Sands Mechanical Museum

[NSA]

Stumbled on this looking for info on a Lotus Elise. Some good info on the NSX but some very good reading about the Elise. I'm thinking about buying one and putting a Honda motor in it. There is a garage that will do it but for about £10k for a new top end engine. Would think more like £11k to get an S1 and drop a 1.6 V-Tec in it.

Any previous S1 owners here?

http://www.sandsmuseum.com/

[britlude]

check the engine rotation first, honda have a tendancy to buck the trend....and rotate the other way!

[Kevin]

check the engine rotation first, honda have a tendancy to buck the trend....and rotate the other way!

True, Honda is one of the few engine companies that have their motors rotate opposite to the norm. Interesting fact (if I'm right) the S2000 was the first Honda engine to rotate in the more conventional direction.

However with Rover and Honda sharing mechanicals, I would imagine that a Honda engine can replace a Rover one in an Elise. I have seen an Elise with a Honda engine at Spa a few years ago.

[Senninha]

This Honda conversion was gathering momentum of few yrs back as the ultimate Elise upgrade with an supplied and installed cost of around £10k for a donor drivetrain. If memory serves me well, you need a donor engine/box from either a CTR or DC2 ITR for easiest install. It's a fairly straightforward swap requiring only minor mods for the cooling system and electrics plus a change of driveshaft (but only to one side)

With Lotus now relaunching the 'basic' Elise, prices have tumbled a little in recent months, plus this time of year is a buyers market. If your budget allows, go for the S2 Elise over S1 for many reasons, not least of which this conversion benefits from the revised chassis of the later cars.

Good luck and keep us posted if you go for this.

regards

[DamianW]

Honda conversions are a popular upgrade among Elise owners - lots of them done now. Another alternative is Audi 1.8T engine I think.

Brooke Kensington in Bicester will do a Honda conversion, google for them. I can recommend B-K's work as they used to service my Elise, Simon the mechanic is a top bloke.

Alternatively try asking on somewhere like forums.seloc.org

[simonprelude]

Don't Plans Motorsport offer this conversion ??

Personally (have been looking) I would use an early elise (lighter) and fit Nitrons as well as the CTR/DC5 (with LSD) engine.

[DamianW]

Don't Plans Motorsport offer this conversion ??

Personally (have been looking) I would use an early elise (lighter) and fit Nitrons as well as the CTR/DC5 (with LSD) engine.

Might do actually. They seem to be well regarded.

I would choose an S2. I know all the arguments, done them to death, but I think an earlyish S2 is better built (by miles) than the equivalent S1, isn't actually that much heavier (I seem to recall someone telling me the weight figures for the S1 were bordering on a downright lie anyway) and you can still make them handle properly (which they don't out of the box IMO).

I'm currently debating giving up NSX ownership and going back to an Elise, I just don't use the NSX as much as I used to and I'm never going to use it for trackdays.

[blue5]

As you probably know i have just relinquished ownership of an NSX (9 yrs of trouble free fun) and bought an elise S2.

The first thing i discovered (see previous posting) other than it is very boomy in the cabin and the engine sound is er like an ordinary engine.

The next thing i discovered which rather amused me was that many Elise owners want their car to be as fast as an nsx! (in a straight line)

I have now test driven both conversions and can report as follows

1. Audi turbo conversion, 268bhp, 6speed box, 6.5k rev limit £9k all components supplied and fitted. add £3k for a bigger turbo and ancilliaries 300+bhp but brakes and suspension need up grading, add£2k

2. Honda conversion, 6speed, 250bhp revlimit 8k+ £10k all components supplied, add£5k for supercharger kit 300+bhp. (dont forget the suspension and brakes!)

Add vat to everything and remember that whoever you go to its the same conversion offered throught different fitting companies.

The bottom line is add the cost of buying the car to the cost of the conversion and for LESS money you can have a good NSX, which i might add is more comfortable in every respect and it has traction control and abs. (i mention this after my first track day in the wet!!!!!!)

The benefit in my eyes anyway is that there are very few sensors and electronics to go wrong if it is you intention to thrash the car on a track day.

I decided not to go down this route, but i am thinking of selling my Elise, It is an age thing, as we are not as good as we used to be at getting into unusual positions.

[Minch]

I approched things the opposite way to you. I previously owned an S2 and to be honest its the only car I ever regreted getting rid of. Don't get me wrong I love the NSX but even with the suspension mods I've made it doesn't come close to the handling of the Elise. However the journeys down to Cornwall are now bareable! :)

My choice would have to be a completely mad conversion offered by Z cars (although after seeing an Ariel Atom in action with the supercharged Honda engine I could be swayed)

Check out this for a conversion!

http://www.zcars.org.uk/lotus/specifications.htm

[blue5]

Thanks for that, i had heard of this one but couldnt find it.

I can imagine that this would be the best sounding conversion. The weight issue would be resolved, i am told a big issue is that you gain linear speed but lose handling because of the conversion weight although from my track day i found on a dry track the car had handling to spare.

What mods or spec did your elise have?