Handling and balance

[elliothancock]

Love the ideas of these new and more improved powered engines especially the Honda lump (just wish lotus had gone with this one rather than the toyota lump as standard)but do they hinder the balance of the elise at all? afterall this is the most important feature of the car.

[bogie]

no - all of the engine conversions have the engines mounted so that the weight distribution is nearly exactly the same as factory (or thereabouts)...and Honda/Audi engined cars are still far lighter than say the new 111R or Exige...and the extra weight dosent seem to have done them any harm as far as the handling goes

[dannylt]

I'll echo that - the balance with the Honda engine is still superb - fantastic turn in with perfectly controllable oversteer, with the advantage of loads of power to keep it going.

[randy]

It doesn't change the balance of the car but the extra power does cause the back end to sit down much harder under heavy acceleration and the brakes take a pounding too. I'm going to uprate the suspension brakes on mine since doing the conversion as I think this really is a neccesity.