so I'm coming up to this big traffic circle we have here in town, coming into it off of a two highway that feeds into the circle. At just about the same time an orange lookin car pulls onto the circle off of another two laner that dumps into circle. I recognized myself a lotus! This thing looked so small and was very loud. We both had about three quarters of the circle to complete before merging onto a staightaway that turns into another two laner. He nails it as soon as he gets on circle and pulls hard g's. I get on it too, putting both hands on wheel. I was scared of understeering but I made it and was right on his ass the whole circle! Then it turns to the straightaway. I rev matched it just before it got straight and dropped into second and gun it. He does same. And to. My surprise I start to pull ahead of him by the top of third. And out of the corner of my eye I can see his body bucking forward hard as he was shifting and leaning into each gear. His exhaust was ear splitting. Anyhow I stayed about 2 cars ahead of him til about 110 and I backed off. He kept goin and passed me once I slowed down. He got the light ahead of us and I pull next to him. He immediately looks over and started smiling and says "I was just toying with ya" and I say "oh, u weren't gettin on all the way?" And he laughs and says "half pedal" . Yea that's why ur body was lunging back and forth with the shifts and ur exhaust was cracking at the top of the gears!! Idk , I'm not an expert with lotus, I don't know which model it was and/or how fast they are in the straights. Yea they turn awsome alright. I felt like saying somthing after he said he was only playing but didn't. Either bad driver or not as fast as I thought. The guy looked like samuel jackson but with a polo shirt, collar up

 

those things only have like 180 hp if its an elise. lol. i want an elise, id do a k20 swap on that thing, make it a beast.

 

iv heard their not rly that fast but idk

 

The reason that car and driver does the 0-100-0 mph tesing is because the british sports cars were crying about getting beat in the 0-60 by corvette, porsche, etc. The lotus is spectacular on the corners. He may have only been half throttle through the circle. They have Toyota 1.8 liter motors (think Corolla), they are "Lotus Tuned". I can guarantee you that it was most likely an Elise. Probably not the Elise SC and definitely not the Exige. I would love to have a Lotuse Exige 260.... 2000 lbs dry with 260 hp supercharged 1.8... That thing would fly.

 

A guy that lives by me has an 02 Esprit with a built motor and bigger turbos. The thing is an absolute ****** monster. The top end pull on it is crazeeeee. What kind of Lotus was it?

 

IIRC since they weigh as much as a pubic hair they hit 60 in under 5 seconds

 

Dude those twin turbo esprit V-8s were soooo sic. They could make 500 hp if they had a good trans. The b.s. french renault trans blew dogs for quarters so they tuned it to make 350 hp. The 2.0 liter turbo 4 cyl wasn't bad either... That was the last lotus to use their own engine if I recall correctly.

 

Yea but the base model takes almost 13 seconds to hit 100... like I said think Toyota corolla. Its all in the gearing.

 

i FREAKING love lotus espirit. they are twin turbo right? sooooo awesomeeee. thats my dream car bc like you said 500hp is so easily attained. plus no one knows about them.

 

The V-8 was twin turbo (non intercooled) but I think the I-4 was only a single with an intercooler. Yea drop that piece of **** Renault transmission and get another gear box. I forget which one everyone uses but **** shimano gears of a Trek road bike are better than anything france ever made for a car.

 

Ya with the bigger turbos and stock motor (before he blew it) it layed down 480whp. I havent been in it since the motor has been built

 

He got to 480 whp on the stock trans??? I have never heard of the Renault trans handling that much. I'm sure it could, for a minute, but everything was weak on that trans, from the cases to the gears, everything. But with 2800 lbs with almost 500 hp I would fall in love.

Oh psst to the OP good kill by the way dude. Puttin away a $50k car with a $20k cobalt = priceless.

 

I raced an Elise in an event out at Texas motor speedway and I don't think the guy could launch but I got him by about 6 cars. There is a YouTube video of it but it from a shitty angle and you can't really see the out come, just the launch.

 

He has never launched it lol. Apparently thats the killer to the trans

 

Oh absolutely. I think Mendiola makes a trans for that thing. They make epic transaxles for sand rails and tube trucks. They will make anythign custom for you. My buddy had a $20k sequential gearbox in a Supercharged LS1 sand rail... needless to say with 700 lbs of torque it was scary fast. The lotus could be a killer with a gearbox like that.

 

good story, my favorite part haha

YouTube - LOTUS HONDA K20 EXIGE RACE CAR ON DYNO FLAMING EXHAUST PIPE

 

every time i read stories like this i always for some reason think its a long race. but in reality it takes, for my car atleast, all of about 6seconds to go from mid 2nd to top of 3rd

 

I'mnot sure why you would put a K20 in an Exige unless you had a turbo or something with it too. The stock exige makes 240 or 260 hp depending on the model.

 

That vid was ****** awesome lol

What does that new balt of yours lay down for whp?

 

I'll take an LSJ powered lotus.

YouTube - 2006 Lotus Exige by Secant @ the Track

 

~340@17psi. not even close to its efficiency range. expect mid 500s @30psi

 

Have you made it back to the strip?? That is going to do well there!

 

sounds cool

 

there is a thread on this.... and a website for this conversion

 

if he was NA then yes you beat him and he wasnt trying.... but if he had the stock turbo, then he was was playing with you... car only weighs 2,000 pounds