Tuning an Elise for economy (rather than power)
Discussion
Has anyone ever come across someone making changes to give the Elise better MPG? I know that was the claim of some of the tuners but I just wondered if anyone ever put a 1L diesel in an Elise and survived the lynching :-)
0-60 in 8 sec and 70mpg would be fine for me in my (thanksfully only occasional) more James May moments . . .
0-60 in 8 sec and 70mpg would be fine for me in my (thanksfully only occasional) more James May moments . . .
Not a 1litre Diesel, but someone on Seloc put a Golf TDi engine in an elise chassis:
http://arc.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=102265&...
http://arc.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=102265&...
To be frank, the std K series Elise S1 is very economical for a sports car - I have certainly seen 45mpg on the motorway in both my old S1's and struggled to do less than 30mpg under spirited driving. Compare with similar cars - TVR's / S2000 and they're much worse for fuel economy.
I'm sure your question was purely academic and you weren't planning on doing it yourself!
I'm sure your question was purely academic and you weren't planning on doing it yourself!
rfoster said:
To be frank, the std K series Elise S1 is very economical for a sports car - I have certainly seen 45mpg on the motorway in both my old S1's and struggled to do less than 30mpg under spirited driving.
Have to agree with that, I once managed to get all the way from Le Mans to my house in Essex on just ONE tank of fuel doing a steady 90ish in my old S1!It's not such a daft question and it can be achieved. I have a sport 160 (S1) and have installed the Emerald ECU for which I have several maps with different fueling strategies. I have a performance map and am working on an economy map. When I have some MPG results, I will post up for interest.
luckyb said:
why oh why?
just buy a toyota yaris!
bloody oil burners, lower co2, but look at the particulate count from exhausts!
save money, LPG Conversion?
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The reason I ask is that I think the Elise would still be far cooler than one of these smug eco-sippers if it was doing 0-60 is 7 seconds with the roof off. (Even if it did sound like a taxi and smell like a lawnmower)
Given the current climate (so to speak) of fuel tax escalation there's going to come a time where we have to choose between a Yaris and waiting in the rain for a bus that "doesn't run today". At that stage a super efficient Elise might well look quite inviting. At least you could decide to leave the roof off and get wet.
what, deisel runaround, outside my house? noooooooooo
just buy a toyota yaris!
bloody oil burners, lower co2, but look at the particulate count from exhausts!
save money, LPG Conversion?
_____________________________________________________________________
The reason I ask is that I think the Elise would still be far cooler than one of these smug eco-sippers if it was doing 0-60 is 7 seconds with the roof off. (Even if it did sound like a taxi and smell like a lawnmower)
Given the current climate (so to speak) of fuel tax escalation there's going to come a time where we have to choose between a Yaris and waiting in the rain for a bus that "doesn't run today". At that stage a super efficient Elise might well look quite inviting. At least you could decide to leave the roof off and get wet.
what, deisel runaround, outside my house? noooooooooo
Edited by M030ef00 on Wednesday 9th January 14:42
What youve got to factor in to any conversion is how far you could have travelled wth fuel equal to the cost o the conversion before you start seeing the benefits of the improved economy .. because thsi is usually ten of thousands of miles going to the expense of an engine sawp for improved economy is usually a bad move even though Ive done exactly this with my turbo diesel TVR Tasmin! However subsituting an Emerald ecu and really trimming the part throttle fuelling back and optimising the timing to make your engine as efficient as possible is a much beter way of doing it. The cheapest engine you have is the one already fitted to the car, so optimise that is the most sensible way to go 
luckyb said:
why oh why?
just buy a toyota yaris!
bloody oil burners, lower co2, but look at the particulate count from exhausts!
save money, LPG Conversion?
what, deisel runaround, outside my house? noooooooooo
I have to agree. For all cars except the Lotus I use an Italian guy for all the work and servicing they require. He krypton tunes the cars and he always aske if I want a performance tune or an economic tune. just buy a toyota yaris!
bloody oil burners, lower co2, but look at the particulate count from exhausts!
save money, LPG Conversion?
what, deisel runaround, outside my house? noooooooooo
A better platform for this kind of daftness would be a caterfield or even do it yourself. I got a book a few years ago that promises to "build a sportscar for under £100". It basically looks like a caterfiels and consists of scrap components and a hand built ladder chassis. Pretty easy to do, light weight and just dump in a diesel from a crashed micra (or something equally as ghey)
But to effectively remove performance from a performance car by sticking a pile of poo diesel in the back of it? You deserve to have your keyboard and imagination privileges removed.
stevie111s said:
It's not such a daft question and it can be achieved. I have a sport 160 (S1) and have installed the Emerald ECU for which I have several maps with different fueling strategies. I have a performance map and am working on an economy map. When I have some MPG results, I will post up for interest.
I'm considering this myself. How difficult is the install process? Is it a simple straight swap or are there any alterations needed? How easy is it to set up on the PC?lamb jiblets said:
If you want all the eco with a soft top your in the market for a smart roadster arnt you !!
True but aren't they:a) a little tiny bit sh1t
b) capable of "only" about 50mpg?
c) not a Lotus ( see (a) )
A diesel Elise might well see 100mpg but I agree, optimised petrol or E85 would be infinitely better. That's why I didn't say: "is there a diesel Elise"?
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