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What Car Is This?


smeyers

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Roughly 700 lbs. heavier than the Elise design it is based upon. Not an Elise with an EV conversion.  2" longer WB.  2WD and only slightly more stock rim+ tire width didn't make up for the ground "hugging" weight difference. I used to run with the Golden Gate Lotus Club while I lived in CA and only saw a few of these run stock class with mediocre results. Not to say that possibly using a LOT more tire and suspension in another class it might be competitive.  Being an old Europa D-Mod guy from the 1970's, the only Elise-like car I truly lust after is the S1 with Rover K-series (properly built and pumped in HP to around 200). There was one fellow who ran GGLC events who was very fast in stock class using a Rover S1. Said it only weighted 1650 lbs. from the factory. That's what a stock iron block Europa TC used to weigh.  The Rover K-series engine is actually a beautiful, advanced design that was lighter than the Toyota that came later and a lot lighter than the Honda K20 retrofits into S1's. A few S1's that came into states early on were fitted by the importers with Konda K20's to become fully emissions certified road cars.

 

A more exact weight comparison of Elise engine options:

All of this tends towards an engine that weighs in, as standard, fully dressed at 96.5kg. (212 lbs)  Compare this to the Honda S2000 engine similarly equipped with standard manifold clutch and fluids at 158 kg (348 lbs) and the Toyota 1.9 VVTi engine at 137kg.(302 lbs) The Rover engine’s compact size and weight are a significant advantage in a lightweight race/sports car of the Lotus 7-type or the Elise. Note, a full race K-Series weighs 78kg including 7kg of fluids. (187.4 lbs total). A fully built Rover K 2L is about 293 HP. To be fair, a Honda K20 can be built to similar NA HP and a lot less than its stock weight by removing balance shaft and variable cam timing, etc. but still be quite a ways from being as light as the Rover.  Forced induction and it's a whole different engine story. There is a U-tube video of a street rat in the Phoenix area with a turbo K-20 with sequential 6 or 7 speed in a Toyota MR-S that has over 900 RWHP and easily blows off all super bikes on I-17 🙂   "Hmm couldn't that run in SCCA solo XS-B class?"

 

 

Edited by Chuck
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