New to the Lotus world

[Kiowapilot]

I am so stoked! Just bought an 05 elise. Planning on about 12K worth of mods to make it even better.

Anybody here have any experience with evergreen lotus car club? I'm Trying to find some connections in the Lotus world locally.

[exarkun1178]

welcome...what mods do you have in mind?

[Kiowapilot]

Plan on BWR Supercharger (probably stage 2 when it comes out), Nitron Sport Pro coil overs, 16x7/17x8 Wheels and wider tires, BWR Anti Roll bar, 2bular exhaust, 2bular sport cat, LSD, and eventually some minor body mods.

I figure I will be able to all of this minus any body mods in december. I am still researching exactly what I am going to do but I think I have it pretty narrowed down to these things.

[Interceptor]

Welcome to the forums, good luck with mods. If you need help installing them I used to work with turbo applications and engine work. I did alot of the modifications on my previous car personally.

[shay2nak]

congrats on the car! have fun with your mods.

[Darkside]

thats a big list...

[Kiowapilot]

big list? and it will grow more over time. $$$$$ way to much $$$$$. thanks for all the welcomes.

[Bleu Omdurman]

Welcome to the forum. This NW section can be pretty dead. However, the group is pretty active. ELCC is great. I recommend it. I am in my 30's and I tend to be on the younger side.

Their is not much of a tuner scene for this car here in the NW. For social stuff with people (my age) I tend to hang out with the Porsche folks at 6speedonline. Great people and very active. Drives all the time, gatherings, etc.

ELCC is worth every penny. The events they line up are truely top notch. I'd also check out motorsportreg.com if you want to get involved in driving the car the way it was meant to be driven. I'd offer that I chose to focus on track day time, and have been reluctant to play with mods. The is so far beyond a good driver's ability. The ability stays with the driver too!

If you do decide to mod the car, I recommend Colin Cantrell and Cantrell Motorsports. Best in the area. Group 2 is the place you will want to change your tires. If you have the AO48s and plan to drive around the Seattle area much, I'd recommend your next set of tires not be the AO48's. Spend some money on better wet weather tires and a second set of wheels. Trust me, I'm on my second Lotus now.

glad you are here.

RLTW

[plastique999]

Welcome to the greatest car on earth!
I have similar mods in mind...

[Kiowapilot]

Originally Posted by Bleu Omdurman

Welcome to the forum. This NW section can be pretty dead. However, the group is pretty active. ELCC is great. I recommend it. I am in my 30's and I tend to be on the younger side.

Their is not much of a tuner scene for this car here in the NW. For social stuff with people (my age) I tend to hang out with the Porsche folks at 6speedonline. Great people and very active. Drives all the time, gatherings, etc.

ELCC is worth every penny. The events they line up are truely top notch. I'd also check out motorsportreg.com if you want to get involved in driving the car the way it was meant to be driven. I'd offer that I chose to focus on track day time, and have been reluctant to play with mods. The is so far beyond a good driver's ability. The ability stays with the driver too!

If you do decide to mod the car, I recommend Colin Cantrell and Cantrell Motorsports. Best in the area. Group 2 is the place you will want to change your tires. If you have the AO48s and plan to drive around the Seattle area much, I'd recommend your next set of tires not be the AO48's. Spend some money on better wet weather tires and a second set of wheels. Trust me, I'm on my second Lotus now.

glad you are here.

RLTW

I am 28 so there is another person in your age bracket in the area. From what your saying I guess I will have to get up with ELCC. I hear ya on the tires, I am already planning on buying a second set. We will have to get in touch when I get back. I know of one other elise in ft. lewis but other than that it is truely a rare car to see up in the seattle area. Thanks for the welcome and the advise.

[Interceptor]

I'm 27, I think the majority of the owners are in their 30's on the forum. Thankfully not everyone can own one of these, hate to see these cars riced out with cheep exhaust tips and ghetto body kits by younger guys. But on the other side I do hope that sales will pick up thanks to the economy change and the need for more mpg sport cars like the elise.

[Kiowapilot]

How the hell do I post an image? I would like to put a pic of my elise in a reply but dont know how. any help?

[Blacktan]

host it @

ImageShack® - Image Hosting

and copy the link of the hosted pic on the message field inside on this :

[img] ............. [/img]

[Evil Twin]

Just my two cents, but if you're looking to make your car go faster, none of the stuff you're doing will actually help unless you have spent substantial time at the track with a decent instructor. The car's a racecar in a box, and it really doesn't benefit from much modding if your purpose is to turn faster laps. If, on the other hand, you just want to have fun changing your car and like the process, then go for it. Just be advised that a lot of the "high bang for the buck" mods that work on other cars don't really buy any power with the Lotus.

[Kiowapilot]

Ya, your right that the car will only go faster with good instruction and experience. I just really enjoy working on cars and staying busy in my off time. So this gives me an opportunity to push it a little further. I dont think im doing anything to crazy to it. It is 60% pleasure 40% preformance. Gonna try to post a pic here soon.

[Evil Twin]

As long as what you're doing works for you, hey, I'm all for it! I just wanted to forewarn you that (unlike a lot of "sports" cars), the Lotus is easier to screw up than it is to improve upon and more power won't necessarily enable you to go faster. Even a trick $5K suspension is probably only good for a second or two at most tracks, and I cannot actually use any more power except on the straights -- where no skill is required -- so even with only 190 crank horsepower, there are few cars I cannot gain ground on in the corners unless they're on full race slicks (and even then, they have to be very well driven). My comment wasn't intended as criticism as much to make sure you have the right perspective. I wish you luck -- and welcome to the community.

Twin

[TimMullen]

Originally Posted by Kiowapilot

How the hell do I post an image? I would like to put a pic of my elise in a reply but dont know how. any help?

When you post a reply (or post) scroll down below the "Submit" button. There is a whole section called "Additional Options".

Under the block "Attach Files" is a button "Manage Attachments". Click it and add your image file - hopefully you have resized it down to size (I usually make them about 600 pixels wide).

It's actually pretty easy to do.

Although linking to a hosted image is good for the storage on LotusTalk, I dislike it as work blocks most images that are from hosted sites. I imagine that it happens to most other people logging in from work.

[Kiowapilot]

Thanks Tim. here is the pic. Also, if you sold this car through Park Place and you recognize it let me know. I wold love to hear from the previous owner.

[Kiowapilot]

Originally Posted by Evil Twin

As long as what you're doing works for you, hey, I'm all for it! I just wanted to forewarn you that (unlike a lot of "sports" cars), the Lotus is easier to screw up than it is to improve upon and more power won't necessarily enable you to go faster. Even a trick $5K suspension is probably only good for a second or two at most tracks, and I cannot actually use any more power except on the straights -- where no skill is required -- so even with only 190 crank horsepower, there are few cars I cannot gain ground on in the corners unless they're on full race slicks (and even then, they have to be very well driven). My comment wasn't intended as criticism as much to make sure you have the right perspective. I wish you luck -- and welcome to the community.

Twin

Oh I understand where your coming from completely. I am more than willing to get any advise I can when it comes to this car. The reasoning behind what I plan to do.... I can tell you one thing. I am no tuner and i would hate to have people see my car and think "just another rice burner." I dont want to smear Lotus's great name. I figure the car is pretty much set up as it is like you said. However, against cars like the ZO6 and the high HP vehicles the elise is lacking in the straight line speed. Nothing can touch it in the corners and it closes the gap very quickly. I figure with a little more power under the hood I will be able to almost keep up in the straights but then make the pass in the turns to hopefully not get passed again in the next straight. Thanks for the input and feel free to keep it coming. Im in army aviation and we are more brutal on each other than I have ever seen in the 5 years of civilian work experience I had prior to joining up. I got pretty thick skin... lol.

[speedneed]

dear pilot..
welcome to lotus group.
elise is a great car....and YES..it can be improved by mods.
thats why most racing elises or exiges a running ~ 400hp.
skils are important but handling and hp make it much better
supercharger kit is a beautiful addition to great car you got..
you'll love it..believe me.
plus it makes a car so much more drivable in normal street driving.