Supercharged K20 Elise

[mpit]

After my previous PH Carpool feature , I finally got rid of the M3 for something a little more light weight and track focussed:

I've had a K20 Elise going around my head for a long time and then I spotted a supercharged one with all the right stuff done including the car being rebuilt 6k miles ago.

I just plan on sticking some decent tyres on, then spanking it on track as much as humanly possible

Spec as follows (according to previous owner);

• Linkup Honda K20 Engine Conversion fitted by Hofmanns of Henley
• Jackson Racing supercharger and Chargecooler setup producing approx 330bhp at the hubs (380bhp at the flywheel)
• DC5 inlet manifold, Lightweight Flywheel, Bosch fuel pumps, Mocal Laminova oil cooler, large K&N air filter and Chris Tullet exhaust system
• Linkup/Pro Alloy Charge Cooler system and Uprated Triple Pass Aluminum Radiator
• All suspension components powder coated and rebuilt using Nitron spherical wishbone bearings, fresh ball joints, new wheel bearings and fresh uniball toe links
• Hofmanns specification Nitron dampers with Eibach springs and full Hofmanns geometry setup
• AP Racing 304mm front & 295mm rear brake disks with Carbone Lorraine pads and Braided Brake Lines
• Wider Team Dynamics wheels fitted with 205/45/16 front & 235/45/17 rear Toyo R1R tyres
• BAMD carbon fibre rear diffuser & Reverie carbon fibre rear wing with chassis mounts
• Sport 190 Probax Seats, harness bar and TRS 4-point harnesses
• OMP steering wheel with removable boss
• Spa Oil Pressure/Temp Gauge and Shift light system
• Carbon fibre side pods
• Armourfend paint protection for Front Clam
• Lightweight battery (brand new)
• HID headlights

It's a pretty epic car and goes like nothing else I've been in.

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I also ended up walking away from the garage with these after a trip to RMS to pick someone else's car up for them :dunno:

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Fitted the big brake kit today which included bigger front brakes and upgraded rear discs.

I'd love to meet the Lotus engineer that mounted the front brake line unions like they did :wall


IMG_8603 by mikehhhhhhh, on Flickr

Tidied some other bits and bobs up, gave it a good clean before Spa:

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I found this sight quite amusing this morning

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Left for my Spa trip on Monday morning, nice early start leaving at 4am

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First stop was Nurburg for some new tyres and a couple of TF laps;

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Except they wouldn't allow me on the 'ring with no front plate and a removable steering wheel ?

On to Spa in the morning, the car seemed pretty damned good early on;

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Until the supercharger belt chewed it's self up and that was the end of day one:
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Back off to Nuburg for a replacement belt. After a lot of swearing trying to fit a belt that, although was 2mm longer than the one that failed, was far too short.

IMG_0870 by mikehhhhhhh, on Flickr


That turned out to be no good - the supercharger was leaking onto the belt which was slipping majorly the next day which seemed to be causing an EML light and limp mode.

So I did what any self-respecting petrolhead would do - loaded up the trailer, parked that up and headed over to Nurburg for the third night in a row and a bit of TF in the tow car before hiring a swift

IMG_0885 by mikehhhhhhh, on Flickr

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It was a pretty good trip, despite the issues. The car should be back to full health by next week.

[MrLizard]

well played that man, looks like an awesome trip and especially like the immediate thought of just getting the tow car on the go

[mpit]

MrLizard said:

well played that man, looks like an awesome trip and especially like the immediate thought of just getting the tow car on the go

There was no way I was coming back to England with less than 10 laps of Spa to talk about

[mpit]

A quick video from the last session I got - it was going incredibly well, I can't wait to find out what it goes like without the belt slipping!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxFmI7AmJp8

[evwalls]

That whine from the supercharger is lovely!

Awesome driving skills, btw!

[Feirny]

Love it, miss my old Type25 and would have it back in a heartbeat.

[Darryl H]

Awesome, looking forward to updates!

[mpit]

Yesterday it went in for a new chassis (long, unsharable story) and a few upgrades.


IMG_4096 by mikehhhhhhh, on Flickr

I can't wait to get it back now

[Butter Face]

Ahhhh, did you recently post a thread about this and the issues? Glad you're getting it sorted.

Is it a Jackson racing or Rotrex Supercharger on this?

[mpit]

Butter Face said:

Ahhhh, did you recently post a thread about this and the issues? Glad you're getting it sorted.

Is it a Jackson racing or Rotrex Supercharger on this?

Nope, not me.

It has the DC5 JRSC with a chargecooler.

[Butter Face]

Ah yes I have just seen that in the opening post! Sorry for not reading it better.

[mpit]

This arrived today, I'm excited to find out how it drives with this fitted

IMG_2414 by mikehhhhhhh, on Flickr

[mpit]

I just realised I haven't updated this in quite a while!



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Car starting to be stripped down

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Progress on the new chassis

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Supercharger rebuilt, diff fitted, cage fitted, engine back in - just a bit of paint and reassembly now!



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More progress.*

The cage is in and engine back together - it's starting to look like a real car now!

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Sporting an engine again!

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Progress has been a bit slow waiting for some bits to be painted, but back on track now!

I have entered a sprint for the 8th and a trackday for the 16th. Fingers crossed!

It'll be interesting learning how it behaves with the diff on a sprint course rather than the track, ideally I'd have preferred it the other way around but fun times ahead

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Not long now.

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[Butter Face]

Great work mate. Gonna be a superb car when it's all sorted!

[carphotographer]

Keep the updates up !
Looks like an interesting selection of cars in the workshop, genuine 26R ? and is that a chairs and flares Dino ?

[Jay_87]

Wow, awesome looking build!

[mpit]

So I finally got the car back a couple of months back, the initial reuniting was completely disastrous, leaving me stranded at the side of the road holding my supercharger input shaft and pulley

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There was a little drama getting that sorted, but I eventually found an uprated item from Italy.

Whilst waiting for that, I managed to get my new dash fitted - it's absolutely perfect for track work

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Then it was time to head to Silverstone GP for a shake down;

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Apart from a loose coolant pipe early on in the day, the car performed flawlessly and exceeded all of my expectations.

The day was too busy to set any special times, but managed a 2:23 with a best of three sectors time of 2:21 without pushing too hard and in low single digit track temperatures. I'm looking forwards to getting back and having a go at sub-2:20!

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz29Vo3zz0k

[mpit]

So I took the car to Brands just before Christmas. The day was cut short when my exhaust fell apart.

Fortunately it was only a snapped bracket, which was an easy fix,

Untitled by mikehhhhhhh, on Flickr

Struggled loads with setup - the car is very understeery in the wet. I need to add a little more rake into the car, I think.

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Then yesterday I made my way to Donington. I tried a few damping/pressure changes for setup and it make a marked improvement. I quite like how sensitive the Elise is to setup changes, as my M3 was far less responsive.

The car performed well, but as the track dried up I started having issues with noise. That meant a lot of short shifting and lifting for noise meters. Plenty to more to learn on the circuit, though.

Video from Donington: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnFmGYcRuPA

[mpit]

I took the car for some minor setup changes where I finally got the opportunity to weigh it.

This is with approximately 44L of fuel, so around 800kg all in, which isn't bad considering the full cage and soft-top roof fitted at the time.

IMG_0818 by mikehhhhhhh, on Flickr

[Robins]

Awesome car! I bet its a real weapon on track.