter failure of getting anything done:
Quick VLOG showing the utter failure of getting anything done:
Still failing to get anything done on this car. Another (feline) member of the family managed to open the interior door to the garage though and based on the amount of white cat hair I found on the car, he can confirm that the center of the softtop make for a good cat perch.
Hey Tim, looks like I got your car's twin!
What seats are those?
In reply to bgkast :
Cool, that does indeed look like my car's twin, just with a more sensible roof option!
In reply to Gzwg :
Not sure if that was a question for me or bgkast, in my case those are the stock (I believe non-Probax) 2005 seats.
Following. I keep telling myself I need to own one of these.
In reply to Gzwg :
Mine has tecnocraft T3 carbon fiber seats. The previous owner went all out carboning up the interior.
Based on the license plate frame I assume you got the car from Wirewheel.com...how were they to deal with? I'm not in the market for another car, but I'm just curious - I've looked at their website a number of times and they have some pretty cool cars in their inventory.
In reply to stuart in mn :
Yes, I did get it from wirewheel. Really easy to deal with, plus they know their way around an Elise. Wouldn't hesitate to buy another vehicle from them.
In reply to bgkast :
Thanks, that's a seat model I haven't seen so far.
Lots of carbon fibre in that interior.. :D
Well, I appear to have booked myself and the Elise onto a couple of autocrosses with PCA. Good thing I checked, I thought I was on the waitlist for the one next weekend but it looks like I did make the list after all.
Probably should go over the car "just in case" sometime this week.
I guess also should've booked their autocross school as the last time I autocrossed was the year I bought my Launch Edition ND, but alas, I can't make that day work. Let's hope I don't embarrass myself too badly (who am I kidding that I won't?)
Walk the course, eyes up, slow is fast and all that. It's a very small light car. It shouldn't take much skill or effort to be in the top third. Try and bum some ride alongs to get more familiar with the course.
Right, photos etc to come later but anyways...
I pulled the Elise out of its hibernation place and tried to get it ready for tomorrow's autocross. The "getting it ready" part was mainly to make sure all the fluid were present and correct, and to replace the front speakers and head unit with something that would work with my iPhone.
That's where E36 M3 went sideways. All the speakers in the car had been replaced by someone who - at least based on the evidence I found so far- was not unduly burdened by the spectre of competence when it came to audio installs. For starters, while both front speakers looked like they were the correct size but they mounting rings weren't. So certified genius glued the mounting ring of the passenger side speaker to the top of the dashboard, with the ring sitting proud of the dash. But not only that - there is a foam structure under the dash around the speaker mounting holes, and because said person didn't use shallow depth speakers like you're supposed to (so you can get them into the dash without having cospatial events with the windscreen), they merrily chipped away at said foam. That would be the foam that the correctly sized speaker a) sits on and b) kinda mounts to. Yay. Let's see how long the double sided "extreme" tape I used to hold the speaker in place actually lasts.
To make up for this, the front speaker on the driver's side was mostly screwed into thin air, but fortunately two of the screws held it into the foam. At least that one came out quickly after it took me over two hours to get the mounting ring and speaker out on the passenger side and at least some of the glue off the dash.
At least the rest of the radio install worked OK so we took it for a spin and other than the turn signals suddenly refusing to work (hitting the switch for the hazard flasher a couple of times fixed that) and discovering more items in the interior that aren't screwed down as they're supposed to, plus the driver's side electric window switch needing to be touched just so to work, and the interior mirror falling off when I cleaned the windshield, the rest seems OK.
Oh, and I discovered that the car has no sun visors. I assume they were removed by one of the POs because they get a bit in the way if you're tall, but it would've been nice to have some when driving West into the sunset.
At least it seems to run OK and make all the right noises. In fact, I'm not quite sure if it makes all the right stock noises and might want to check if it really has a stock airbox and exhaust.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
Sounds like a Lotus, but at least the important bits still work fine.
I'm not sure if the sun visors were stock.
my Speedster does not have any, so wearing a cap is mandatory
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
We'll find out in a bit when I autocross it 
.
The sun visors in mine are comically small, like 1 inch tall.
My understanding is that not all Elises came with sun visors and/or they were a zero cost option. My 2006 had them in the spare parts box. I installed them and they were useless so they're back in the spares box.
BoxheadTim said:In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
We'll find out in a bit when I autocross it
I'd really like to hear your thoughts on autocrossing the Elise vs. the Rollerskate.
Well, so far I can confirm that you can mow the lawn with the splitter if you're willing to buy another one.
Oops.
So much for not embarrassing myself...
In reply to BoxheadTim :
Uh oh, the car is done for now. I'll offer you a Miata, a DSM & truckload of parts for both to save you from having to relive the embarrassment every time you look at the Elise. :-)
Splitters are a wear item anyways ;)
Regarding the toe links mentioned a while back, don't assume that you are in the clear with aftermarket braces. The strength of the stock link is *not* the issue - the issue is that the bolt can back out and *then* fail. This is still true with the aftermarket braces, to varying extents depending on any use of vibration proofing. For reference, I have a good brace, but when I checked, by bolt was entirely unthreaded from the nut and was only being held on by the threads it had press-formed into the subframe. Granted, having the brace meant that was I was able to get away with this for much longer than without it.
In reply to cyow5 :
That's good to know. I think 
. Thanks.
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