bike engined elan se

[espritrob]

hi i have just purchased an accident damaged elan se which i a m planning on converting to rear wheel drive and powering it with a turbo charged hayabusa bike engine would appreciate any comments or ideas any help and any information of anyone that has already done this that would be a great help thanks

[ailwyn]

Hi Rob, welcome to LEC.

Apart from good luck I don't think there is much that anyone can say?

I do have a few questions:

1. Why convert to RWD when the whole setup is already done for FWD?
2. Is a bike engine going to have enough push to shift what is quite a heavy (sports) car? I don't know a huge amount about them but my understanding is that bike engines are more set up for a higher rev range and top end power than the lower down grunt which would be required to shift the best part of a ton? A turbo is not going to help much from a standing start because that won't have any effect until x thousand RPM.

[F1 LOTUS]

Which end are you planning to stick the bike engine in?
If you're planning for the rear then you might be able to shed enough weight to make this worthwhile
Just to be sure...fit one at each end (360 BHP AWD)

This may be useful
http://mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120360

[RayD]

Of all the cars I’ve driven, the one with an Hayabusa engine was easily the most impractical. They seem to have all the wrong characteristics for moving a proper car around.

What about putting the Elan body panels on lightweight kit car instead.

[WillB]

I had to check this was posted on May 1st and not April 1st!

Good luck!

[surfboardfiller]

Hyabusa doesn't have enough power and you will rip the gearbox to shreds if you use a bike box. They just aren't designed to pull this kind of weight. Why even consider it? why RWD on the best FWD setup in the history of the world?

Sell the M100 and buy a 7.

[rip]

Why RWD? 4WD has been looked into by several people on here. All have decided it was too difficult to attempt. Would RWD be any different?
Lotus decided that FWD would be best for the Elan. What makes you think they were wrong?
The Isuzu is a great little engine, and it makes the whole package work. Bike engines make most of their power well over 10,000 rpm. Is that going to be very driveable?

Sounds to me like you want to turn an Elan into something more along the lines of an Elise. Wouldn't you be better off starting with one of these?

It would be interesting if you did go ahead but think carefully .... Lotus decided on the engine & drive system to go with the car, not the other way around.

[Andy_J]

Not sure if rwd would be the easiest option, but how about 2 hyabusa engines like the Dam 4100 Gti 6R4 rally car

[Monty]

Why RWD? 4WD has been looked into by several people on here. All have decided it was too difficult to attempt. Would RWD be any different?
Lotus decided that FWD would be best for the Elan. What makes you think they were wrong?
The Isuzu is a great little engine, and it makes the whole package work. Bike engines make most of their power well over 10,000 rpm. Is that going to be very driveable?

Sounds to me like you want to turn an Elan into something more along the lines of an Elise. Wouldn't you be better off starting with one of these?

It would be interesting if you did go ahead but think carefully .... Lotus decided on the engine & drive system to go with the car, not the other way around.

Lotus did FWD for the Elan not cause it was the best for the car but cause that was the market they were trying to tap in to. Don`t think you`ll see Lotus ever building another FWD.
Since doing trackdays the understeer shows up big style on track which you don`t get on the road, but to compete with Elises etc you have to modifiy the Elan in a big way ie something like what surferphil is doing ie shed alot of weight, sticky tyres and a good brake system. If i could have a RWD M100 i`d have a go but it would be to costly as i think the chassis would need modifiying. But there`s certainly nothing wrong with the engine side of things Infact if you could stick the Isuzu engine in to a S1 Elise and do the Turbo upgrade what LGM has done then WoW that would be fast

If you want RWD go for an Elise

[Monty]

Got this vid from PH of a westfield megabusa at Oulton Park but his engine went pop at the end of the vid You should see his other vids, man thing is fast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeTosKBY5_E

[Dico]

Fantastic vid. Makes me wonder why I even ever consider a track day Elan (other than it probably costing twice as much- and a bit more)

[bobbrown]

You will be opening up a very big can of worms!!

I have done a RWD conversion with a Vauhall Corsa (rally Car) and this is not straight forward + a mate did a Mini (RWD) more worms!

The whole suspension setup on the rear of the elan is not setup for RWD so a whole new setup would be required and then you have to find some where to mount it
Then there is the differences in wheel alignment between a front wheel drive car a rear wheel drive one never mind caster and camber angles.

Cost will be prohibitive

The Corsa conversion cost in excess of £30,000 mind you that did include a lot of trick parts like an all steel red top putting out 270HP naturally aspirated + 6 speed Quaife sequential box and AP 4 pot brakes

As for front drive v rear drive there is not a lot in it these days just look at touring cars BMW are rear wheel drive but they do not win all the time! AWD different animal

Bob