Put the Exige into MMC to get serviced and its first MOT done. All went swimmingly well apart from the fact the Cat needed replaced. Quoted £1008, but that did include VAT
Took the car home minus the MOT. Put word out via SE that needed a Cat. Scotty obliged informing me he had one on his garage floor off his recently sold 211 and I could have same, plus the old manifold off the car for a small fee as all the Cat pipes were the same be in 211 or Exige S 
. Got under the car. Got the standard Exhaust, Cat pipe and associated bits and pieces off the car, eventually. Only 3 sheared bolts and 2 knackered Allen nuts, so not too bad really. Got the sensors out the old pipe (Claw Spanners – Thanks Shug/ Gas Plus – Thanks Neil) and into the new. Got the heat shields pop riveted onto the new Cat pipe and that all back onto the car. Left the spring bolts attached but slack. Wired up the sensors. Refitted the heat shield and presented up the original back box for refitting. Spend the next hour swearing and sweating like a blind lesbian in a fish factory
I have done the exhaust on a Lotus before but this just did not want to fit and I simply could not figure out why. Eventually decided to compare the Cat pipes and there was the reason. The pipe off Scotty’s 211 had a tighter radius bend on it so the large OEM lotus back box was never going to fit, ever....Now what to do. If money were no object it would be easy. Go to 2ubular and get a new back box. Smaller in size so would fit nicely. However I do not have £500 readily available right now and the hanging brackets might have been too far toward the rear......
Went out to see Mike 711 to pick up my OBD reader as needed a break from the exhaust. Explained the situation and asked for advice. He has Scotty’s old GT back box and was going to fit that to the 111R rebuild he is doing. The 211 Cat pipe off Scotty’s car was manufactured to be different from the standard Exige/Elise. He cannot get the 111R rebuild to run and one of the problems might have been the Cat. He took the Cat off his car, I gave him the Cat originally from Scotty’s 211. I fitted the Cat off Mike’s old 111R and it slotted into place and worked a treat. Spent the whole of Sunday evening fitting the exhaust system, sorting the bust fittings etc but all is now back together again
And the point of all this.....I would just like to say thanks to all on SE who made this possible. Scotty for coming up with the Cat in the first place, even though it did not fit(
), the suggestions from many for making the job easier and to Mike for all of the assistance and sharing of Lotus knowledge..This really was a team effort Only hope the Cat that is fitted is OK and the car passes its MOT.
