Lotus motorsport 190 bhp upgrade

[kinetic]

If I purchase a used S2 135R and want to upgrade to the 190 motorsport version.

Will the factory do it?
How much does it cost?
Any opinions on whether it is worth the money?

[Arno]

kinetic said:

Will the factory do it?

Lotus Motorsport will do it for you

kinetic said:

How much does it cost?

To quote Harry Enfield: LOADSAMONEY!

kinetic said:

Any opinions on whether it is worth the money?

Personally.. I would go the Honda VTEC path in this case. 190-200bhp *reliable* horsepower you can (ab)use on the track to your heart's content.

BLiNK motorsport does such a conversion in the UK for the S1 and they are working on an S2 at the moment. It basically is a 'turn key' solution. You drop off the car on monday with a bag of money (around 10K I think) and pick it up again on friday with the new engine installed and purring..

A 190 BHP K-series is a highly tuned unit and you have to keep in mind that it's almost in race-trim. A rebuild after 30k miles is not 'strange' in this respect.

For resals purposes a 'Lotus' solution might be better though..

Bye, Arno.

[bogie]

Agree with Arno

Think you are looking at £7-10K for the official Lotus Kit

You could do it for £4-5K aftermarket from somewhere like www.dvapower.com

It would be cheaper to buy a 2nd hand sport 190 or even a new 111R than upgrade a 135R at the factory

[mustard]

Would you be interested in a Elise 190 Motorsport at a very attractive prive in Silver '02 Plate?

[kinetic]

Christ! didn't think it would be the best part of 10k!
I was thinking more £4-5k!

The Honda conversion I knew was about 10k but like you say for resale I think it may depreciate heavily.

Christopher neil has a 190 for 26.9k which in the light of what you've said makes it sound good value, but I'm not keen on the colour and I don'think it's spec'd with the racing seats and harnesses I'd like for track day use.

[kinetic]

Mustard

I might be interested at the right price and low mileage. Must have the sports seats and harnesses also.

[mustard]

kinetic said:

Mustard I might be interested at the right price and low mileage. Must have the sports seats and harnesses also.

I'll mail you in the morning

Pretty sure its got the harnesses, sports seats and I think its only done around 3-4k miles you didnt go to Donnington by any chance, as it was on display there.

Just need to see what the price is, only just come in!

[kinetic]

OK I'll await your email tomorrow.

No I did'nt go to Donington although I had arranged to with a mate until had to cancel!

[mustard]

ok, Kinetic

Just out of interest, the one at Chris Neils, is it definately one of the conversions done by Lotus Motorsport from new?

I might be wrong, but I thought they all came with the harnesses etc Lotus Motorsport decal across the top of the windscreen, badges to wings and rear, and black wheels, along with the £36k price tag new

[bogie]

Paul Matty had one at Donny today - S2 190 with harnesses etc in Titanium for £26K IIRC

[KINETIC]

Yes, it is a lotus Motorsport version. I believe you can spec. the car how you like so the customer obviously chose to omit the harnesses. Its done 1k infact I'm not absolutely sure but I think it might be their demonstrator.

[dannylt]

bogie said:

Agree with Arno It would be cheaper to buy a 2nd hand sport 190 or even a new 111R than upgrade a 135R at the factory

From an insurance point of view, it's also much simpler to just trade cars. They're much happier with a "standard" 190, rather than a seriously modified one - especially if they look at a percentage increase.

Insuring the Blink Honda conversion is easy since they've got a some special policies set up. I also hope it doesn't depreciate too badly - they should be in demand as track day cars!