Lotus Exige Prod Sports Build

[Risking]

Something different that's being built at pro fabrication race engineering for one of our customers. The owner has had a number of lotus' in the past from rover k series to Toyota powered Elise's and also some other production cars like celica's and recently a brand spanker ford focus RS.

The idea of this exige was to create his ultimate lotus that was uncompromised.

The base car was bought from NZ with a Honda K series engine and the homologated Jackson supercharger kit.

After a couple of races the car was stripped down to a Bare alloy chassis and the rebuild began.

The engine was overhauled buy a well know lotus Toyota engine builder Neil trumma.

While the engine was away a 70L bladder tank was installed and a new integrated surge tank was built.

Using an aeromotive pump hanging off the bottom to feed the surge, the surge is feeding a single Bosch pump externally. The reg was mounted to the tank to keep everything compacted and easy to locate.

Catch can was done next to sit behind the engine

Engine came back with instructions to build the mother of all exhaust systems. The owner has a lot of respect for the engine builder (his engines have been beating him for years so kinda gotta listen to him now) and work begun on the exhaust.

Plans are to do the system in titanium once the stainless version has been tested and modified if required.

The rest of the exhaust is 4inch with a funnel outlet that will create a basic blown diffuser.

Justin from pro wire is coming in to wire the entire car and install the Haltech Ecu, race pak smart wire and all the data logging gear.

Next up is the mounts for the air jack system and all the fuel system plumbing.

[rbjunkie]

Will be keeping an eye on this. Always good to see something different!

[Roy]

I need a job playing with cars I will never own. Watching this with LOAD OF INTEREST

[Risking]

I'd never own a lotus either but building one like this is always good.

Ill throw up some photos of the body work and other bits that are done this week. Basically everything from the original car went in to bin and has been replaced.

[Risking]

The best part about a lotus.....

We built the owner an S15 and while that was happening the exige lived ontop of the mezzanine floor

It did come back down

It's not a lotus but you'll like this one anyway Troy

[Roy]

Holy Porsche. The noise that thing would make at full noise

I'd never own a lotus either but building one like this is always good.

How should I read that...you wouldn't want to own one or you are never going to get such a impractical piece of UK fibreglass?

[Risking]

Porka is a 100% accurate lemans replica. Engine & transaxle are close but not legit components.

I couldn't bring myself to own such an impractical yet hideously expensive car. They are such basic cars I don't understand why they are so expensive.

[Roy]

Because...

[Dale FZ1]

Porka is a 100% accurate lemans replica. Engine & transaxle are close but not legit components.

I couldn't bring myself to own such an impractical yet hideously expensive car. They are such basic cars I don't understand why they are so expensive.

You're teasing with this one. Is it a replica because it wasn't made in Weissach? Or is it a modern reproduction that follows the original plans and never raced? It seems that numerous builds of the 956/962 were not carried out by Porsche themselves.

Reading up on their history, comments by Derek Bell indicated they were very "truck-like" but that toughness was what led to success in 24 hour events. Ground effects that worked was the obvious big advance from their 935 model.

Tell us a little more about this thing.

[Risking]

That car has been assembled and manufactured here locally in the owners garage over the the last 7 years.

He has purchased as many genuine parts as possible and the rest his been able to either borrow genuine parts and have reproductions made or bought reproductions out of Canada for it.

The suspension and uprights are all 100% identical reproductions of the original cars.

The body work is from the original Porsche moulds same as the front screen.

Things like radiators etc have all been locally made from drawings and photos of original parts.

The car hasn't been raced and I don't think it will be. The owner has built it just to take out and enjoy driving it. The amount of money that's been spent is ludicrous,

[Dale FZ1]

What a shame. Should have built a Cobra for a fraction of the cost and use it as an open top pose machine.

That thing should be welcomed into any historic type events and run at speed. I love looking at the vision of Rob Sharrad's Sauber C9(?) Group C.

[Risking]

His been a Porsche but for longer than some have been alive so was something he'd always wanted. Owning one of the legit lemans cars is not exactly cheap

There is loads of photos of it on our Facebook page.

[JZP]

I'd never own a lotus either but building one like this is always good.

Ill throw up some photos of the body work and other bits that are done this week. Basically everything from the original car went in to bin and has been replaced.

Is there a reason why you'd never own one? Financial or mechanical?

[Risking]

Financially doesn't concern me owning one. In fact a supercharged Honda series 2 is actually a more financially viable option to purchase than my current Supercar.

THe thing that turns me off is how fragile they are. If the car takes a decent shunt its usually a write off. The chassis is an aluminium extrusion "tub" chassis. All the stress of an accident goes directly into the tub which is only glued together.

The rear subframe is replaceable but its also bolted to the tub and vulnerable.

Mechanically some can be a nightmare, this one should be fairly good. They don't have "weak" links like gearboxes. They are known to catch fire but that's just through poor preparation and heat management than anything else.

No doubt a great car but I can see ownership being a very frustrating thing. If my Supercar takes a hit, drop it at the panel shop rip it straight and back on the track.

[JZP]

Great feedback - real world practical approach. Was considering one, so puts things into perspective. Thanks.

[Risking]

The tubs are actually fairly cheap. It's the time that goes into changing everything over that becomes the frustrating part.

Honda K series conversions are expensive so if you did buy one get one already done or a Toyota powered car.

Don't touch a rover engined car unless you get it cheap and want to do a Honda conversion anyway.

This car was originally bought from New Zealand and was well priced

They are so underpowered and a reliability nightmare with the old rover engines.

[Dale FZ1]

That always seems to be the perennial bugbear of Pommy engineering - some good ideas, poorly executed in terms on maintenance/servicing or reliability. Little wonder that Rover were happy to get Honda on board back in the day.

[2pee]

Pollard has the molds and did the carbon work on the Pearson lotii, before he apparently decided prod touring held more attraction....if your customer decides he wants to waste more dough!

[Roy]

That always seems to be the perennial bugbear of Pommy engineering - some good ideas, poorly executed in terms on maintenance/servicing or reliability. Little wonder that Rover were happy to get Honda on board back in the day.

Take that back or I'll glass yah!

I hve tracked a Rover Lotus Elise and it was underpowered. The thing was still keeping up with R33 GTRs on street tyres, mostly courtesy to the AO48s it was on. Whilst underpowered the driving was a load of fun.

The main problem withthe Rover engines is head gaskets. There are som3 decent enough kits around for them that if you put a good quality head gasket in to replace the std then you are on your way to making a reasonable 180hp or so

I have tracked a supercharged Exige at Spa Francorchamps and being a high speed track the s/c Exige did struggle against the GT3 Porsches and 430 Fezz's down the long straights but under brakes and cornering they were mobile road blocks

The Exige is a fun and awesome looking car, great handling and stopping car just that they need at least 225hp. If you can get them up around 285-300hp then they are genuinely QUICK cars. Compared to some of the other big banger exotics they are shopping trolley change for servicing and spares/parts. I am a huge fan and on a montly basis have to tell myself that sinking 50k into a 3rd car is poor form

I just looked around NZ classifieds and looks like since I will be unemployed in the next 3-4 weeks I should take my next assignment in NZ, just long enough to get a personal import.

Any more pics of the chassis and cage etc? This one is silver which makes me WANT IT EVEN MORE

[Marlin]

I really wish you'd just get "it" over and done with Roy. There is zero doubt that a Lotus is easily one of the most cost effective true "exotics" to run.

Nice work Brad, looks the goods.