Monster Elise/Exige S1
Discussion
I am sure some on here were familiar with the original build of this car by Andy Marston about 6 years ago. However it was exported about 3 years ago and I have managed to raid Holland and recover it back to the UK. It will be seen at a trackday soon, looking at a Quaife sequential box for next year also.
Audi 20vt engine - Car runs on 3 maps: 300hp, 420hp and 550hp.
Lotus Audi Exige built from an S1 Elise
Spec includes:
Full Exige body, Chrome Orange Paintwork
Spoiler Rear Diffuser
Engine
Audi 20v Turbo with AGU big port head,
Fully Forged Engine with Stroker kit to 2.0L,
Forged Pistons,
Forged Rods,
billet lightened and balanced Crank,
Supertec valves,
Pro Alloy baffled sump,
Pro Alloy Plenum intake manifold ,
TSR tublar manifold with V band connection to GTX 3076 Garrett turbo
with Tial 44 mm water cooled external wastegate and full 3“ stainless exhaust ,
Helix clutch mated to a 6 speed gearbox with quaife Limited slip diff,
Billet engine mounts. Custom Motorsport drive shafts.
Engine built and mapped by TSR Performance, built and mapped for 550BHP with 3 maps 300HP, 420 BHP and 550 BHP!!
Emerald ECU
Pro Alloy custom made cooling, including charge cooler.
Suspension
Quantum Coilovers (Uprated roll bars All bushes replaced with spherical bearings S2 uprights
Brakes
Ap 4 pot calipers
Goodrich braided lines.
Motorsport Master cylinder
Interior
bucket seats with harnesses, fire extinguisher, Race technology dash with data logger, removable steering wheel, 6 point roll cage.
?Amazing!
Perhaps different given the stresses of racing versus road use, but I have to warn you that the Quaife sequential is the worst gearbox ever built. I think over the course of 2 seasons it was rebuilt maybe 10 times.
Makes me laugh - we bought it as it was half of the price of a Hewland. We spent loads more fixing and modifying it, then gave up and bought the Hewland anyway! Must have been a £60,000 gearbox decision in the end.
If you need someone experienced, go to John Danby Racing in Essex. He used to run Lotus Motorsport and knows his stuff.
Perhaps different given the stresses of racing versus road use, but I have to warn you that the Quaife sequential is the worst gearbox ever built. I think over the course of 2 seasons it was rebuilt maybe 10 times.
Makes me laugh - we bought it as it was half of the price of a Hewland. We spent loads more fixing and modifying it, then gave up and bought the Hewland anyway! Must have been a £60,000 gearbox decision in the end.
If you need someone experienced, go to John Danby Racing in Essex. He used to run Lotus Motorsport and knows his stuff.
Well I thought a little update was in order on the car, some good and some bad. Carrying on from the original purchase I did a couple of trackdays last year which I found the car to be very rich running off and on boost and needed a bit of tidying up on the MAPS. The old 3076 turbo also suffered lag between gear changes, so needed a solution to that. There were also issues with inlet temperatures and heat soak when entering the pits. Along the way I have tried to improve on what was already an amazing car and the future holds some more interesting additions.
So the story.
I ran the car last year at Snetterton and Brands and it was clear there was work to do. I sorted out the heat soak with an addition of a Davies Craig electric pump and added an intercooler built by Pro Alloy to to the Pro Alloy charge cooler, bringing the temps down nicely. I booked it into a local engine tuner before my big outing to SPA in September 2019 to get the MAPS sorted & sadly that was the start of my issues.
After 7 dry laps in the afternoon the engine went bang, it seems due to the mapping too much advance, I can't say more....
So that meant that I needed to sort a new engine and this was specced with TSR to provide a better solution based on current hardware.
The original spec was modified to add Piper cams and a G25-660 turbo and hopefully improve the power with less boost, and improving the pick up too.
The upshot is now that the car is so much more driveable, the G25-660 is night and day better than the 3076. Smaller frame, gives amazing pick-up and the boost holds great.
Map 1 & 2 have been sorted at 1 bar (390 BHP) and 1.4 bar (450BHP) currently map 3 is being planned, but looking at the temps on inlet, we have added water / meth to enable us to run a 2 bar (push to pass) button on the steering wheel that will invoke the map and water / meth injection. The aim is for 550BHP +
As a consequence however of reaching over 130MPH (@450BHP) by Paddock Hill past the pits, I have sorted cooling ducts (home fabricated) to cool the brakes. Next Wednesday at Snetterton, I will hopefully not crack another set of 315mm front discs.....
Further improvements going forward will be the Elise Parts motorsport rear spoiler and front motorsport splitter, but I need a project for the winter [
]. Hopefully see some of you around on a trackday.
Stay safe.
So the story.
I ran the car last year at Snetterton and Brands and it was clear there was work to do. I sorted out the heat soak with an addition of a Davies Craig electric pump and added an intercooler built by Pro Alloy to to the Pro Alloy charge cooler, bringing the temps down nicely. I booked it into a local engine tuner before my big outing to SPA in September 2019 to get the MAPS sorted & sadly that was the start of my issues.
After 7 dry laps in the afternoon the engine went bang, it seems due to the mapping too much advance, I can't say more....
So that meant that I needed to sort a new engine and this was specced with TSR to provide a better solution based on current hardware.
The original spec was modified to add Piper cams and a G25-660 turbo and hopefully improve the power with less boost, and improving the pick up too.
The upshot is now that the car is so much more driveable, the G25-660 is night and day better than the 3076. Smaller frame, gives amazing pick-up and the boost holds great.
Map 1 & 2 have been sorted at 1 bar (390 BHP) and 1.4 bar (450BHP) currently map 3 is being planned, but looking at the temps on inlet, we have added water / meth to enable us to run a 2 bar (push to pass) button on the steering wheel that will invoke the map and water / meth injection. The aim is for 550BHP +
As a consequence however of reaching over 130MPH (@450BHP) by Paddock Hill past the pits, I have sorted cooling ducts (home fabricated) to cool the brakes. Next Wednesday at Snetterton, I will hopefully not crack another set of 315mm front discs.....
Further improvements going forward will be the Elise Parts motorsport rear spoiler and front motorsport splitter, but I need a project for the winter [
]. Hopefully see some of you around on a trackday.Stay safe.
Dan4578 said:
Great build. I’ve got a very similar build ongoing at the minute. How much did the addition of the intercooler drop the charge temps? Have you modified the rear clam for more airflow as mine used to get very hot back there.
The intercooler added to the charge cooler dropped temps by a massive 18 degrees. When I got the car in 22 ambient, I was seeing 56 (sometimes more) inlets at Snetterton. Last week in 30 degree ambient (it was bloody hot) I was seeing 43 - 46 degrees. So a max of 16 0ver ambient as opposed to 34 over.At Brands GP I saw mid 30's at around 21 ambient, so very very happy.
The rear clam is cut-out everywhere it can be. Where the number plate is as an example.
SELON said:
Great to see the car is being used properly. Great to see how you’re improving the car. Looks like a bundle of fun as a project and a drive.
It's been as much joy to improve on what was a fantastic car to start with, as it is to drive. It is very quick and at 800KG corners rather well too []. Obviously I am not able to time lap, but I can do Snetterton 300 in 2.04 allegedly........
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