My S2 Elise project
Discussion
I've had a few VX220s over the years that have featured here. I run a company making parts for our little plastic cars so the need for a stand out Elise S2 presented itself to use at shows and what have you.
So in April 2013 I bought this boggo standard Elise tourer:
122 rampaging BHP. In pretty straight condition and hpi clear with under 50k on the clock so bang on what you want in a Lotus.
First job was to take the front clam off as we needed it to tool up a new pattern replacement so off it went:
Got rid of the stck alloys and picked up some Team Dynamics on a special offer they ran. Replacement radiator and resistor pack fitted while the clam was off.
New clam arrived an obscene length of time after having been commissioned!
Into the bodyshop
After a few weeks she was all done!
Other additions were powder coating the original diffuser black and adding an in house made carbon roof and rollbar cover
Future plans include some interior carbon parts, replace suspension with Quantums, Probax seats if I can ever find any and the biggie will be a Honda K20a transplant at some point!
So in April 2013 I bought this boggo standard Elise tourer:
122 rampaging BHP. In pretty straight condition and hpi clear with under 50k on the clock so bang on what you want in a Lotus.
First job was to take the front clam off as we needed it to tool up a new pattern replacement so off it went:
Got rid of the stck alloys and picked up some Team Dynamics on a special offer they ran. Replacement radiator and resistor pack fitted while the clam was off.
New clam arrived an obscene length of time after having been commissioned!
Into the bodyshop
After a few weeks she was all done!
Other additions were powder coating the original diffuser black and adding an in house made carbon roof and rollbar cover
Future plans include some interior carbon parts, replace suspension with Quantums, Probax seats if I can ever find any and the biggie will be a Honda K20a transplant at some point!
Well a bit of a thread resurrection....
Since the respray was done I managed about a month back on the road and a trackday and.....
The inevitable head gasket failure!
Did the head gasket change and drove to the 'ring where it was apparent all was not well. Out on track and the coolant system airlocked. After bleeding a couple of times it repeated so managed to limp home. Head gasket was ok, passed a pressure tested OK but we came to the conclusion that the head skim had exposed porosity which is a bit frustrating as I almost decided not to get it skimmed as when the HG failed it didnt actually overheat.
Ah well off it is now with SPS Automotive in Hexham they are fitting an MGTF 160 Engine for me. The man maths logic being that the labour time needed to properly investigate and fix the problem and the price you can get rover engines for..........Got a bargain Torsen LSD going in the 'box while its in bits as well.
I did seriously consider the Honda k20 conersion but being a dealer of Lotus cars I get Exiges and Elise 111Rs with a broadly similar banzai engine and I dont think I'd get on with it. And doing it this way is 9k cheaper and I'm Northern
Looking forward to getting the car back and getting some trackdays done. With the exhaust I have on the car we should be good for about 170 BHP on a standard engine with the LSD so should make for a really entertaining car.
Since the respray was done I managed about a month back on the road and a trackday and.....
The inevitable head gasket failure!
Did the head gasket change and drove to the 'ring where it was apparent all was not well. Out on track and the coolant system airlocked. After bleeding a couple of times it repeated so managed to limp home. Head gasket was ok, passed a pressure tested OK but we came to the conclusion that the head skim had exposed porosity which is a bit frustrating as I almost decided not to get it skimmed as when the HG failed it didnt actually overheat.
Ah well off it is now with SPS Automotive in Hexham they are fitting an MGTF 160 Engine for me. The man maths logic being that the labour time needed to properly investigate and fix the problem and the price you can get rover engines for..........Got a bargain Torsen LSD going in the 'box while its in bits as well.
I did seriously consider the Honda k20 conersion but being a dealer of Lotus cars I get Exiges and Elise 111Rs with a broadly similar banzai engine and I dont think I'd get on with it. And doing it this way is 9k cheaper and I'm Northern
Looking forward to getting the car back and getting some trackdays done. With the exhaust I have on the car we should be good for about 170 BHP on a standard engine with the LSD so should make for a really entertaining car.
I have the LED's in now as it happens. My car is a bit of a hotchpotch of bits like that that I've occasionally scavanged from stock cars we've had in. Company name is in my profile. We advertise cars on here as trade so I dont think the kind admins will mind me posting the link www.lotushardtops.com
The clamshell is just a straight replacement one. The Originals are flimsy and only sporadically available from Lotus so we supply into the insurance repair market mainly.
You can do them carbon we could do wet lay in our tooling but you can get similar results just using very thin fiberglass if you wanted to save weight. We did one that weighed in at 7.5KG for an Elise. Thats half the weight of an original.
The clamshell is just a straight replacement one. The Originals are flimsy and only sporadically available from Lotus so we supply into the insurance repair market mainly.
You can do them carbon we could do wet lay in our tooling but you can get similar results just using very thin fiberglass if you wanted to save weight. We did one that weighed in at 7.5KG for an Elise. Thats half the weight of an original.
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