When driving my Elan I found that wrestling shoes worked, given how tight the pedal box was. I also found the high top of the shoe provided the support for my ankles on the longer drives.
When driving my Elan I found that wrestling shoes worked, given how tight the pedal box was. I also found the high top of the shoe provided the support for my ankles on the longer drives.
Last minute mods to the decklid, and the Free Europa is ready for the $2000 Challenge!
Gainesville bound!
Nice work on deck lid!
Good luck!
It would be great to see a Europa win!!!
I am pleased to report the GRM Free Lotus Europa not only survived the $2000 Challenge, but thrived! It placed 5th overall, just ahead of some other crazy mid-engine builds, including a supercharged Ecotec Fiero, a LT1 V8 powered Corvair, and the GT Wreck Racing students. I learned a lot about the car, discovered some problems I expected, some I didn't, but overall I'm just very happy with how well it did, and that it stayed in one piece (mostly).
Autocross: 54.3s. This was surprisingly (or not) the Lotus' weakest event of the weekend. Launches were incredibly fast and drama-free; just stomp the gas and it's gone. Driving this car was autocross on hard mode though. The seating position I thought was fine, but the pedals are tight and sensitive. Can't left-foot brake due to lack of room, locks up tires way too easily, can't keep the automatic from gear-hunting, brakes lock up, front tires won't grip until you transfer some weight from braking, and it's hard to remember just how wide the rear is. Clean runs were rare, and the fastest time included a cone penalty. Chalk it up to a completely unsorted car. After all, the first autocross run was the longest and fastest it had ever driven.
I theorize the front suspension is too soft and the brake pedal ratio too aggressive. The front ride frequency is calculated to be significantly lower than the front, so perhaps more spring rate, damper, and/or roll bar would help. I also have no idea what the front alignment looks like. An issue I discovered was the steering column u-joint bolt binding up against the brake pedal pushrod. Very much not good, because it either dragged the steering or brake pedal depending on their relative positions. I discovered the steering rack had shifted laterally almost a half inch from the cornering forces, causing the contact. I was able to hammer the rack back into place, but after a few more runs it had shifted again. I fixed it again once more before the drags, donned all my fire protective clothing, and rolled up the staging lanes.
Drag: 12.03s. I knew this car would be fast, but I didn't expect it to be the 2nd quickest Challenge car this year! It almost won the drags for budget cars, until that wicked BMW-powered Miata pulled off a miracle 11.8 pass after running mid to high 12's all night. Not even mad about that! During my first run, I launched hard like normal but lifted before the end, expecting to run a safe 13 or 14. To my surprise it was 12.7. It felt stable enough at the top end, so I went for it again without lifting. No burnout, no brake stalling, no fancy stuff, no wheelspin or hop at launch, it just rockets out of there. Back in the pits, the shifter cable popped out of its bracket and wouldn't go into park. I decided that I had learned enough new things about this car all weekend. It doesn't have a roll bar, making it not only unsafe and sacary, but NHRA-illegal at 11.49, so stopping a 12.03 seemed like a good call. It probably has a high 11 in it, and it pains me to know how close I was, but another run may not have been good for my health. I am not allowing it back to a drag strip without significantly more safety.
Concours: 19.25. Also another strong performance for the Lotus, I assume owing to its ridiculous history, clever engineering, and the fact that it's a freakin Lotus. It's just a cool car, plain and simple.
The Lotus even got a photo shoot with friendly rival car Monzora. Both cars are blue, mid-engine, rear wheel drive cars from the 60's! That's probably where the similarities end, other than they both got completed just days before the race.
And with this, the legend of the GRM Free Europa has come full circle, just 15 years after its first GRM owner set the goal of bringing it to the Challenge.
Awesome finish! Congrats!
In reply to maschinenbau :
I definitely noticed on the last stretch of auto-x that the front end was bouncing a helluva lot. Initially thought something might be loose and the body might be moving around, but realized it was just weight transfer as you braked.
Definitely needs some work there.
In reply to maschinenbau :
I can't tell you how excited I am for you!!
Im also super encouraged to hear your thoughts about moving ahead regarding safety. It's not gonna be easy, but you are very talented!
Im hoping the Free Europa's journey is just beginning, and looking forward to your ongoing refinements.
What maschinenbau didn't mention is the Lotus also won Challengers' Choice. While it came down to a tie-breaker via applause between MonZora and Lotus (in front of his Ga Tech home crowd), I totally would have given it to him because I voted for my own car. 
Happy to see it worked that well! 12.03 is quick, I have done 11.99 in the Capri (once) and it has to be experienced to be appreciated :-)
Regarding the autocross, I have driven the Capri for some years with a significantly wider rear track than front, and I recognize some of what you say. The Lotus is surely more rear-biased in weight but I think a wider front track might be a good idea. Not just from spacers or offset, but longer A-arms would be my choice.
I so, so wish I would make it to a Challenge some day...
Gustaf
Now that the Free Europa has closed the loop, might this be the final frontier for those who might boldly go where no one has gone before!
NOHOME said:Now that the Free Europa has closed the loop, might this be the final frontier for those who might boldly go where no one has gone before!
Travis could totally pull that off!
In reply to NOHOME :
Yeah...no thanks :) While the Europa is somewhat attractive to my weird eyes, the BiTurbo looks like Yugo tried to build a knockoff E30.
In reply to maschinenbau :
I wanted to post in reply to your comments in AC's thread about the Lotus not being suitable for a street driver by saying, first, you did an amazing job on this thing, especially for it to run and race so well on zero shakedown time.
Secondly, this absolutely could be a fun street driver! Maybe put a bar in it for some rollover safety. The drive train should be as reliable an any Camry.
I like somebody else's idea above of longer front A arms to widen the front track, then monstrous flares all around. Would be too cool.
Congrats on getting the car "done". I'm really liking the round rear wheel arch, it certainly makes the rear end look much better. In regards to covering the rear wheels, there's a guy on the Europa sites that did some body mods that dont look too bad. Here's a video of this car:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwWVrxvtFpA
I'm sure you could run with his rear fender treatment and stretch it a bit wider, it would only take a few gallons of resin, some chopped strand mat, and a bunch of time.
Kendall Frederick said:In reply to maschinenbau :
I wanted to post in reply to your comments in AC's thread about the Lotus not being suitable for a street driver by saying, first, you did an amazing job on this thing, especially for it to run and race so well on zero shakedown time.
Secondly, this absolutely could be a fun street driver! Maybe put a bar in it for some rollover safety. The drive train should be as reliable an any Camry.
I like somebody else's idea above of longer front A arms to widen the front track, then monstrous flares all around. Would be too cool.
Anyone who has never torn apart a Europa would not understand just how little sense this makes.
In his pursuit of lightness, Colin Chapman built a car with literally NO structural elements at all (except the center spine). There simply is NO crash protection whatsoever. The only thing that surrounds the driver is shrapnel. No crumple zones. No door bars. No door sills. No rollover. No front bar. No bumpers. No floor pan. No firewall.
A minor incident with another car on the street would be catastrophic. Forget it if it's a fender bender with an SUV. Every Camry ever built is a far more suitable street driver than a Lotus.
A quiet English country road? Sure. A track where everyone is moving in the same direction? Of course. US congested roads with drivers too busy texting to think about driving? No thanks!
Plus, Travis lives in Atlanta. I respect his recognition of the limits of this car.
hobiercr said:
I really like this idea, but it doesn't meet NHRA specs. (Too many bends). I'm pretty sure if it was called on to do its job, the cage would fold over and the bolts would pull right out of the center spine.
I still like the idea.
That thing rips 12.0! Always great to see a project up and running. Ready to see the improvements next year. I can't wait to watch this thing beat me next year.
I am not opposed to tagging and insuring this car. I already got reasonable quotes. I'd like to take it to a few local shows like Caffeine and Octane which is so close I don't even need to get on a highway. But I'm in no hurry to do that, especially in summer heat.
The pictured cage design isn't fully applicable to my modified frame. Remember I have a wide, tubular structure behind the firewall that surrounds the powertrain. I could tie into that and run a perimeter tubes all the way to the front of the T in the frame, and cross brace the width with tubes under the spine where the seats mount. I would cut the entire fiberglass floor and firewall out (sigh...so much work) and add a sheetmetal floorpan between the tubes. This would make the body fully removable without removing the pedals or steering column, which is a huge PITA. Interfaces between cage, firewall, and body might be complicated, but the body would probably never come off again anyway.
Maybe I'll CAD this up. Obvoiusly lots of missing members here.
Again, I am in no hurry to start working on this car again. I don't even know if I'll keep it yet. I have other neglected cars I'd like to enjoy :)
Here's an awesome concours pic from Wae
I've had a dream since first taking delivery of this car to roll up to the fenced off "Exotics" section of Caffeine & Octane and plopping this E36 M3box right between Ferraris, Lambos, and other Lotuses.
2 month non-update: I have done nothing except occasionally move it to mow the grass. It fires right up and I even drove it around the block recently. It definitely attracts attention from the neighbors!
I noticed the steering shaft is hitting the brake pushrod again. This small amount of gap is the difference between a perfectly functioning racecar (ha!) and one where the brakes get stuck down and the steering randomly locks up. Perhaps the original die cast steering rack clamps are not quite strong enough to resist modern 100TW racing tires. A good whack from a 4 lb sledgehammer moves it back into place, but a more permanent steering rack mount is clearly needed.
Looking back at the strange handling... I went through my spreadsheet with updated weight and balance numbers, and noticed something possibly bad. The rear ride frequency should be around 2.2 Hz, but the front is probably MUCH lower, like 1.2 Hz depending on the spring rate, which I do not for sure. But even if my front springs are "upgraded" to 200 lb/in, double the original stiffness, the front frequency would still only be 1.4 Hz. To keep the car balanced I think it needs a lot more front spring.
In reply to maschinenbau :
well if you do decide you don't wanna keep it, I'm just down the road ;)
Those rack mounting stansions do bend. If either one doesn't clamp tightly enough on the rack the tight side bends with very little load, and grows looser itself, they are very soft. .They also break off the bulkhead when Lotus first used that part on the type 14 Elite. This is quite exciting. BTDT
Unsolicited opinion:
If it is time for a cage, it is time to ditch that sheet metal backbone, and do a proper space frame, with a wider front suspension more capable of handling the stress. This, of course, stinks, like any other opinion, and is said from the comfort of my arm chair. Truly, another stunning build.
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