Stark Honda Elise

[jbaddeley]

Has anybody tried or bought one of these? Be pleased to hear your views. Thanks in advance.

[djroadboy]

I have extensive experience of them. What would you like to know?

Dan

[jbaddeley]

I'm looking forward to buying a lotus in the near future with a flexible budget upto about 20k and it seems that the honda engined cars offer stronger performance over the stock sc and normally aspirated toyota engined cars. I've had a look at hondaelise.com and came across the stark review in an old evo mag. I'm probably going to source an s1 in good nick and want to get an idea of what it will cost to do the drivetrain,suspension and brakes. I understand that stark will build you a virtually brand new car with new paint, interior etc, but this will be out of budget. I notice that you convert lotuses yourself. I'd been keen to get some advice on what a sensible route might be, or am i better off buying an r that has had a Katana supercharger retro fitted. The s1 with honda engine does appeal. Cheers Jonathan.

[subaqua]

Try www.seloc.org which has a wealth of information on the s/c yota vs honda (and s/c honda) conversion arguments... although usually the final outcome in most of these arguments, is that everyone loves the option they bought and thinks its better than the other one!

Plenty of other honda converters out there too.... the link-up kit, which is marketed by eliseparts and Maidstone sports cars, Essex Autosport, Pheonix Motorsport and JS Racing (I think... they are probably closest to you), to name a few.

Edited by subaqua on Thursday 21st July 09:15

[Exige77]

Think Stark just made the one car but they have sold some DIY kits which I am told are good quality and work well.

Try SELOC as alreday said.

S1 Hondas are quick.

Ex77

[fnomis]

I had one built with a Stark kit - it's a great piece of kit and pretty rapid :-)

What do you want to know? Where in Staffordshire are you?

[jbaddeley]

A village called Fulford near Stone. Apparently Stark no longer build cars, only supply kits. I'd be interested to know who fitted your kit, the total conversion cost minus donor car, the quality of the engine mounts, ease of the conversion,potential problems, anything else you think important. I've driven a number of Kseries variants and would love to get a ride and look at a honda car if you are about. Pleased to hear that you are enjoying yours. Regards - Jonathan.

[fnomis]

Email sent Jonathan. If I am passing, I will drop you a line!

[Mambosasa]

I converted my car using the Stark kit and its very good. Two years down later and it is still going strong and no issues at all.

I believe I am one of the first, if not the first person to fit a DC5 JRSC on this kit. It fits - just! I blogged it all if interested.

[fnomis]

What gains did you see?

[Mambosasa]

The 'charger was a DIY install, with standard exhaust manifold (4-2-1 - therefore not optimised), it was mapped at 313bhp. The numbers don't really tell the full story. The car was transformed and drives beautifully.

With the JRSC, the installation is very tight in the bay, but it does go in.

[Exige77]

Mambosasa said:

I converted my car using the Stark kit and its very good. Two years down later and it is still going strong and no issues at all.

I believe I am one of the first, if not the first person to fit a DC5 JRSC on this kit. It fits - just! I blogged it all if interested.

Have you a link to the blog ? Would be ineteresting to see.

Thanks

Ex77

[Mambosasa]

Exige77 said:

Have you a link to the blog ? Would be ineteresting to see.

Thanks

Ex77

The blog is as per link below. It includes the conversion itself and the supercharger installation. Don't expect a deeply technical blog, but more of a record of the work I did. I hope its useful.

http://www.midlandslotus.co.uk/forum/blog/blog-32/...

[fnomis]

Any reason you went for a Jackson over a rotrex - I believe the Rotrex will fit without modifying the bulkhead?

Just read the blog ... good stuff :-)

[Mambosasa]

Nah. If anything, simplicity. It's a solution that has been done hundreds of times before and personally felt that it was within my own skills and would be able to get the support from the experienced guys. The knowledge base on the JRSC installation is huge and without that, I would have been stuck.

I am glad you enjoyed the blog.

[foz01]

Just read the blog as well, good stuff, I am doing similar at the moment although my engines out and the cars being charge cooled did that belt size work ok for you?

[Mambosasa]

Hi,

I am glad you enjoyed it. I went for 1200mm belt - 7PK1200, on standard crank and 3.2 nose pulley. It was pretty tight to get on and after 1,000 miles, not issues, squeals or slippage.

Best of luck.

[dbarrade]

I'm also about to swap my engine out and was looking at the JRSC and the Comtech: http://www.autocarparts.com/part/list/1542/

but then I saw the TTS DIY Supercharger Kit (Rotrex):

http://www.jdmyard.com/2011/06/tts-diy-supercharge...

Anyone know anything about how this looks once mounted and if it would fit better than the JRSC?

[Scuffers]

What?

Apart from it won't fit like that.... (look at the pics of where they have mounted it)

[GTRene]

its more this way I guess.



here some Rotex kits list for Honda conversion and or Toyota engine Lotus

http://www.rotrex.com/Home/Supercharger_Experience...

Edited by GTRene on Thursday 25th August 13:29