Thursday 27th March 2003
Elise-R
A reliable 200bhp in an Elise - what a package! Ted takes a blast round Donington
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mungo
Original Poster
18,929 posts
153 months
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Yes! This could be the answer for an interim track toy for me! The standard Elise I drove handled beautifully and looked gorgeous but was too slow...  Hmmm... Good article Ted!
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BarryG
84 posts
139 months
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Sounds interesting!! But, would it be worth doing this conversion to an Exige? You can get a high mileage car Exige for around 20k, but would the expense of the conversion be worth the added performance?
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Bonce
4,339 posts
149 months
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A great video of a 0-100 run here: http://users.bookatrack.com/blink/pn2/pn2-2.mpg (turn the sound up!)  I'd love to do this conversion, but it's serious money. Plus at least double the insurance premium for a 50-70% power increase by engine replacement if you want to use it on the road!
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DanH
12,279 posts
130 months
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as I fumbled for the right slot like a virgin with Parkinson's.
lol. >> Edited by DanH on Thursday 27th March 13:55
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dannylt
1,903 posts
154 months
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Bonce said:| I'd love to do this conversion, but it's serious money. Plus at least double the insurance premium for a 50-70% power increase by engine replacement if you want to use it on the road! |
Insurance went up by under 20% on the initial quote (though obviously another 10% in the 2 months until I actually got it done!). The standard insurers wouldn't touch it, but Blink have arranged specialist policies with Footman James & Autotorque. As for the money, I was originally thinking of the TT supercharger route, until I realised the costs were fairly similar. And standard tuning of the K series to 190bhp would leave it lumpy & nasty around town for the owner (my wife). Hopefully this was the right option - only driven it for an hour so far!
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bogie
9,017 posts
142 months
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Great  your insurance faired better than mine then - when I had the TT kit fitted mine went up from 1000 to 1400 with Barclaycard! I was thinking of the Blink kit too - but thought it was 10K ? the TT190 kit is 6.5K (and makes 200bhp/180ft/lb with an exhaust/cat pipe fitted) I went for the 230 anyway as I already had all the bits needed and got it for a similar price. Still if I had 10K I would have liked the Honda lump just for the reliability aspect. The TT kit is great - but lets face it it will probably need new liners/rings at 60-70K miles whereas the Honda should go for 100K miles + with no trouble
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onedsla
695 posts
126 months
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I want my car to sound like that  not fair
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sydneyse
193 posts
130 months
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Why bother with a Blink Kit (a rip of from prototype racing in the U.S anyway, I'm told by the US developer) when, if you start with a s2, will probably jsut order lotus parts and fit a celica engine & box for less! If starting with an S1, there'd be some more work, but I think it would be cheaper than the Honda route- after all lotus has done the development and the chassis is essentially the same apart from bolt on components- I don't think the bodywork is any different.
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bogie
9,017 posts
142 months
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"(a rip of from prototype racing in the U.S anyway, I'm told by the US developer)" LOL - I cant guess for one minute who you have been talking to ! Id have the Honda over the 1.8 Celica lump anyday - a Civic Type R is much quicker than a Celica....something to do with 200odd bhp and 150ft/lb rather than 189/133...better still I'll stick with what Ive got  Lets face it - other than having Toyota reliablity youve got the same as what the VHPD K was putting out....but with 100Kg+ more weight (minimum + options) it may attract more buyers from a different market segment...but I doubt many track day enthusiast typre owners will be upgrading soon. >> Edited by bogie on Wednesday 28th January 23:15
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bennno
5,449 posts
139 months
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Lets not forget that a factory Elise 190 'k' was about 35k, a 111R is now 27,995. Thats way cheaper, I am very tempted.
So its 12% heavier than the standard Elise, its got 61% more power than a standard Elise.....
Bennno
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bogie
9,017 posts
142 months
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Yes - from a price perspective its very good - definately a step in the right direction...I think list on a top spec std S2 ST was nearly 27K 18months ago ! ...so you are getting loads more for your money.
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dannylt
1,903 posts
154 months
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sydneyse said:| Why bother with a Blink Kit (a rip of from prototype racing in the U.S anyway, I'm told by the US developer) |
Why bother with a "prototype" when you can have an actual track tested (abused) one that works? But let's not go there yet again... sydneyse said:
when, if you start with a s2, will probably jsut order lotus parts and fit a celica engine & box for less! |
I very much doubt whether Lotus will supply the kit, or Toyota/Lotus the engines direct. Let alone soon, or at reasonable cost. Given how slow the 111R appears to be (13 seconds to 100?!) I think DVA/TT/Blink are better ideas for outright price performance.
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