Lotus Exige V10

[dom9]

Pity there aren't readily available transverse 'boxes for longitudinal engines.

I know you can get them for race cars (and the Mac F1) but not many available for road cars...

i.e. There won't be many at the breakers...

I wonder what torque the F355 'box would take? I am guessing it wouldn't handle the 500lb/ft of a nice LSx engine!?

Would tidy up that design no end!

Looks great though - Will be interested in seeing that one finished!

[bebee]

Looks heavier than the car!

[GhepardoGTS]

Wow, this is exactly my dream build! My versions however had a Boxster S engine & transmission to focus funds on the custom rear subframe. Wow. It'll be interesting if this guy could come up with unique clam designs as well.

[kambites]

Would the Boxster engine and gearbox fit in a standard wheel-base Elise? Is there enough clearance between the bulkhead and the axle-line?

[pthelazyjourno]

kambites said:

Would the Boxster engine and gearbox fit in a standard wheel-base Elise? Is there enough clearance between the bulkhead and the axle-line?

Would be close. My uneducated bet is no. I don't think there would be much in it though - the engine in the Elise would be a lot further back (in an S1 at least, but there's a few inches for the exhaust manifold - so that's space that could be used by the engine.

http://www.seriouswheels.com/2000-2003/2003-Porsch...

Expensive lump though, and not that powerful for the money. Or known for its fantastic reliability. Plus the whole setup looks massive!

What you need is a nice K Series!!

Edited by pthelazyjourno on Thursday 29th November 12:17

[kambites]

pthelazyjourno said:

Expensive lump though, and not that powerful for the money. Or known for its fantastic reliability. Plus the whole setup looks massive!

Where it shines, is in the height of its centre of gravity. You can get a second-hand one for about £1k.

[chuntington101]

How bout the scooby lump? Comes with a nice gearbox, is readily avalaible, very tunable, low cost and small!

[kambites]

chuntington101 said:

How bout the scooby lump? Comes with a nice gearbox, is readily avalaible, very tunable, low cost and small!

Sounds foul, though, and I wouldn't want a turbo.

Do they have a 2WD transaxle to couple it to?

[GTRene]

dom9 said:

Pity there aren't readily available transverse 'boxes for longitudinal engines.

I know you can get them for race cars (and the Mac F1) but not many available for road cars...

i.e. There won't be many at the breakers...

I wonder what torque the F355 'box would take? I am guessing it wouldn't handle the 500lb/ft of a nice LSx engine!?

Would tidy up that design no end!

Looks great though - Will be interested in seeing that one finished!

Today I came across this one, The Xtrac Synchromesh Transaxle, I also saw that combined on a Pagani...
so it can handle some power me thinks.





some specs>>

said:

•7 Speed high performance supercar transaxle

•‘H’ pattern manual shift

•1,100Nm input torque (depending upon duty cycle).

•Gear ratio range to suit application

•Helical gear ground gears optimised for refinement and strength

•Full form ground bevel gears for refinement and strength

•Multi cone synchronisers on all forward gears

•Synchronised reverse gear

•Gearbox casing material is high strength Aluminium alloy L169

•Smooth acting plate limited slip differential (LSD)

guess it would be a bit expensive?

http://www.xtrac.com/sectors/automotive-engineerin...

[dom9]

GTRene said:

guess it would be a bit expensive?

http://www.xtrac.com/sectors/automotive-engineerin...

Could get very pricey! Unless your local breaker has a Pagani/ 'egg/ Mac f1 hidden away!?

GhepardoGTS said:

Wow, this is exactly my dream build! My versions however had a Boxster S engine & transmission to focus funds on the custom rear subframe. Wow. It'll be interesting if this guy could come up with unique clam designs as well.

Would the engine not be too wide, regardless of length? I am guessing you could squeeze a Subaru flat-4 in the standard wheelbase, if the chassis was wide enough but I'm not sure you would want to!

A nice multi-cylinder compromise might be one of those DTM V6 engines that come up for sale from time to time as the hill climb boys use them. They look very small and might squeeze in teh standard wheelbase and seem to produce a reliable 500bhp or so from 2.5 litres!

[Alfa numeric]

kambites said:

chuntington101 said:

How bout the scooby lump? Comes with a nice gearbox, is readily avalaible, very tunable, low cost and small!

Sounds foul, though, and I wouldn't want a turbo.

Do they have a 2WD transaxle to couple it to?

This chap has put one in a Beetle, so I'm sure it's doable.

[chuntington101]

kambites said:

Sounds foul, though, and I wouldn't want a turbo.

Do they have a 2WD transaxle to couple it to?

If you didn't want the turbo its a pointless idea! ,ay as well just go for a K20 or similar.

The scooby gearbox and be converted into a transaxle.

[gofasterrosssco]

Seen this a while back.

For the wheels, looks like he is using VX220 / Speedster hubs (5x110 PCD) which are a bolt in replacement, and a set of spacers.

No doubt the car will be be epic in a straight line when complete, not sure how it will actually drive, but with enough work probably quite well (although maybe not like an Exige..)

For easier packaging, the Audi V8 (specifically the RS4 / R8 variant) would have been best, and he probably would have gotten away without extending the chassis, as the engine is substantially shorter, and fits perfectly within the existing engine bay. Its the gearbox that's the tricky bit ;-)

[Exige77]

TheLastPost said:

chuntington101 said:

I love all these conversions, but is the lotus chassis really the best to be modding in this way? Is it not better to start with something like the ultima chassis and go from there?

What makes you think that the Ultima has a better chassis? It's really nothing special - much less stiff than the Elise chassis (about 4,200Nm/degree compared to about 11,000Nm/degree for the Elise).

I'm not dazzled by the rear subframe design on this particular car, but there's nothing wrong in principle with using the Elise chassis for much higher-powered cars.

Don't think he meant "better" but "More suitable" dimensions wise to take a larger engine.

Ex77

[gofasterrosssco]

TheLastPost said:

Exige77 said:

Don't think he meant "better" but "More suitable" dimensions wise to take a larger engine.
Ex77

Fair enough, but most modern sports racers would have a tub that terminates at the cockpit/engine bay bulkhead anyway, so it's no big deal to be grafting on a subframe to accommodate the engine and gearbox - Lotus didn't seem to have a problem with it on the Elise GT1.

The 'Venom GT' uses the same principle of using the existing alloy tub, with a subframe designed for a completely different drivetrain

[chuntington101]

TheLastPost said:

Exige77 said:

Don't think he meant "better" but "More suitable" dimensions wise to take a larger engine.
Ex77

Fair enough, but most modern sports racers would have a tub that terminates at the cockpit/engine bay bulkhead anyway, so it's no big deal to be grafting on a subframe to accommodate the engine and gearbox - Lotus didn't seem to have a problem with it on the Elise GT1.

Yeah not saying the ultima chassis is the best, just that its designed to accomidate a decent sized V8 engine and transaxle box already. and the body dosent need modding for the engine.

Very good point about the Lotus chassis though. Just needs someone to start selling a 'kit' to transform the car. Is there any concerns around how the subframe attacehd to the chssis with these much more torquey engines? would additional bracing (as in the pic above) be needed?

[Scuffers]

can't say I am a big fan of any of these....

At what point is it no longer an Elise/Exige?

[GTRene]

they come in many variants, I like most of them...
especially the longitudinal engine set-up.

they came in the "Elise" based GT1 with V8 and V10
but also in that one of V6 Lotus Sport Exige
and in the V6 audi Lotus Esthi
or the Lotus GT3?
there are some more, its how a mid-engined sports-car should be, with a longitudinal engine, makes it more "supercar"

ofcorse the Elise/Exige is a almost perfect little sports-car with great handling and yes you could tune a four pot toyota/honda/audi/duratec etc and yes that could be very fast...
but a longer wheelbase and bigger engine and longitudinal makes it also more grown up or special, some go very far though, thats for sure

personally would love such car with a great V8 say a LS3/480 NA would be nice.
thats enough

The Hennesey product are nice but 1.200hp and now the later type GT2 with around 1.500hp is just silly but hey, each to their own.

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/new-hennessey-ven...

said:

The 1500hp, rear-wheel-drive American hypercar is mooted to be powered by a 7.0-litre twin-turbo, and will definitely still shoot thunder. The now pathetically underpowered Venom GT only needed 2.2 seconds to reach 62 mph, and creator Hennessey has claimed it could go onto 272 mph

0 to 100km/h in just 2.2 sec and a top of around 437km/h they think? anyway...its madness

[Scuffers]

TheLastPost said:

I suppose at least the longitudinal engine/gearbox configuration makes sense in terms of dynamics, rather than simply trying to cram more and more horsepower into a configuration that is already badly compromised by the short wheelbase/high CoG dictated by the transverse mid-engine of the 'original' Elise?

All that said, the stud layout is not that bad relatively, only real handicap is aero (being so short).

Handling/stability wise, it's hard to fault, the race cars I play with can hold their own in just about any combination of corners from slow tight stuff to the real high speed sweepers.

[srobBNaB]

Looks like he's 'just' remade the original front wishbones?

Those brakes looks a bit more fierce than the originals, and the front wishbones have been uprated to cope with the Evora brakes and additional weight of the Exige S.

Hard to tell from the photo's though, I'm sure he knows what he's doing!