The latest Lotus Elise and Exige parts and services and motorsport plans from Hangar 111 Lotus Performance

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new-look website!

We’ve managed to squeeze it in just before Christmas, so you can take some time to have a look around over the holiday period.  We really hope you like the new format, and we’ll be keeping you up to date with what is happening at H111 via this blog, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

We’ve also updated our online store, to ensure we have all our latest products easily available to you. And, if you’ve not already found us, we have set up a new eBay store, where we are selling some new, used, and stock clearance items, at keen prices.

Finally, our opening hours over the Christmas period this year, are as follows:

All online and eBay store orders will be dispatched when we return to normal working hours on Monday 5th January, where stock is available.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers over the past year, and wish you all a happy Christmas and New Year – we look forward to seeing you in 2015!

We were fortunate to have an interesting lineup of Esprit in the workshop this week – we just had to line them up to take a photo!

Three generations of Esprit: an S2, a ‘Stevens’ Turbo, and a V8, conveniently coloured in red, white, and blue.  Very patriotic, we thought…

Do you want to get racing on track in 2015?

Hangar 111 Racing can provide full race car build, preparation, and maintenance, as well as trackside support.  We have tailored packages to support you in your car, in any of the Lotus On Track race series, in UK or Europe.

Our professional, friendly team have a proven track record of consistently delivering cars that are capable of running at the sharp end of the grid – our novice drivers in 2014 scored a number of podiums in both Cup and Elise series, and finished well inside the top 10 overall in Lotus Cup UK – ahead of a number of more experienced rivals.

We currently have availability for race support packages for 2015, please contact us to discuss your requirements, so we can get you winning in 2015!

The first day of November saw the LOTRDC season finale on the Snetterton 300 track.

Friday saw an unseasonably warm test session, followed by a successful first practice for all cars and drivers in the dark – proving that our great new Lazer lighting solution worked really well.  In practice, Richard Hywel-Evans car was fastest in class, with his co-driver Jack Goff at the wheel, whilst James Little and Andrew Bentley came in 5th, and Nick Pink brought his car in 12th.

For Cup UK qualifying, Richard and Jack deployed some tactics to ensure that Richard would start the race, with Jack driving to the flag – Richard qualified the car 6th in class with an excellent 2:13 lap.  James and Andrew were set to share qualifying, but after only a handful of laps, Andrew returned to the pits with a failed rear wheel hub, so the H111 team set about getting that fixed – it was still enough to qualify the car 4th in class.  With Scott still en route from Dubai, Nick qualified his car in a creditable 9th place.

There was also the small matter of the final two rounds of the Elise Trophy, to keep the day busy. Qualifying saw James fighting it out at the top of the grid, ending up pipped to 4th place in the dying moments of the session. Richard drove well to 6th, whilst Nick played it safe and qualified in 26th position.  Things kicked off early on in the first race, where Richard was involved in an incident as he was exiting Riches – an unfortunate end to the season for car 99, with Richard looking very strong for a championship podium position.  Meanwhile, James had a great race to net himself another podium, finishing in 3rd place – brilliant driving.  Nick drove a solid race to make up 9 places and finish in 19th.

In the second Trophy race, James had another stellar drive, and bagged himself yet another 3rd place, and an appearance on the podium – not too bad for a driver in his rookie season.  Nick had some problems with his car, but managed to bring the car home safely.

Sadly the problems with Nicks car #36, meant it couldn’t run in the final race of the season, the 2-hour “into the dark” Cup UK.  The team was down to just one car, following the earlier retirement of Richard and car #99.  It was down to James and Andrew in car #34, to uphold H111 honour!  The race was split into two one-hour sprints, with a race classification declared after one hour, then again after two.  Andrew started the race, and delivered some excellent consistent lap times for the whole of the first hour – and crossed the line in first place.  The pit stop went smoothly, and James was out again in the car for the second hour. He continued his excellent weekend pace, and whilst the win slipped from our grasp, he came home in another very creditable 3rd position.

All in all, a mixed final event of the 2014 race season. An excellent performance by James in car #34, with 3rd place podiums in all three races. Some great times delivered by Richard in car #99, only to see it end prematurely. Whilst Nick drove securely in car #36, to achieve his own target results.

Our thanks to our drivers: James Little (and Andrew Bentley), Richard Hywel-Evans (and Jack Goff), and Nick Pink (and Scott Mansell), for a brilliant season of racing, delivering some really good results in their first ever season of driving.

One of our in-house developed K-series Rotrex supercharger kits is all-set for installation into an MGF.

Whilst there will be a small amount of tweaking required to ensure everything fits correctly in the confines of the MGF engine bay, our Lotus Elise supercharger kit should be a straight fit.  With our well-tested Elise chargecooler alongside, the kit should be good to produce 250bhp and 200lb/ft.

We test fit every kit we assemble prior to despatch, to ensure that there should be no issues with fitment on your own engine.

See our online store for further details of this excellent engine upgrade package.

We’ve had a positive racing season so far, with all of our drivers doing very well in their novice years.

Our best overall team performance came at Rockingham in May, where we scored a 1st,2nd, and 4th in class, in the Lotus Cup UK race.  James Little (car 34) drove a great race to pip team mate Richard Hywel-Evans (car 99) in second, whilst Nick Pink (car 36) held on for 4th place.  The guys were rightly pleased with their race weekend after coming close to taking over the whole podium!

James continued his excellent run of form at the Brands Hatch Lotus Festival rounds, where he made another podium after an exciting Elise Trophy race mixing it with the championship front-runners.  He then followed this up with a 4th place, just fractions of a second off another podium in the Lotus Cup race.

Things came good again for the team at this weekends Donington rounds, where on Saturday we achieved a 3rd, 5th, and 9th placed finishes in the Lotus Cup race. In car 36, Nick Pink started well, with Scott Mansell taking over at the pit stop, finishing up in a commendable 9th place. Richard Hywel-Evans had a steady run through to 5th place, whilst James Little scored himself yet another podium finish.

With just one round to go, Richards consistency sees him sitting in 4th position in the Lotus Cup UK Production class, just two points behind 3rd place, so it’s still all to play for. The final race is on Saturday 1st November at Snetterton, and is a two-hour race, starting at sunset – should be challenging and entertaining!  The team from EAAA will be with us, to round off another year of supporting this vital charity.