K20A Lotus

White92

White92

Legendary Member
Joined
6 November 2002
Messages
4,697
Location
UT
I don't know if you guys have ever seen this before, but I'm seriously considering getting one of these. Look around his site. It's simply amazing! I emailed him some questions about it last night and when he replied, he also told me that he just put a supercharger on one of the cars at 7.5 pounds of boost and he's now getting 292.4 whp and 191 lb ft of torque. Before the supercharger was added, he already had a 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds and a 0-100 mph time of 8.9 seconds! How is this guy getting traction? Anyway, here's the site.

http://www.prototyperacing.com/
 
A few years ago our engine builder and tuner had the pleasure of doing the B18C swap on a Lotus Elise. Simply an amazing performer. Dropping in a built F20 would be phenomenal. This will be a fantastic track car once they come stateside from the factory.
 
He also told me that he has one of the first cars coming to the U.S. on order. He will be getting one of the first cars right off the boat. The kit costs $7,600 and the remapped Hondata ECU is $650. Not bad for that kind of performance in my opinion. He's also selling the supercharger kit for another $4k.
 
It leaves pretty much every car in it's tracks. I need to find out how to order one of these cars when they come in so I can do this. Does anyone know? As I understand it, they don't have dealerships. And since it hasn't been released to the U.S. yet, how does one get this car? I need to look into this deeper....
 
Thanks for the info. I should have been more specific. I was actually talking about the 2004 so it would be street legal. I didn't mean a track only car.
 
I meant, "here" meaning we can actually purchase the car and drive it. I know that it's already in car shows.
 
I was at the Lotus booth at LA Auto Show 10 days ago and conversed with Mr. Nick Adams, chief project engineer behind 2nd gen Elise (kinda like Mr. Shigeru Uehara behind the NSX and s2k), and Ian Smith of Smith Lotus of San Luis Obispo. I was told that the production of Federalized Elise, aka "croft", won't begin until March, and the current pre-orders exceeded Lotus's production capacity of 2000-3000 "federalized" units per year. If one place an order from his/her local Lotus dealerships now, he/she won't get the car until 18 months later, or so I was told by Mr. Adams. BUT.....if I were to put $1k non-refundable deposit down with Mr. Smith (*edit*), who appeared to have very close business and personal ties with Mr. Adams and Lotus, I can get the car as early as 8-9 months after the projected release date of May.


BTW white92, if you're seriously contemplating on getting one, why not give Mr. Smith a jingle?

Darn, can't find his # at the moment. I'll chime in again as soon as I find his business card....... :)
 
Last edited:
Yes, please get me his number. I've read on Lotus message boards pretty much what you just told me. That just about all of them have already had deposits put down on them this year and I would have to wait until next year. I've also read that production will begin in March, so that sounds like it's probably true. I wonder what insurance would cost on one of those? They don't seem like too safe of a car.
 
Hey thanks! I wish you would have pm'd it to me so nobody else got the jump on it. hehe j/k
 
I heard from them again today. Here's part of their email. I had asked them about traction issues with such a low 0-60 time espicially with the addition of the supercharger. Here's what he had to say.

Since I recorded the 3.7 sec 0-60 time I've made some substantial
improvements. The new header that I designed gave us an extra 19 HP, and a much stronger midrange, and Hondata has developed a variable VTEC for me that's not just RPM dependent, it keys off of the MAP sensor signal as well, so it can come in as low as 3,800 and as high as 5,600 depending on how far you put your foot into it. We picked up an additional 20 lb ft of torque at
4,500 with this setup, which makes the car MUCH easier to launch, so I figure the 0-60 time is down around 3.2 sec now.
Need to get my friends at Stop Tech to come over with their Radar system so we can see exactly what itis now. To get those times I'm using T/A G-Force Drag Radials, and you're right, with the supercharger even those gum-balls won't handle the torque in 1st or 2nd gear if I'm pushing it hard. Time for a bit wider fenders in the back! It's not any problem on a road course, since you're very rarely going less than 50 MPH anyway. I'll be taking the car to Famoso, near Bakersfield, as soon as they open again in March to see what it'll do in the 1/4 mile, looks like mid to high 11's without much effort. Not bad for a street car, I guess.
 
There's a new video on Prototype Racing's website. Check it out..

http://www.prototyperacing.com/quater_mile.wmv

K20A powered Elise vs Twin Turbo Supra w/Nitrous
1/4 mile drag race from New Zealand

It's kind of hard to see the times, but it looks like the Lotus was 12.32 and the Supra was 12.11

Not bad at all IMO.
 

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