Base Price

$85,000 (estimated)
Engine

3.5-liter supercharged V-6
Horsepower

345 hp @ 7,000rpm

 

The family S1

 

Hi folks - new to the site but just wanted to say hello and share a couple pictures of my car. It's a 2005 Elise.

Totally stock except I put on the LSS wheels (not pictured) for a bit more tire up front which seems to improve handling at the track.

 

This is what remains of my Lotus. Not pretty, but a reminder to all track junkies to wear FP clothing and install a good fire suppression system.

 

Hope you were OK! Shame about the car.

 

What happened?

 

I am fine and thanks for the concern. It could have been much worse and all in all a cheap lesson. i will never climb into a race car without a fire suit and safety gear on. Not 100% sure of the root cause but it appears that a piece of track debris cut the return line running from my FST back to the fuel tank, which then ignited. The rear engine bay exploded, blowing out my front windscreen resulting In a robust fire that spread very quickly. Interestingly the fiberglass body of the car seemed to add additional fuel the fire. I would suggest anyone installing an FST to use steel braided lines.

 

Dumb question but what does FST stand for?

 

Sorry for the acronym. FST stands for Fuel Starve Tank. It is a small tank and pump that feed the fuel rail and prevents fuel starvation.

 

Which tank were you using? The few kits I've seen come with braided lines. Did you have an extinguisher, suppression system, or fire suit at the time or did you manage to escape unscathed despite not having them?

I'm paranoid about this kind of thing because my car has a full cage with door bars that makes getting out orders of magnitude more difficult. My nightmare is that the car ends up wedged up against a wall or something on the driver's side, forcing me to get out on the passenger side (assuming that isn't also blocked), all while a fire is spreading . . .

 

I was paranoid about fire and emergency egress as well. My car was a 255 Cup with full cage fire suppression etc. The fire suppression system failed due to the explosion damaging the tubing and nozzle causing the foam to ineffectually dump out of one section of hose. luckily I smelled gas prior to the explosion so I was decelerating looking for a place to pull off the track which kept me off the wall. Like an idiot I was not wearing my Nomex. I had worn it on all previous runs but since it was so hot, 120 degrees on track and I was getting in and out of the car playing around with my Aero, I wrongly convinced myself that it was OK to run without it. Fortunately all I lost was some hair on my right arm. Also very concerning was how the fiberglass body acted as an accelerant. In my opinion the fact that you cannot get out of the car through a window is a major safety issue. If I was to get back on track in an exige or elise I would run it with the top off or have a roof made with enough clearance for a helmet to fit through. My FST was one of the first Radium units produced and at the time it did not use braided SS hoses.

 

Lotus Elise - on my list of to-drives. My friend owned one and took me for a spin ... been hooked since.

 

here is a pic and clip of my 2005. maybe soon it will have the acceleration like @997 GT3 RS/TT :P

 

Interesting. Mine is a street Exige that has essentially been converted to Cup car specs, as I have the same cage and a suppression system as well. Scary to hear the suppression system failed. I also have noted it is impossible to exit through a window. I'm small enough that I might be able to do it if I took off my helmet, but with a rapidly spreading fire, that's more precious seconds wasted. I know one guy with a Cup car (also concerned about exiting quickly) who replaced his front windshield with a Lexan piece with the idea it could easily be kicked out in an emergency, and that is suddenly looking pretty smart.

 

Nice