Being owner of an S1 Elise, returning to the UK was almost a certainty.
Nope: not because something is broken. After the first and ahum major bill for correcting all neglect of maintenance on the ELise, it starts now at the turn of the key, drives good too, no rattles other than a spanner some mechanic lost into the chassis. Getting in and out semi- elegantly is a sport, but I need the exercice anyway.
Problem is: the Elise is slow. Fast to get to topspeed but that is - partially due to the close ratio-box- only 120 mph. It just holds the road too good at any speed. So I drive it flat-out most of the time. Hell, even fuel comsumption stays staggeringly low.
So some upgrades came in. Swapped the flywheel with a lighter version, bolted the bigger throttlebody. The 135 HP seemed to be there but very few -if any- extra ponies.
Searching the web I found engine swaps: Audi convertions and the Honda S2000-swap. 220 to 300 HP, that seemed the ticket. However the price going from 12 kUKP to 20 kUPD seemed also a very nice bag of coins and ads 40 tot 100 kg of weight to the nimble Elise. Not to mention that it's about the price for an 400 HP E39 M5 (which also found a way to get on my "Want"-list)
Then I stumbled on this: Rotrex.
It is a supercharger the size of an alternator and guess what: there is space available in the SI Elise for it, even without eating the boot. So I now have bought a complete engine/gearbox/ecu out of an Elise for
400 UKP and I will collect it from Southhamptom around 28/29 April. Reason for it is that making the brackets and testing is far more easy when a separate engine is available.The supercharger is setting me back somewhat more but here the European logic comes into play again: in Europ the product- made in Danmark - costs around 2200 Euro, in the good US of A I can get it for 1700 US$... go figure.
Seems my circle is closing and that I am back where I started: modding cars and driving them fast.
Do not say it, I have been told to be barking mad a fair few times lately. Must be midlife-crisis and stuff but as it seems being mad is quite a nice state to be in, it seems not to hurt me as much as the others. :-)
Looking forward to drive at the wrong side of the road again!
Tom De Moor