Supercharged Honda Elise 135R
Discussion
After a couple of years driving a stock 2008 factory-supercharged Elise, mostly as my only car and including a handful of trackdays and runs to the Alps, I found I'd got used to the performance. I spent a few months pondering whether to dump some cash into improving the handling side, but was wary of ruining a fantastic all-rounder and still not being excited by it.
I'd originally gone for the fastest, latest, standard car I could afford, out of reliability and build-quality fears. Aside from stone-related damage (two spot lights, one windscreen, one radiator and a smattering of stonechips) I did 20,000 miles without issue and now have a little more confidence in the Elise platform. This got me pondering what other versions were out there that might tick my boxes.
Way back in 2007, in my very early twenties, I took my Suzuki Cappuccino on my first Euro tour with a wonderful group of car nuts. One of the organisers was a certain Gruffy who, due to a chain of events, was driving a borrowed Elise with a supercharged Honda engine. He waxed lyrical about that car, and the seed was planted in my mind. Cut to this month and that seed was a groaning giant redwood, leaving me with no other option.
A little looking and a couple of recommendations later, I ended up looking at a couple of examples. One relatively high mileage but cared-for Elise S2, with Exige bodywork, Porsche Riviera blue paintwork and a loud exhaust, and one low mileage Elise 135R, with boring silver paintwork and all-round more sensible. The former was the obvious choice. Until I test drove them both. The 135R was one of the tightest-feeling, best-screwed-together Lotuses I've been in, despite being 13 years old. The gearshift (notoriously a bit s
t in these) was far better and despite having half the mileage of the other car, it looked and felt like it had tenth. Even the boring silver paint looked fantastic in person. A deal was quickly done and an achingly-long week followed while it was prepped for me.
The spec is massive, but the juicy bits include:
I'd originally gone for the fastest, latest, standard car I could afford, out of reliability and build-quality fears. Aside from stone-related damage (two spot lights, one windscreen, one radiator and a smattering of stonechips) I did 20,000 miles without issue and now have a little more confidence in the Elise platform. This got me pondering what other versions were out there that might tick my boxes.
Way back in 2007, in my very early twenties, I took my Suzuki Cappuccino on my first Euro tour with a wonderful group of car nuts. One of the organisers was a certain Gruffy who, due to a chain of events, was driving a borrowed Elise with a supercharged Honda engine. He waxed lyrical about that car, and the seed was planted in my mind. Cut to this month and that seed was a groaning giant redwood, leaving me with no other option.
A little looking and a couple of recommendations later, I ended up looking at a couple of examples. One relatively high mileage but cared-for Elise S2, with Exige bodywork, Porsche Riviera blue paintwork and a loud exhaust, and one low mileage Elise 135R, with boring silver paintwork and all-round more sensible. The former was the obvious choice. Until I test drove them both. The 135R was one of the tightest-feeling, best-screwed-together Lotuses I've been in, despite being 13 years old. The gearshift (notoriously a bit s
t in these) was far better and despite having half the mileage of the other car, it looked and felt like it had tenth. Even the boring silver paint looked fantastic in person. A deal was quickly done and an achingly-long week followed while it was prepped for me.The spec is massive, but the juicy bits include:
- Elise 135R (stiffer height-adjustable suspension, adjustable ARB, Exige wheel/tyre size, blue Alcantara interior, “Mica Silver” paint)
- 310hp and 200lbft (170lbft from 3,000rpm) at the wheels
- Sinclaire (now Essex Autosport) Honda K20 conversion, rebuilt by Clockwisemotion in 2014
- Jackson Racing supercharger
- Air-water chargecooler
- JDM cams
- Hondata K-Pro ECU
- Clockwisemotion baffled sump
- 2Bular GT3 exhaust
- Quaife LSD with 4.4 final drive (makes first gear vaguely useful)
- Lightweight flywheel
- Maidstone Sportscars “Waspy Fast Road” geo (340R road geo with 135R-spec front toe, apparently)
- EliseParts aluminium-belled brake discs
- Pagid RS-42 pads
Having come from the creature comforts of a 2008 car with a rock solid Really Light Stuff phone mount, I'm missing having sat nav and music on-hand. This will be important for a trip to Italy I have in a couple of months, otherwise who knows where I'll end up.
I couldn't find anything specific for my car, and the universal suction/sticky mounts always fall off and look crap. I figured there was something that could be done in more of a Lotus mindset, with some extruded aluminium.
There are two screws here, I wonder if they could be piggybacked onto…
Seems like a good place for it.
Take some measurements and figure out how to do this thing.
Assemble the materials: 60x20x2mm aluminium box section, 0.4mm gasket paper, Brodit iPhone 6 mount.
As it turns out, taking photos through box section is fun.
Marked up ready for cutting. This length will form the height of the mount.
Trial fit to check the length is correct.
Part way through tidying up the ends.
Dash screw holes marked and centre-punched.
And drilled.
And a light countsink to take the edge off.
Now of course the problem is you can't get in straight to screw the thing on.
Two holes in the opposite face, wide enough to get the Torx bit in.
Deburring the inside of the screw holes, showing how the screws will be done up.
Trial fit.
Tape off and ready for surface finishing.
Sandpaper clamped down with a baton to run the mount against in a straight line.
After a few minutes with rough then medium grit paper, you end up with a reasonable brushed style finish. Without paying for anodising to match the dash, this is about as good as I'll manage.
A piece of gasket paper cut to size, to protect the dash panel from any scratches.
Final fit.
Brodit mount stuck on with a double-sided foam pad. I didn't go for the stickiest I could find, I'd rather have that fail then my dash be pulled off.
6" Belkin Lightning cable into the stereo.
All mounted up and music playing.
Ta-da!
I think it turned out rather well. It feels very solid, doesn't look too out of place and falls easily to hand without leaning, so could be operated with harnesses on.
Fingers crossed it doesn't fall off after five minutes
I couldn't find anything specific for my car, and the universal suction/sticky mounts always fall off and look crap. I figured there was something that could be done in more of a Lotus mindset, with some extruded aluminium.
There are two screws here, I wonder if they could be piggybacked onto…
Seems like a good place for it.
Take some measurements and figure out how to do this thing.
Assemble the materials: 60x20x2mm aluminium box section, 0.4mm gasket paper, Brodit iPhone 6 mount.
As it turns out, taking photos through box section is fun.
Marked up ready for cutting. This length will form the height of the mount.
Trial fit to check the length is correct.
Part way through tidying up the ends.
Dash screw holes marked and centre-punched.
And drilled.
And a light countsink to take the edge off.
Now of course the problem is you can't get in straight to screw the thing on.
Two holes in the opposite face, wide enough to get the Torx bit in.
Deburring the inside of the screw holes, showing how the screws will be done up.
Trial fit.
Tape off and ready for surface finishing.
Sandpaper clamped down with a baton to run the mount against in a straight line.
After a few minutes with rough then medium grit paper, you end up with a reasonable brushed style finish. Without paying for anodising to match the dash, this is about as good as I'll manage.
A piece of gasket paper cut to size, to protect the dash panel from any scratches.
Final fit.
Brodit mount stuck on with a double-sided foam pad. I didn't go for the stickiest I could find, I'd rather have that fail then my dash be pulled off.
6" Belkin Lightning cable into the stereo.
All mounted up and music playing.
Ta-da!
I think it turned out rather well. It feels very solid, doesn't look too out of place and falls easily to hand without leaning, so could be operated with harnesses on.
Fingers crossed it doesn't fall off after five minutes
Nezquick, it's not slow! No idea of real-world figures, but 0-60 should be comfortably sub-4s.
As for photos of the engine bay…
Jackson Racing supercharger
70mm throttle body
There's a charge cooler in there somewhere
The Nimbus heat shielding does a spectacular job, keeps the boot nice and tepid, rather than cooking everything in there like they normally do
Decent hardware used, in general
As for photos of the engine bay…
Jackson Racing supercharger
70mm throttle body
There's a charge cooler in there somewhere
The Nimbus heat shielding does a spectacular job, keeps the boot nice and tepid, rather than cooking everything in there like they normally do
Decent hardware used, in general
It's running a K-Pro, but I'm not familiar with them and not sure of the version. If the hardware varies, I suspect it's an older version, as I believe the ECU was fitted with the original conversion back in 2006. If I get the app will it just show up as a Bluetooth device if it has the capability, or would it need configuring via USB first?
I took the car on track for the first time under my ownership today, at Blyton Park. Aside from the silencer making a bid for freedom at the start of the day and melting itself onto a reflector, it all went swimmingly 
It was quickly pushed back into place, the clamp tightened up and was fine for the rest of the day, so I can only assume the clamp was loose beforehand. Anyhow, new reflector needed!
I learnt a lot about how the car handles and behaves on track, the three main takeaways being:
That doesn't look right…
Tucked up back at home after a day of abuse
It was a Lotus on Track day, though the handful of Lotuses there were swamped with GT86s. We had great weather, not many cars and a brilliant crowd of people with no egos; by far the best trackday I've done in terms of atmosphere, fun and friendliness. Also, it turns out the owner of Blyton Park is a wonderful character, riding round the paddock on his scooter and spanking his McLaren 570S round during lunch because “I'm sprinting tomorrow and want to run it lower on fuel”. Top notch.
I edited a couple of vaguely interesting bits of video from the day together: https://youtu.be/XorV6NEcKuo
It was quickly pushed back into place, the clamp tightened up and was fine for the rest of the day, so I can only assume the clamp was loose beforehand. Anyhow, new reflector needed!I learnt a lot about how the car handles and behaves on track, the three main takeaways being:
- With this setup it really doesn't understeer. I need to improve my driving a lot to get the best from it!
- You don't need many gears. I'm sure it would be faster using 2nd and 5th as well, but just 3rd and 4th were plenty for me.
- It needs harnesses. I used to rattle around inside my previous Elise, but the limits are so much higher I spent half my energy bracing with my knees.
That doesn't look right…
Tucked up back at home after a day of abuse
It was a Lotus on Track day, though the handful of Lotuses there were swamped with GT86s. We had great weather, not many cars and a brilliant crowd of people with no egos; by far the best trackday I've done in terms of atmosphere, fun and friendliness. Also, it turns out the owner of Blyton Park is a wonderful character, riding round the paddock on his scooter and spanking his McLaren 570S round during lunch because “I'm sprinting tomorrow and want to run it lower on fuel”. Top notch.
I edited a couple of vaguely interesting bits of video from the day together: https://youtu.be/XorV6NEcKuo
The car already has a harness bar and fittings for the lap belts. However, the seats don't have harness slots and I'm not overly keen on using them without as it raises the potential for some nasty injuries if the worst were to happen. It's easily sorted by swapping the seats out, the Exige seats are comfier too, but the interior is quite nice as it stands. I'll need to weigh it up.
The harness manufacturers specifically say they're unsafe if fitted that way, and they seem like the ones to believe over the handful of people online who heard it was fine from a mate 
I've also done some research and decided on getting Schroth ASM harnesses if I go down that route. They're the only 4-point ones that I've seen quality crash test video footage of being tested.
I found Elise Spares do Kevlar composite replicas of the Cup 260 seats. The come untrimmed so are a very good price, but I've not found any reviews or feedback on them so am a bit wary.
As for the LED lights, I much prefer the look of them, but ~£400 is a bit steep, compared to £4 for a replacement, unmelted reflector
I've also done some research and decided on getting Schroth ASM harnesses if I go down that route. They're the only 4-point ones that I've seen quality crash test video footage of being tested.I found Elise Spares do Kevlar composite replicas of the Cup 260 seats. The come untrimmed so are a very good price, but I've not found any reviews or feedback on them so am a bit wary.
As for the LED lights, I much prefer the look of them, but ~£400 is a bit steep, compared to £4 for a replacement, unmelted reflector
Edited by jaik on Tuesday 9th August 14:03
DavidTillyer said:
ES look after my car and I've heard decent things about the seats. I've yet to see some though. Keep meaning to ask Dave at ES to see a set as my car has harnesses but standard seats and they have to go at some point.
I'd appreciate any feedback if you do, the only bits I've managed to find have been very anecdotal.TheRocket said:
Nice car Jaik, I bought my S1 SC Honda Elise back in November and now it's properly sorted and I am loving it. My car went to TDI south last week and now showing a healthy 325hp at the hubs ( built k20 with magnum powers SC and Chargecooler) Personally I am not convinced tdi over read by 20 pct I had a previous rolling road print out for my car and it was a lot higher though never felt it. TDI mapped my car really well and now it drives so much better and definitely doesn't need more power.
Sounds like a mega car TDI did an excellent job mapping mine too, it's as smooth and drivable as my standard Elise SC was. If I ever get the chance to put it on the rollers somewhere else for cheap as part of a club day or something it will be interesting to compare, but whatever the numbers, they seem like enough.I was at Demon Tweeks today buying some gloves for my first sprint event in a few weeks (different car which I should probably create a thread about) and tried out a few potential seats for the Lotus while I was there. This turned out to be something of a mistake, as I now have to fiddle the maths so a pair of Tillett B5s appears like the only possible option. They're small, which means they're comfortable for skinny old me, and since they were designed specifically to fit the Elise/Exige are an easy bolt-in solution. I've also not heard a bad word said about Tillett, so many boxes are being ticked. Tillett even tweaked the design recently, meaning there would now be a small weight loss by swapping to the B5s from the stock seats.
Custom trimming of the pads is also an option, which is mighty tempting at this point, before I've found out the price. An example from their site:
Custom trimming of the pads is also an option, which is mighty tempting at this point, before I've found out the price. An example from their site:
While I umm and ahh about new seats and harnesses, I've spent £3.66 on a new reflector to replace the one my exhaust melted. I've also ordered a pair of centre caps to replace my missing ones.
I also gave the garage a clear out, so there's now bags of room to get out of the car, take wheels off etc. The tip run saw a Ford Focus absolutely brimmed to the headlining with lawnmowers (I've not had a lawn for 2 years), cheap Mini wheels (I've not had a Mini for 5 years) and mystery fluids in glass jars (they belonged to the deceased previous owner of my house). Must have vacuumed up about a kilo of spiders along the way.
I also gave the garage a clear out, so there's now bags of room to get out of the car, take wheels off etc. The tip run saw a Ford Focus absolutely brimmed to the headlining with lawnmowers (I've not had a lawn for 2 years), cheap Mini wheels (I've not had a Mini for 5 years) and mystery fluids in glass jars (they belonged to the deceased previous owner of my house). Must have vacuumed up about a kilo of spiders along the way.
Edited by jaik on Tuesday 9th August 14:02
I've only done one minor job on the car in the past few weeks, which was to spray PTFE onto various bits of the gearstick mechanism/linkage as it was a bit creaky, squeaky and stiff in places. They're known for being a weak part of the package in terms of precision and feel, but just getting things sliding better has made a big improvement to cross-gate shifts. Getting between 2nd and 3rd when driving with gusto was a bit of a sketchy manoeuvre before, needing three very distinct moves to not get jammed up, to the point where I just didn't bother with 2nd on my Blyton trackday. It's now considerably better and can be done subconsciously like in a "normal" car.
Otherwise, I've just been driving and enjoying it. The sky looked nice early this evening, so I went for a run up the Cat and Fiddle to catch the sunset, then had a fantastic clear blat down the A54 back to Macclesfield.
Otherwise, I've just been driving and enjoying it. The sky looked nice early this evening, so I went for a run up the Cat and Fiddle to catch the sunset, then had a fantastic clear blat down the A54 back to Macclesfield.
I took the car for a week in the Alps and the Dolomites with a few friends (I'll post more about that soon) and had a couple of minor bits to fix when I got home.
I gained a few minor rattles which I'm looked to solve, and one big one. Toward the end of the trip the driver's door started rattling, not that uncommon with these cars, so I borrowed some tools to set about adjusting the window as the most likely culprit. As I opened the door I noticed a screw missing at the back which seemed to be something of a smoking gun. Having decided to leave it until I got home, it obviously got worse throughout the day and the second screw in the same place disappeared too. I suspect I only ever had one of the two, and that had just come loose. I replaced both the missing screws and washers today with parts from Lotus; the big rattle is gone and the door feels more solid than it ever has. Success!
I also replaced a broken rain shroud panel that goes behind the radiator as I thought that could be the cause of another rattle. Nigh on £40 for a piece of plastic and it made no difference, but at least it's not snapped anymore
And a bonus shot of the car in an Italian hotel carpark after a week of exuberant motoring…
Abused Lotus Elise by Jaik Dean, on Flickr
I gained a few minor rattles which I'm looked to solve, and one big one. Toward the end of the trip the driver's door started rattling, not that uncommon with these cars, so I borrowed some tools to set about adjusting the window as the most likely culprit. As I opened the door I noticed a screw missing at the back which seemed to be something of a smoking gun. Having decided to leave it until I got home, it obviously got worse throughout the day and the second screw in the same place disappeared too. I suspect I only ever had one of the two, and that had just come loose. I replaced both the missing screws and washers today with parts from Lotus; the big rattle is gone and the door feels more solid than it ever has. Success!
I also replaced a broken rain shroud panel that goes behind the radiator as I thought that could be the cause of another rattle. Nigh on £40 for a piece of plastic and it made no difference, but at least it's not snapped anymore
And a bonus shot of the car in an Italian hotel carpark after a week of exuberant motoring…
Abused Lotus Elise by Jaik Dean, on Flickr
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