Lotus S1Elise with Honda

[The Penguin]

Evening all,

As i have been here for a while now I figured i should do a write up on my S1 Elise i have owned since 2008.

I purchased the car from a member on SELOC in September 2008. The car was a fairly standard S1 with Nitron Racing Reds, upgraded toe links and a Hurricane Induction kit.






The 1st trip i did with the car was to the Nurburgring so before I went i made a few changes

Swapped the racing reds out for NTR 42s as the reds would just clonk
Compomotive MO's with AD048s
Tillett B5 seats with Scroth Harnesses
I also found a original hard top for the car





The car perform great to and from the ring and I managed 4 laps. although the seed was set that I needed more power after struggling to get past a Corsa VXR!






The next mods to the lotus were
Braided brake lines
EBC Discs & Pads
Aluminium Radiator







I didn't do much to the car after that did the usual trip to Le Mans a few times and generally used the car.

[img=800x600]https://gallery.seloc.org/albums/userpics/28067/2009-06-11_10.16.36.jpg[/img]

I booked a track day (finally) at Brands Hatch car performed excellently however the lack of power had got to me and 120bhp wasn't going to cut it anymore.






I considered tuning the K-Series but the draw of a Honda was too much and the Stark kit was purchased.

The car had done approx 40,000 miles from new and the Honda engine I sourced had a similar mileage

Spec is

Stark installation kit
K-Pro ECU
Remote oil filter
Hurricane induction kit
2bular exhaust
Honda Engine checked and installed









Since i completed the conversion I went to Le Mans but other than that have hardly used the car due to working away. The car was stored at Analogue Automotive for a couple of years (Highly recommended) and nearly sold once.



However since returning to the UK i had the car brought up to me as I'm now based in Aberdeen and it hasn't moved since June. Plans for next year are to get it back out and use it now i have access to the Scottish highlands on my door step. At some point i want to do the North Coast 500 also.



Future plans for mods are Exige conversion and maybe a rebuild of the engine to get a little more power seems to be some good NA engines being built as I'm not a big fan of forced induction!

Thanks for reading

[Tickle]

Looks great, love the K20 cars.

[Will_S]

Looks great! In the process of the same conversion using the Stark kit. Any advice or pointers that the build manual doesn't cover?

[carphotographer]

Is that a 4.2 E type with a load of 'stuff' on the bonnet ?

[Sillyhatday]

Theres been a bunch of Elise threads pop up lately and some involving K20 conversions.

These must be a riot with a K series behind it

I'm looking at my Type R and poor MR2. Wondering if it'll fit :P

[The Penguin]

carphotographer said:

Is that a 4.2 E type with a load of 'stuff' on the bonnet ?

It is. E-Type was due a respray so was used to store a few items on it before it went.

[The Penguin]

Will_S said:

Looks great! In the process of the same conversion using the Stark kit. Any advice or pointers that the build manual doesn't cover?

The manual was a pretty good guide . Suggest relocating the oil filter as you'll never get it off once it's back together. Bigggest advice is take your time and do things right. I rushed a few bits at the end and need to go back and tidy it up when time allows the loom etc isn't as tidy as I'd like it. I'm not a big fan of the gear change kit so I'd look elsewhere it's a bit notchy I've not been successful in getting it how I want it although a lot of time has been spent getting it as good as it is now. Small niggle but does frustrate.

[MrC986]

Sillyhatday said:

Theres been a bunch of Elise threads pop up lately and some involving K20 conversions.

These must be a riot with a K series behind it

I'm looking at my Type R and poor MR2. Wondering if it'll fit :P

I think you might find that you can squeeze a Type-R engine in an MR2 mk3

[Lefty]

The Penguin said:

The manual was a pretty good guide . Suggest relocating the oil filter as you'll never get it off once it's back together. Bigggest advice is take your time and do things right. I rushed a few bits at the end and need to go back and tidy it up when time allows the loom etc isn't as tidy as I'd like it. I'm not a big fan of the gear change kit so I'd look elsewhere it's a bit notchy I've not been successful in getting it how I want it although a lot of time has been spent getting it as good as it is now. Small niggle but does frustrate.

Very interesting - I've got a k20 s1 with the stark kit (in Aberdeenshire too!) and am not impressed with the gear linkage. The HPE one is meant to be a lot better but I really want to try one before committing.

[DanielSan]

MrC986 said:

Sillyhatday said:

Theres been a bunch of Elise threads pop up lately and some involving K20 conversions.

These must be a riot with a K series behind it

I'm looking at my Type R and poor MR2. Wondering if it'll fit :P

I think you might find that you can squeeze a Type-R engine in an MR2 mk3

There's a best motoring video with a Mk3 K20 engined car in it. It's a hell of a weapon.

[The Penguin]

Lefty said:

Very interesting - I've got a k20 s1 with the stark kit (in Aberdeenshire too!) and am not impressed with the gear linkage. The HPE one is meant to be a lot better but I really want to try one before committing.

I've looked at the HPE and this from 111 Racing

http://www.111racing.co.uk/product-page/c83e2a95-2...

I guess I need to try one of them. Also may go for the alitech shifter to hopefully fix it.

[Lefty]

The Penguin said:

Lefty said:

Very interesting - I've got a k20 s1 with the stark kit (in Aberdeenshire too!) and am not impressed with the gear linkage. The HPE one is meant to be a lot better but I really want to try one before committing.

I've looked at the HPE and this from 111 Racing

http://www.111racing.co.uk/product-page/c83e2a95-2...

I guess I need to try one of them. Also may go for the alitech shifter to hopefully fix it.

Yeah I've looked at the Alitech shifter too - i think the problem with the stark linkage is at the gearbox so the Alitech unit wouldn't fix the problem - but I'm sure it would feel brilliant along with a better linkage.

I drove a mates k-series s2 recently and the stock shifter in that feels so much better than mine

[Lefty]

http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=431930&...

Few options listed here - with opinions. I've asked on Scottish Elise's if anyone local has a non-stark k20 linkage that I can try, I'll keep you posted with any results.

[Will_S]

The full Stark kit arrives tomorrow, so I'll have to give it a try first I think.

Good advice - going to take lots of time so it doesn't need to be messed with at a later date.

Everyone who's got or tried a K20 Elise raves about how good it is!! Hope I'm not disappointed.

[The Penguin]

Lefty said:

http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=431930&...

Few options listed here - with opinions. I've asked on Scottish Elise's if anyone local has a non-stark k20 linkage that I can try, I'll keep you posted with any results.

Sounds good cheers