Friday 7th March 2003

Esthi <2.4

Silly name, mad amount of power. We take a look at the twin turbo'd Elise

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	There are numerous conversions and upgrades available for the Elise, all claiming to boost power from the venerable K series. Most do a good job of squeezing more horse from the little 1.8 litre four pot, but for some that's never going to be enough. Honda VTEC conversions are growing in popularity but for extreme power you need an extreme solution. That was the thinking of Brandes & Dschüdow in Germany. They looked around for suitable donors and settled upon an Audi engine. Not a smelly oil burning diesel of course, nor a plain four pot from an A4, but a twin turbo, 2.7 litre V6 good for just over 400bhp! The weight of the is obviously increased thanks to the larger motor, but it remains under 1000kg. They've worked on the weight distribution too, to try and keep to 35:65. To ensure that rear weight doesn't dominate the car's handling, and to ensure that the immense power can be transmitted to the road, Brandes & Dschüdow have also developed a complete aerodynamic kit in the wind tunnel. Downforce and cooling to the engine were the priorities here, resulting in the subtle additions to the body. The body has also been modified to allow the rear clamshell to hinge at the rear. In order to slow the car, an uprated brake system has been fitted with four caliper units from the Esprit used with 320mm discs at the front. A brake booster and ABS have also been fitted. Keeping the whole car in harmony, the suspension has also been uprated with a new spring/damper combination, developed by the experts at Wilbers. All in all, it's a breathtaking project and the idea of over 400bhp in an Elise is one we rather like And why the name "<2.4"? It's because the car has a weight to power ration of 2.4kg/bhp. Perhaps it sounds better in German... Links: www.brandes-dschuedow.de / www.lotus-parts-shop.com

[MEMSDesign]

First brought to you by Arno, in June 2002 :
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=12383&f=15&h=0&hw=esthi

[markez79]

does anyone know how much this would cost and how do i get my hands on one??!!

[Bonce]

Ooh yuck, I do NOT like what they've done to the back of the car. The big LOTUS logo is tantamount to having "KENWOOD" across the windscreen.

Apart from that, I love it, and I'd love to have a go in one!

[MEMSDesign]

markez79 said: does anyone know how much this would cost and how do i get my hands on one??!!

From the thread linked above "Price: approx.. 95,000 euro[s]"

[DanH]

There is a cheap one with a lesser power to weight ratio too.

Cheap in the relative sense of the word.

Damn I'd like them to do that to my car!

[v8thunder]

Do it, Lotus, DO IT!

[v8thunder]

What's 250 km/h in mph? (shite at maths + can't find calculator)

[taz]

Around 160 v8thunder which is slow for out here, most sports (Merc, BMW and so on) cars are fixed to have a top end of 160 and it’s nice to fly past when they finished playing and see the look on their faces

[bogie]

If you read the spec on the site there are options on the gearing - 160 or 200mph gearboxes !

nice car - but a lot of dosh ...and at 1000Kg I think I would have a Noble + M3 for that kind of money

[v8thunder]

Maybe that beefed-up Elise look is what the new Esprit will end up looking like. I wonder if Lotus are interested in it?

[ChrisD]

When reading through the homepage, I feel a bit impressed by the downforce generated:
+29kg front +35kg rear at 220km/h
For comparison:
Porsche 911 GT2
+2kg front +7,5kg rear at 200km/h

That's some very impressing figures I guess, especially for such a small company.

The "<2.4" part doesn't sound any better in German by the way.

[DanH]

Just noticed they have pushed out the rear lights (to accomodate the engine I imagine). Looks a bit nasty on closer inspection

[elise81]

What a Bloody great waste of time! the beauty of the Elise is the fact that it handles and is underpowered and requires Skill to take you to the levels of enjoyment it can provide

[smeagol]

Sorry Elise81 arguing that it is a good thing that a road legal race car is underpowered, is fairly weak. There are lots of people I'm sure like myself that didn't buy an Elise simply because it was so underpowered.

I got out of the m100 Elan, drove the Elise round the track, got out and went "I prefer the Elan".

The Elise is a superb car but could have been in the supercar bracket. At the moment though the best Elise IMHO is the Exige with 190bhp on tap. Even that didn't inspire me to swap out of the old car (it would have been £20k more and the difference wasn't big enough)

With Lotus stopping the Esprit, and the M250 not happening I hope that Lotus do produce a new supercar (I've always though the GT1 Elise looked and sounded superb).

BTW I agree with the lights moving, does make the car look odder but I prefered the old shape Elise.

[stage]

this car is crap. the biggest german car-magazine made a vmax-test with lots of "supercars" capable of speeds beyond 250 km/h (around 150mph). the esthi´s motor blew up 2 times after 2 rounds at top speed. and what´s the use of a 1-ton elise driving that fast?useless.

[Felix7]

VAG

I have it on very good authority that a well known UK engine speacialist who's well known for doing K series heads is about the finalise a kit to put in the Audi TT/Golf 225 unit + the six speed gear box at a very very good price into the Elise.

VTEC

There may be a problem with linking the drive shaft of the VTEC enoine to the Elise, the Elise draft shaft runs near enough with no movement, the VTEC needs 4 degrees of play, resulting in drive shafts being possibly worn earlier. Would be keen to know if any VTEC conversions have experienced this at all.

[Bonce]

Felix7 said: VAG

[DanH]

There may be a problem with linking the drive shaft of the VTEC enoine to the Elise, the Elise draft shaft runs near enough with no movement, the VTEC needs 4 degrees of play, resulting in drive shafts being possibly worn earlier. Would be keen to know if any VTEC conversions have experienced this at all.

What do you mean, all drive shafts have to move through the angle of wheel travel. Can you explain what difference you are referring to here?

[Felix7]

DanH said:

There may be a problem with linking the drive shaft of the VTEC enoine to the Elise, the Elise draft shaft runs near enough with no movement, the VTEC needs 4 degrees of play, resulting in drive shafts being possibly worn earlier. Would be keen to know if any VTEC conversions have experienced this at all.

What do you mean, all drive shafts have to move through the angle of wheel travel. Can you explain what difference you are referring to here?

All this stemmed from a conversation from the same individual when we were talking about engine conversions, so my recollection of the conversation last Friday might not be that accurate. As I understood it, the Lotus drive shaft was far more rigid than the equivalent VTEC unit. Not being technically minded someone with the relevant expertise with either engine could prehaps enlighten me further.

The context of what was being said certainly seemed to make sense.


>> Edited by Felix7 on Tuesday 11th March 12:34

[stuart1969]

Guys
I have recently returned from South Africa where a guy I do business with has just built a 400hp Exige using a Vtec engine. He will be providing me with pricing on 300 & 400hp engines with custom casings and mounts etc. Given the low labour costs this could be attractive, anyone interested please Email me at [e-mail].
Just for reference he can hold off a tuned 911 GT3 in a straight line and wipes the floor with them in the corners. Anyone interested in fitting these please let me know.