modified Elise - Nurburgring times?

[M030ef00]

After Nissan's Herculean efforts with the new GTR achieved a Nurburgring time of 7min 26sec somebody took a BMW M3 CSL, tuned it and beat their record while spending a hell of a lot less money. This got me to thinking, a tuned Lotus is lighter and so can probably have a higher power to weight ratio, brake later etc Does anybody know anyone who has done an impressive Nurburgring time with a modified Elise? Surely a tuned Elise should be performing in Radical territory?

[Esprit]

Trouble with Elise is it's a draggy shape and really tops out at about 400bhp sensibly.

Comparing it with a radical and it's got at least a 250-300kg weight penalty (and not nearly the downforce).

A modified Elise should be able to manage sub 8-minutes for sure, but much beyond that? I doubt it.

Depends what you mean by modified though I guess.

600bhp in an Elise without turning it into an ill-handling whale would make it a much more potent beast.

[AMD87]

Esprit said:

600bhp in an Elise without turning it into an ill-handling whale would make it a much more potent beast.

I dunno Steve Gugliemi's seems to go well

[Esprit]

Well given Gugelimi's beast seems to be about the most hyper out there, perhaps we should all chip in to a fund to get him to the ring and setting a few hot-laps

[Scuffers]

Sub 8 mins is easy (McApe did this with his NA shed)

drag is a problem in the high speed stuff, but then a radical is hardly a straight line weapon either (suspect it's top speed is sub 180), so in reality, it's not that big a handicap.

One day I'll get to take a SC/CC/Honda there and try (although I am no ring god).

[kambites]

There was a link to the YouTube video of the Radical beating the "production car record" recently in GG with a speedo superimposed onto the screen. If I recall correctly, it was topping out at under 160mph. It got there damned quickly though.

Edited by kambites on Monday 5th October 08:35

[thegreenhell]

Scuffers said:

Sub 8 mins is easy (McApe did this with his NA shed)

Mckeann's lap was BTG, wasn't it? That would be closer to 8:30 for a full lap. Still impressive, nonetheless.

[steveavxt]

There are only really a few places on the 'ring you could get above 150 anyway. The straight after Flugplatz, the long section after Bergwerk (although you would need major balls) and the final straight which if your timing BTG you wont get anywhere near that anyway. The 'ring favours more powerful cars so I think an Elise (or any variant) is not ideal for this sort of road. Saying that I think sub 7's BTG for a 350ish bhp elise would be possible in the right hands.

Edited by steveavxt on Monday 5th October 12:18

[mrdemon]

sub 8 in a standard Elise

Scuffers is such a laugh at times

you can also sub the word laugh for many other 4 letter words which fit quite well.

Edited by mrdemon on Monday 5th October 16:31

[kambites]

I didn't take Scuffer's comment to mean a standard car. There are plenty of fast N/A Elises around.

8 minutes puts it at around 997 S time? Which sounds just about believable in a ~230bhp 700kg Honda engined car to me.

Edited by kambites on Monday 5th October 17:29

[bogie]

mrdemon said:

sub 8 in a standard Elise

Scuffers is such a laugh at times

you can also sub the word laugh for many other 4 letter words which fit quite well.

Edited by mrdemon on Monday 5th October 16:31

he meant "N/A" as in N/A Honda - 230bhp

its not up for debate, its been done already

not a standard ELise, a "standard" Honda engined Elise

and yes, it may have been BTG....dunno on that one, will have search SELOC for the data if it ever got posted

[Scuffers]

mrdemon said:

sub 8 in a standard Elise

Scuffers is such a laugh at times

you can also sub the word laugh for many other 4 letter words which fit quite well.

he shoot's >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> he makes a c**k of himself (again!)

[Mr_C]

Scuffers said:

One day I'll get to take a SC/CC/Honda there and try (although I am no ring god).

Let us know when and I'll try to be there

[fergus]

Scuffers said:

Sub 8 mins is easy (McApe did this with his NA shed)

drag is a problem in the high speed stuff, but then a radical is hardly a straight line weapon either (suspect it's top speed is sub 180), so in reality, it's not that big a handicap.

Simon, where on the Ring do you think that even an SR8 tops out? Other than perhaps approaching Sx?

[kambites]

fergus said:

where on the Ring do you think that even an SR8 tops out? Other than perhaps approaching Sx?

Looking at the video, it's quite close to topping out all over the place:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acSGbO0MGGI

[alicrozier]

Esprit said:

Comparing it with a radical and it's got at least a 250-300kg weight penalty (and not nearly the downforce).

I think the road legal SR8 at the 'Ring recently was quoted at 680kg...I think a similar weight (and power to weight) could readily be achieved?

Maybe not aero though...

Edited by alicrozier on Thursday 8th October 09:29