Lotus Elise/Exige track project

[automek]

In march of this year I bought a 2002 immaculate Lotus Elise s2 (rover engine) with the intention of carrying out a charged Honda K swap. I liked the look of my Elise but much preferred the look of the s2 Exige. Having done a bit of homework on the K swap I discovered that it was going to be alot harder to do the k swap on a Toyota engined car. My first priority was to test fit the engine into the car in order to make sure everything fitted without any major problems.

The car when i got it all be it not a great photo.



Two days later



I already had a supercharged k20 left from when i broke up and sold up my previous track car. As I had been planning to buy and k swap an Elise in the first place I had already bought shafts,mounts, Exige exhaust and some other items to make things happen a little quicker.

Engine in



Happy that the engine would fit with charger and other items I decided to tackle the body work side of things. I contacted a uk lotus breaker down south and organised to swap my full set of Elise panels and purchase a full set of Exige panels. On arrival I quickly noticed the panels were not in the best condition so I arranged for the clam shells to go to IA Bodyshop in Dalmarnock.

Prep stages





We began to realise why so few people convert their Elise into an Exige when we noticed the differences in the panels! Whilst I was waiting on various seals and clips arriving I found a few nice parts to be fitted for a slightly more aggressive look.

Reverie roof scoop


Reverie Side scoops


Apr rear wing


After 2months or so I finally got the call from my friend Imy to say the car was ready for collection. The finished article was way more than what id ever hoped it would look like. Here are a few shots of it minus door seals and other trim.







There is so so much more been done to the car than whats shown but I thought this would give everyone an idea of how this build is coming along. I had posted my plans up a while back in the newbie section and hope im posting this in the correct section! My apologies to admin if this is in the wrong place!

A big thanks to Stuart Pollock at Pollock engineering and Ollie at Pheonix motorsport for the AP brakes!
Cheers to anyone else that ive pestered over the phone for swap info its been alot different from my usual customers track cars.

Car has a long way to go but il try and keep progress updated as I go.

[vxc]

Looks great andrew,

Havent had much time to drop by and look, is this now at your garage?
U sell the k series yet..?

[automek]

Looks great andrew,

Havent had much time to drop by and look, is this now at your garage?
U sell the k series yet..?

Thanks Calvin,

K series is gone mate. Its at the workshop for now but will be going elsewere very soon to make way for customers cars! Swing by any time

[OlberJ]

You're not fcuk about with it are ya chief?

Looks great, just hope u find the time to finish it afore the season starts.

[Scotty C]

Looks good apart from the spoiler, you should be shot for that.

[automek]

Looks good apart from the spoiler, you should be shot for that.

Personal preference's and all that. I wasn't sure of the spoiler myself but when it was fitted in conjunction with the rest of the carbon I was happy with my decision. APR properly wind tunnel tested and developed it so its not just a big daft wing for the sake of it

[Stu160]

Looking Good

Stu

[Ferg]

Great project! Looking really good.

[automek]

Thanks for the comments, wasn't sure how this would go down on here

[j2 lot]

Looks good apart from the spoiler, you should be shot for that.

Car looks great but spoiler is a bit Maxpower for my taste, but if it works then

[automek]

The car isn't likely to be used on the road very often so not to bothered about it looking "max power" I had looked into the Reviere rear wing as the rest of the carbon is from them but couldn't justify the price difference and the fact that its not adjustable. I have fitted some of the APR aero parts to customers cars (evo's,skyline's,s2000's) and have had nothing but good results. Here is the site if anyone is interested in some of thier products or how they test them.

http://aprperformance.com/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=44


Hopefully by end of january the roll cage should have arrived and i will get some more updates posted.

Cheers for the feedback