Lotus Elise K20 Rotrex Conversion With Quaife Sequential
As requested on Facebook here is a more detailed look at my Lotus Elise.
Over the years I have owned quite a few fast road and competition cars, most of these have come and gone, but the little Lotus is the one I will never let go of.
Purchased in 2006 with a Rover K Series running ITB's and sitting on genuine Exige S1 wheels. It remained in this spec for several years before I took the decision to replace the K-Series with a K20a. After some research I decided to start from scratch rather than use an existing conversion kit.
Start to finish the conversion took two weeks and I was very happy with the result, running Hydra EMS it managed 240 @ the fly. The car remained in this spec for a little over a year before I added a Rotrex C30-94 along with a custom intercooler setup. Running 12psi the car developed 325whp and managed an 11.7 1/4 mile on Toyo R888's on an unprepared runway.
Following another year of competition I decided to step things up again. For my purposes (sprint, hillclimb and road use) it was developing ample power so the powerplant remained unchanged. The hydra was however replaced with a Pectel SQ6M, the entire loom has been replaced and now uses Can Bus with two Motec PDM15's, a Pectel ICD Colour Digital Dash and a Cosworth Membrane Switch Panel replaces all of the existing switch gear. I also converted to flyby wire with an FN2 throttle body allowing for traction and launch control via the SQ6M. Finishing off the competition theme are a lovely pair of Reverie Carbon twin skin Mulsanne C's.
At the same time I also replaced my Gaz Gold's with Nitron R3's, which are absolutely stunning in use! The final addition was the new Quaife QKE8J 5 Speed Sequential. The combination of the Quaife box with the SQ6M is utterly brilliant with clutchless up and down shifts.
This weekend past I recorded a 10.78 1/4 at 131mph on the same R888 and again on an airstrip, which I was more than happy with!
Here are a couple of quick videos of the Elise at Ten of The Best:
Inevitably 20 months of damn hard abuse took its toll on the standard K20 and as I pulled 5th on my flying kilometre at Ten of The Best it all came to a head. As is common with the standard pistons, the rod dragged the bottom off piston 2 and made a swift exit through the block leaving this...
Bookmarks