Discussion
Roger @ Lotus has got one. If I had $116k that the wife would let me spend on a car I'd be down to Waiuku like a pig farmer after an escaping prize sow.
Roger even told me he reckons it would d1ck the Noble in the twisties, but the Noble wins hands down in a straight drag race. Either way, floor it and the pigs would be after you!
Roger even told me he reckons it would d1ck the Noble in the twisties, but the Noble wins hands down in a straight drag race. Either way, floor it and the pigs would be after you!
Ah yes, the car that adds 'Olympic Gymnast' to the Elise equation. I'd still love one like my first-born though if I had the pingers...
And as far as the noble goes, its cheating with the forced induction- I'm sure a trip to someone like Quest4 would set you up with enough boost to see to most things!!!
And as far as the noble goes, its cheating with the forced induction- I'm sure a trip to someone like Quest4 would set you up with enough boost to see to most things!!!
I seem to recall some Italian firm shoehorning an Alfa V6 into the MkI Elise... anyone hear of the same? Roumours were prior to the S2 release that the bigger rear end on the S2 was to allow the eventual addition of a V6 Variant.... anyone want to try to shoehorn the Noble M400 lump into it? I shall humbly volunteer my test driving services.
Why bother with an Alfa V6. Sure its a nice motor but its gonna upset the weight distribution (id imagine, I dont know any figures)
You can buy off the shelf kits to bolt a Honda K-Series into an elise. With simple bolt ons its possible to get 250 whp out of them (possibly less in an elise due to exhaust differences etc). More power, more reliable and a similar weight (compared to stock not necessarily the Alfa except for weight).
Im sure theres still alot of people on here who are anti jap engines but as far as small displacement goes theres nothing from Europe than can rival them. And if your building a hybrid car anyway its gotta be about the driving experience not the prestige of it
You can buy off the shelf kits to bolt a Honda K-Series into an elise. With simple bolt ons its possible to get 250 whp out of them (possibly less in an elise due to exhaust differences etc). More power, more reliable and a similar weight (compared to stock not necessarily the Alfa except for weight).
Im sure theres still alot of people on here who are anti jap engines but as far as small displacement goes theres nothing from Europe than can rival them. And if your building a hybrid car anyway its gotta be about the driving experience not the prestige of it
I heard about that Alfa conversion and I believe it was quite involved and included increasing track and possibly even wheelbase (although that could have been another conversion!).
I guess it all comes down to space restrictions but a nice Lexus V8 would look (and sound) lovely shoved into the middle of an Elise/Exige.
Thinking about it, Lotus did shoe-horn their own V8 into the original Elise/Exige to form the GT1 but Lord knows how similar that actually was to the road-going item.
I guess now that Elises are getting rather cheap we'll see more of this sort of thing going on.
I guess it all comes down to space restrictions but a nice Lexus V8 would look (and sound) lovely shoved into the middle of an Elise/Exige.
Thinking about it, Lotus did shoe-horn their own V8 into the original Elise/Exige to form the GT1 but Lord knows how similar that actually was to the road-going item.
I guess now that Elises are getting rather cheap we'll see more of this sort of thing going on.
Elise GT1.... now THERE'S a car! 
And Paul.... you say Honda K-series..... I believe you mean B-series :P ..... but yeah.... I'd still be keen for a bigger engine in one to turn it into a real muscle machine..... the K series is pretty tuneable up to about 220bhp.... why nother with the trouble of fitting a honda lump when the Rover unit is (almost) as good..... plenty of Elise-specific tuning parts available too.... more resale value as well .... you can bet in years to come an original, matching numbers Elise will be many times more valuable than one that's not..... bear in mind that it was once de-rigeur to put yank V8s into E-Types!
And Paul.... you say Honda K-series..... I believe you mean B-series :P ..... but yeah.... I'd still be keen for a bigger engine in one to turn it into a real muscle machine..... the K series is pretty tuneable up to about 220bhp.... why nother with the trouble of fitting a honda lump when the Rover unit is (almost) as good..... plenty of Elise-specific tuning parts available too.... more resale value as well .... you can bet in years to come an original, matching numbers Elise will be many times more valuable than one that's not..... bear in mind that it was once de-rigeur to put yank V8s into E-Types!
I own a B-series honda I know what they are 
Im meaning K-series as in the K20A out of the latest shape Integra type R's and Civic type R's. They put out 220hp at the flywheel stock with stock everything. Like I said above 250hp at the wheels is possible without even opening the engine. Plus theyre lighter than a 1.8 B-series
Sure you can get 200hp out of a Rover K-series but it wont be anything as tractable as the Honda. The closest a 1.8 K-series thats as tractable and long lived as the Honda is the 120hp MGF/Base elise motor. By the time they get to 200hp they dont like idling, dont last very long and are rather expensive.
I dont really support changing the motor either, im still enough of a purist to stay with the original but if you have to do it to make it even faster the Honda motor seems the best option.
Anyone wanna give me an exige? Id settle for an elise even
Im meaning K-series as in the K20A out of the latest shape Integra type R's and Civic type R's. They put out 220hp at the flywheel stock with stock everything. Like I said above 250hp at the wheels is possible without even opening the engine. Plus theyre lighter than a 1.8 B-series
Sure you can get 200hp out of a Rover K-series but it wont be anything as tractable as the Honda. The closest a 1.8 K-series thats as tractable and long lived as the Honda is the 120hp MGF/Base elise motor. By the time they get to 200hp they dont like idling, dont last very long and are rather expensive.
I dont really support changing the motor either, im still enough of a purist to stay with the original but if you have to do it to make it even faster the Honda motor seems the best option.
Anyone wanna give me an exige? Id settle for an elise even
dejoux, I knew what you meant by the K series engines, a mate of mine through the club did the conversion to his Elise and it goes like a bat out of hell. Last time I spoke to him he was having trouble getting traction (too much wheel spin), so hes got some sticky tires to put on in order to record some very serious quick lap times.
He sold his original engine to some guys doing the targa last year!
I got to say I was impressed with the VX220 at the track few weekends back. I struggled to keep up with it, and we were both driving hard. You can buy two of these for the price of an Exige. Make an excellent track day toy with performance to boot.
He sold his original engine to some guys doing the targa last year!
I got to say I was impressed with the VX220 at the track few weekends back. I struggled to keep up with it, and we were both driving hard. You can buy two of these for the price of an Exige. Make an excellent track day toy with performance to boot.
jamieheasman said:
Thinking about it, Lotus did shoe-horn their own V8 into the original Elise/Exige to form the GT1 but Lord knows how similar that actually was to the road-going item.
From the few pictures I've seen, it looked very much like the rear end was rebuilt with a tubular frame. It makes sense to do that, much the same as the serious drag cars get tube chassis from the firewall forwards only its back from the firewall in this case! Apparently the Lexus V8 is quite a wide engine however so perhaps it wouldn't be the best swap for this car. I'm still in favour of turboing the original engine... or would something like a 3SGTE or SR20DET or 4G63T fit in? Heck you can even turbo a 4AGZE to well over 200Hp!
Gassing Station | New Zealand | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff