The Lotus Grand Tourers

Johnwindwood wrote:Well, I AM John!
Sorry-missed the updates.

Still really pleased with the exhaust. Cost just under £600 made on the car. Centre silencer removed, more efficient rears fitted. Result is slightly more noise overall (But a lovely note!)
No booming and not wearing on a long journey. I'd do it again without hesitation.

Very interesting John. Based on your experience, I can feel a centre box delete coming on!

Well fitted a shiny new SJ exhaust from y piece backwards. Fitted great, looks good but has a bloody annoying tingling rasp on one of the boxes. Hopefully a little soot will sort it out

I found a local guy - Tim at Total Vehicle Services, Romsey - who races a 700BHP Nascar, has a really interesting garage/workshop - cars and bikes on 3 floors. We put the excel on his smaller lift and inspected the exhaust system. Still quite solid but rusting at the unions for the rear silencers, time to replace. I've ordered a stainless replacement system from SJS. Everything but the manifold. I was very tempted by the LotusBits system but too short on time to take the car over there for engine removal to fit the tubular manifold.

Tim fitted the new system yesterday. It went straight on with no issues, fits well and looks very shiny. Took it for a long drive to get the system up to temperature. The exhaust note is very slightly muted (it may have been blowing slightly from one rusty silencer joint) and the engine seems to pull very much the same as before.

Hi Guys,
I am very interested to hear the views of the people in this post (or anyone else) who have had a new system fitted and have lived with it for a while.

Does it still sound the same and are your thoughts unchanged from your original posts, over two years ago?

When I used to fit new SS exhausts to TVRs they always sounded different once they had run in.

If people wouldn't mind confirming the extent of the system and who supplied it - it will provide a great insight and reference update.



Cheers,
Ian

I've just fitted 2 new back silencers from Paul Matty. ( Classic Lotus would have any left overs I assume).
They look like a pattern part PM had made up a good few years ago (blue Grundy was on car before change, so maybe original).
They were an exact duplicate and fitted straight on once I'd corrected some PO bodges.
They sound maybe slightly throatier but still early days and certainly not obtrusive.
Tony

Thanks Tony,
I noticed with Classic Team Lotus they offered two versions of the exhaust (in simple layman terms) what is the difference between the two: Peco & Grundy?
I have heard the Classic Team Lotus and SJS source their exhausts from the same company and their flanges and some of their pipes are not of a good quality stainless steel?

I don't think there's any simple about the exhaust variants and changes throughout production.
Parts list says Peco was painted black, Grundy Blue, but that's no use if things have been changed, which is highly probable.
There's a label on a spare over axle pipe that says who made the bits for PM. It was around 2010. I'll take a look later. Seems very common that the stainless pipe only has mild steel clamp plates. I've no idea whether than to force us to change every now and again.
Tony

I had Lotusbits fit their sports exhaust, tubular manifold, 2 & half inch front pipe. Still sounds great to me but I have heard one person who said it was too noisy for them at motorway speeds. Personally, I don't want my fun car to be the same as my family car so more noise is fine.

Hi Phil,
- yes, I was told that it was boomy on the motorway but I have spoken to Lotusbits directly and they have told me that there is a resonance around 2k to 2.2k rpm and thats it. Louder yes, boomy no.

The front box is disintegrating on my car and I was hoping that I might be able to take a modular approach to replacement and replace what was needed without having to change everything out - an expense I don't really have the budget for at the moment however Lotus bits tell me that they only sell a complete system so I can't even buy a manifold back system on its own.

Their system currently costs £2k + VAT and if they have to take the engine out to remove the manifold it's a further 1k + VAT.

All fixtures and fittings are stainless steel including flanges, which is a major plus, however they are only guaranteeing their exhaust system for 12 months which seems to peculiar if it is as high quality as they say it is.

I'm thinking I will probably order the LB system next week. I'm just sitting on the idea for a few days, so it doesn't qualify as a reckless impulse purchase. On top of the £3,600 (which could go up or down a bit, depending on how easy it is to pull my car apart) there will no doubt be other things to pay for, that it would be silly not to do, while the engine is out.

It's around a 10 week wait (from order & payment) for the exhaust to be made up, which is a bit annoying.

I'm thinking I will probably order the LB system next week.
It's around a 10 week wait (from order & payment) for the exhaust to be made up, which is a bit annoying.

- I spoke to Mike Taylor and he said that they had (I believe) a couple of systems coming into stock in the next week or so.Might be worth giving him a call and see if you get lucky

I Wouldn't mind seeing and listening to an exhaust system on another car so if you do get an early booking, please give me a shout

I'll let you know, Jazzy. Where are you? I'm in Chobham - that's Chobham, near Woking, outside the M25, & not Cobham, also near Woking, & inside the M25.

I spoke to Mike about a week ago, & he said 9-10 weeks.

Hi Tony,
I'm in Crawley, West Sussex.
Lotusbits is approximately 2:45h from me!
Regards,
Ian

It's a long way for me too. I placed my order with LB today. I'll report back here when the work's all done & you can send me a PM if you'd like to come over for a ride.