"Gentleman, this post is coming from one who is not mechanically minded but is an expert at wasting money. Having previously raced a Jade Sports Prototype which literally cost me £1,000's per season it was a pleasure to move over to my Lotus Elise S1 (Car 24) Class C Car. I bought the car off Maidstone Sports Cars at the beginning of last season and entered all but two races without any problems whatsoever. I failed to finish at Combe but this was due to a broken front splitter. The car was previously owned by Adrian Maudlin who now races a Juno in the V de V series and he did numerous track days in the Lotus and drove the same with some gusto. So there you are. Adrian had the SC S1 before me. I raced it throughout last season with NO mechanical breakdowns at all All we ever did was change the oil and keep any eye on the brake pads etc.
That all changed when I had the engine re-mapped at the beginning of this season to comply with LoT regs. The very next time I started the car I noticed that the engine temperature was higher than previously. The car successfully completed the first two races of the year at Brands Indy and Donnington without any problems. It was during qualifying at the A1GP meeting last Friday that I hit my first problem with an engine failure. It was not as dramatic as Kell's and it took a while before we found out that I had nil compression on one cylinder. The general consensus of opinion was that a piston had probably melted. Whether it was coincidence or not, Friday was by far the hottest day of the year that the car had been run and I am of the opinion that the re-map was the probable cause of the failure. I am not subscribing to the "fear factor" surrounding SC Honda engines as I believe that if they are properly mapped they are reliable. I for one would be hugely disappointed if Class C was not supported. Class C is effectively the development class for the series and I think they are exciting to drive and from a spectators point of view, exciting to watch. I fully appreciate the higher costs involved and that a lower number of drivers will be in the top class because of this. At the moment we have a structured series that enables most budgets to compete in motor racing and I hope Class C continues with full support from the rest of the grid.
Best Regards
Doug Setters
Yes, the re-map was carried out on the TDI dyno although I would stress that it was not done by one of their own engineers. They just observed that the power figures were within LoT regs. The mapping was carried out by someone else. I agree with the other posting that the mixture was probably set to lean causing a piston overheat. I have commissioned Randy to carry out all future major work on the car including engine mapping. For what it's worth check this quote from one of the Lotus fraternity. "Well Doug, if it wasn't so expensive everyone would be doing it!" I'm still thinking about that.
Doug"
