Track Day Alignment Issue - Something loose on track - Lotus Evora

Dangerous moment out on track when things aren't buttoned down correctly.
Fixing a track day alignment issue
Time to fix this issue, then learn how to do my own alignment.

[@eugene215111]

Turns out it wasn't all in your head! I'm happy you called it at the right time before it got really bad!

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

Indeed. Give myself some credit for catching it before the car went sideways into the grass!

[@johnburton6984]

Great explanations and, a GREAT father... Well done

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

Thank you. We've got to start them early. I still the love for the brand and the car. And then they can take care of their own problems too. I learned a lot from my dad as a kid. So just following how I was taught.

[@dogtag114]

Some mechanics try to access that eccentric bolt without removing the bottom tray. Possible that happened at some point and did not torque down properly. This also assumes the mechanic knows that bolt is even there which was not my first experience.

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

Ha. Honestly the car isn't hard to work on. But it does have its quirks. And certainly not a lot of documentation about it

[@rfgf1]

Wow, as an Evora owner whose car sees a lot of track time (5 HPDE’s so far this summer), any idea why that bolt in the RR suspension came loose? I just had a “track” alignment at the dealer and would hate to have that come loose at an event (lost track time, scariness-is that a word?, not to mention another $400 for an alignment). And it seems yours came loose all at once-when it got loose enough to slip, it really loosened quickly. But by far the highlight of the video was when you were at Home Depot buying the jam nuts. “This is seriously the worst experience-nothing is right”. I’ve said the same thing (and more) when confronted with their nuts and bolts drawers!!!

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

I had a track alignment done in March of this year. So my assumption is that the place I took it to didn't cinch the bolts down tightly. I guess they didn't torque it up. It frustrated me , But now I don't want to go back to the same place. I don't even want them touching it anymore. So that's why I'm going to start learning how to do my own alignments. In retrospect, I think I might have felt it coming out from the previous track day, slightly back then. But it would have been really almost unnoticeable. Which is why I didn't worry about it. But it definitely got worse pretty quick at this point. I mean once the bolt got loose it was just flopping around. I mean it would be an easy check to just put a jack under the rear and just hold on to the wheels and wiggle things around. As long as they weren't moving, you'd be fine. You could do that before each event.

[@cadefields-gardner6534]

@@GoodmorningGoodnight I drive my car to most events, so I will add your suggestion (of checking the rear wheels) to my pre-event prep. Easy enough to do because I will already have the car up on the lift to put on the track pads. As for doing your own alignment, I can say that I've never been successful doing my own alignment using "measuring tools". I've tried string, bars, measuring tapes, and none of them have produced desirable results. What I have ended up doing is to use my jack handle to hold against the wheels in different directions to see clearance to a stationary object (like the fender). I'd love to see you learn to do your own alignments, and see if you can achieve satisfactory results--then I might give your method a try!

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

@@cadefields-gardner6534 Yes the hardest thing about this is just making sure you got the car up. Easy enough to check for play in the alignment. I think one of the hardest parts about doing an alignment is you don't really know how good it is until you actually run it. And then you can look at tire wear and things like that. So I might get a alignment that I'm satisfied with off the bat until I see that things are wearing unevenly or something like that. Lol. Drove the car around yesterday and it's certainly far better than it was, but still needs a little bit of an alignment to get things perfect. So I'll see what I can do. If I make any progress I'll post it!

[@aiksiongthen5029]

Another great video! Saw that you have -2 degree camber, any idea if we can have more camber for Evora? i tried to search for camber kit our car but couldnt find

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

Someone online on the forums was saying that they could get minus 3° of camber using the stock Evora setup. But I don't think that makes sense. I am going to try and see if I can get any more out of it myself. But for now this is what we got. And to my knowledge there's no camber kits online. Unfortunately not too much aftermarket support for our cars. But -2° should be pretty much good enough for most people right out of the box.

[@aiksiongthen5029]

@@GoodmorningGoodnight yeah agree with you that there is not much aftermarket support for our cars. Thanks for all the videos you have made!

[@likezdislike]

Off topic. Can you make a video on how to program new ecu on lotus specially evora. Thank you

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

Well beyond my capability unfortunately. No idea how to do that. Most lotus owners use Komotek.Have you tried them?

[@likezdislike]

@@GoodmorningGoodnight not yet. But I will try to research about it

[@2D3DTechnologies]

Interesting! Question, do you still have your 285 tires on the rear wheels? Did they ever rub on the track?

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

Yes. Still have the 285s. No rubbing at all. But they're on smaller wheels. 18 in the rear for better acceleration. You can check out my wheel fitment video. Not sure how they would fare on a larger 19 or 20in rim

[@2D3DTechnologies]

@@GoodmorningGoodnight good to know, thank you sir!

[@GoodmorningGoodnight]

@@2D3DTechnologies if you plan on running wider tires, it's recommended to run a little bit more negative camber. You can usually get about negative 2° camber out of the rear of the lotus Evora

[@2D3DTechnologies]

@@GoodmorningGoodnight oh yeah, I saw that you ran max rear camber in the other video. 👍