Supercharged Elise?

[kayc]

Ive been looking at buying a Elise r for a while but always been concerned about the lack of torque with the normal Toyota engine.I spoke with a Lotus dealer yesterday who said that Lotus will be making an Elise as from 2008 with a supercharged engine as per the Exige s(220bhp).Can anyone confirm whether this is true or not?

[Boggy]

kayc said:

Ive been looking at buying a Elise r for a while but always been concerned about the lack of torque with the normal Toyota engine.I spoke with a Lotus dealer yesterday who said that Lotus will be making an Elise as from 2008 with a supercharged engine as per the Exige s(220bhp).Can anyone confirm whether this is true or not?

If the dealer told you then they are doing it, it doesn't surprise me as they are now going do to upgrades for the Exige S

Boggy

[Phil-CH]

If that's not enough, Bemani has a supercharger kit available for Elises that gives 253Nm (186+ lb/ft) from 4000 - 6500 rpm (with exhaust, sports-cat and ECU reflash even a bit more and without the 2nd cam kick). And it's charge-cooled too.

EDIT: Be aware that the 2008 range will probably come with airbags etc as standard.
Cheers Phil

Edited by Phil-CH on Tuesday 28th August 09:33

[S Works]

I wonder how much.

[Sam_68]

Supercharged Elise is a logical, if cynical, move to boost flagging sales as the Elise market becomes saturated, so it would hardly be surprising.

The official line from Lotus has always been that there wasn't space to package the intercooler on a supercharger installation (the intercooler on the Exige S sits above the engine, blocking the rear view, so wouldn't be practical on an Elise). This has been proven to be bollox by the introduction of the 2-Eleven, however, so what the dealer is telling you could well be correct.

[purpleperil]

I've also heard the same story - yet if they put it in the same position as the 2-11 then it's going to take away some boot space! I'm sure you'll also get the revised dash and air bags?

If you don't fancy the wait then you can always buy a nice second hand car and go the SP-K way and probably save yourself a few pennies as well?

[Boggy]

purpleperil said:

I've also heard the same story - yet if they put it in the same position as the 2-11 then it's going to take away some boot space! I'm sure you'll also get the revised dash and air bags?

If you don't fancy the wait then you can always buy a nice second hand car and go the SP-K way and probably save yourself a few pennies as well?

Like the install on your car sir look's fantatstic!

I'm going to go down this route (I.e. upgrade my Exige S) but it's not as simple as just bolting on a SC, as what's already been said you need to cool the charger and the injector's on the currant R and Exige S are running flat out, these will also need to be changed there's a couple of other modification's which need to be done as you SC customer's already know (ECU Change/Re-program) so I can see Lotus being able to produce an Elise with SC and 230bhp for around the 31-32k mark, it would have the Lotus 2 yr warranty and be a proper Lotus product you can all see the way they are going, your also going to be able to get the Exige S re-mapped to around 243bhp, Lotus already know how to change the Ecu setting's which at the moment I believe no one else has achieved successfully

Boggy

Edited by Boggy on Wednesday 29th August 09:33

[peter450]

As a long time lotus watcher i think the elise will likely get the current exige S output of around 220hp, I think everyone new lotus were talking pony when they said they could'nt fit the intercooler to the elise, aftermarket tuners have done it, an to be honest they could have done an intercooler less installation even, only problem with the aftermarket kits is not the plumbing but the ECU which seems to have everyone foxed.

The current exige will probably get upgraded to the cup spec 243 hp output with bigger injectors an smaller pulley, since the 243 hp tune has been out for a while now & there seems no reliabilty issues with it, i'm sure lotus now feel confident enough to offer this tune on a full production car.

This will refresh the range nicely, an keep clear blue water so to speak between the exige an elise models, however knowing lotus this could all change at the very last miniute but still, the above seems the most logical an cost effect model rework since few changes would need to be made to the exige to move it up in line with the now more powerful elise, which itself will use all the same parts as the exiges S bar some differant shaped tubes

Edited by peter450 on Wednesday 29th August 09:59

[Lambchop1]

They used to make a turbo charged Elise, still some good examples about. Might be too fast for some though.

Commonly known as a VXT or VXR !


LOL

[cyberface]

Lambchop1 said:

They used to make a turbo charged Elise, still some good examples about. Might be too fast for some though.

Commonly known as a VXT or VXR !


LOL

Heh - you want to try an S1 Elise with a chipped Audi turbo engine in it then if you think the VXT/R is fast One completely blew me away in a straight line, and I have a stage 2 VXT

I think the main issue here isn't really engine choice - since there are much better engines for your Elise if you're going to modify it - but the warranty, the 'official Lotus product' and factory support. Otherwise the supercharged Honda makes a very strong case for itself, and if you don't mind even microseconds of turbo lag, there's the Audi turbo swap or, of course, a VXT.

The thing is that many Elise drivers like the high-tune normally-aspirated approach - those that don't mind turbo power delivery probably have VXTs or Audi conversions. The supercharger can get close to N/A power delivery, but they're not for everyone.

Ideally I'd like a new Exige with a 350 bhp Audi engine, not convinced currently about supercharged Toyota engines which seem over-stressed already - as the VXT and engine-swap community know very well, heat management is a big issue with forced induction engines in the Elise / Exige / VX body, due to the position of the engine.

Lotus' BHP claims are low but perhaps this is purely because higher outputs simply aren't reliable... the aftermarket don't have the same emissions / reliability / etc. targets to hit - especially if Lotus is going to sell the cars in the USA...

[[k]arl]

It will be interesting to see if the 08MY will differ mechanically from the earlier FBW cars. If not then it is conceivable that a dealer retrofit option may be available, which would generate extra revenue for the factory from existing owners (like myself) who would like to boost power but without invalidating their remaining warranty.

[k]

[LivinLaVidaLotus]

I think peter450 has probably hit the nail on the head, very little cost in moving the rage down, so the top of the range limited edition becomes the norm. The development costs are covered by the early adopters and the testing done by them to.