Alright fellas, I attended my first track day and Knockhill on Saturday and got home instantly wanting to buy things for my car!!

So I have a standard Rallye with what I believe to be a knackered rear beam. I get a load knock going over speed bumps and the car is very tail happy when lifting off. Does that sound about right? If so, this is the first job.

Next I want to sort the wheels as I'm sick of not being able to get the tyres I want or even get my Cyclones balanced properly. I'm thinking of upgrading to 16" OZ alloys which will be lighter than Cyclones and I hope not degrade the handling. Are these a good shout? And would these allow easy brake upgrades in future?

Then I really need to consider new suspension. Although my car seemed quick on track I wasn't impressed with the body roll. If I'm upgrading the alloys I guess I should replace and stiffen the suspension too.

The overall goal is not to have an out and out track slag that's uncomfortable on the road. I'm looking for the best of both worlds I think. What would you recommend in terms of suspension and wheels to get what I want?

Any/all advice appreciated! Cheers

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Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Cheers Adam, will the ride be stiffer than with standard suspension though?

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Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

You'll find with stiffer dampers you won't notice the body roll so much anyway, you tend to notice the actual rate of roll* rather than the outright amount.
Mine rolls like a canoe in a tornado but I've had plenty of people comment on how flat it corners - it doesn't, the dampers just keep the roll rate under control so there's no sudden accelerations as such.




*Actually, the rate of acceleration change of the roll, but we won't go there

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- Bespoke rollcages/additions/adjustments. Half cages right up to complete custom spaceframes - MSA/FIA spec, CDS, ROPT, T45, etc - PM me
Email me!
Custom-made polybushes available - need an odd size or fitment? - anything from batch work to one-off pieces.

Keep your hat on - winter is coming and we wouldn't want that nice big brain of yours to get all cold

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Nothing to see here

Last time I checked the engine didn't have all that much effect on the lateral acceleration rate

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- Bespoke rollcages/additions/adjustments. Half cages right up to complete custom spaceframes - MSA/FIA spec, CDS, ROPT, T45, etc - PM me
Email me!
Custom-made polybushes available - need an odd size or fitment? - anything from batch work to one-off pieces.

ive got a set of 15" pro race 1.2's lying there waiting for you to pick them up lol fit over brembos/hispec/wilwood and kad brakes Lee!! your car looked good fun on saturday!

out of intrest mate what like was your n/s tyres after the day? mine were well f*cked!!

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In my garage just now

2003 BMW M3 & 2009 L200 Raging Bull
& Audi Q5 S Line
AX stock rod & Saxo Stock rod
Sold the bike an charged rallye an bought a caravan, midlife crisis or what!

This sounds great to me. I'm considering a similar set of mods to shift the standard road/track compromise towards the 'track' end of the scale.

What tyres was this on?

cheers Matt, sounds good

sorry for the cheeky hijack xaero1!

If you don't already have one i'd recommend an oil cooler of some description.

I'd also look at tyre price difference between 15" and 16", i've seen a few threads on here where reasonably large discs can be squeezed inside some 15" wheels with 4 pots.

R888's are probably the best thing i have done for trackdays, but with the added grip expect more wear and tear on other things so it would probably be worth sorting the suspension out properly before fitting some.

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Goldie the track car.

There's something mentioned on the Lotus forums which is not often (if ever) mentioned on here and that's driver training. I mean borrow/pay for an instructor whilst out on track. They can make a fair difference to your lap times (apparently)

I'm inclined to agree to this route of "modification" as it will enable you to make the best of what you've already got before *hopefully* making it better swapping suspension parts etc etc

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My old man wrote me a letter from prison once. It said if you don't want to end up in here, stay away from crime, women and drugs. Trouble is, that don't leave you much else to do, does it?