John Bonnett

Doug, I'll drop you a PM. I'm not sure what the rules are about mentioning suppliers. But suffice to say that they are a UK firm delivering to mainstream manufacturers including Bentley. They offer a huge array of products for different applications but I was given good advice and guidance as what to use for my job.

For sure, there's a weight penalty Ben particularly with the PeaceMat XS which is exceptionally heavy. However, as the car is used predominantly for road trips rather than racing I don't think the additional weight will be apparent. What is apparent is the reduction in the noise level which is the priority.

One thing I forgot to mention is the total sealing of the bulkhead and scuttle from the engine bay. The PeaceMat underlay has covered every possible leakage point and this coupled with the insulation on the inside and outside of the gearbox cover should mean little or no heat transfer from the engine bay. The effectiveness of the materials is demonstrated by touching the outside of the bonnet above the exhaust manifold after a run; stone cold. I've not finished yet. The floor area is next. It already has a layer of Dynamat which damps the drumming but needs ccf to reduce noise. That will be the final job. I'm very pleased with the result so far which has definitely made conversation much easier and the drive more pleasurable.

Following on from the above, I next tackled the gearbox cover, bulkhead and scuttle (inside the cabin). The gearbox cover was treated with a high temperature material and supplied with fixings that increase its adhesion rating from 100C to 130C. On the bulkhead and scuttle I applied two layers; a Dynamat like product followed by a 10mm thick closed cell foam. This produced a further significant improvement. The last photo shows the footwell works started. Speed (mph) Before insulation (db) Bonnet insulated (db) Gearbox cover/bulkhead (db) 50 83 82 79.7 60 83/84 84 79 70 85/86 84/85 82

It has been quite a while since I added an update on the Lightweight but I just wondered if my latest campaign to reduce cabin noise level and thus improve the driving experience might be of interest. I've tried to carry out the work methodically taking noise measurements at each stage in order to assess the effects. I started with the bonnet putting two layers of material; one to remove the drumming and the second to damp the noise. I felt for a long time that the booming sound was coming from the bonnet. It's worth noting that the decibel scale is logarithmic so a reduction of just one is a ten times improvement. So, here are the results; Speed (mph) Before insulation (db) Bonnet insulated (db) 50 83 82 60 83/84 84 70 85/86 84/85