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Make Le Man 2005 Lotus 50th an Event to Remember
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March 2003 : Lotus Donnington Festival March 8th &
9th 2003
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We
exhibited for the first time our Honda 20A i-VTEC conversion
for the Elise / Exige.
The car
on display was Marc and Patrick Charlton's Sport Elise which
will compete in this years GT Championship.
Lots of
favourable comments from visitors about the quality of the
installation and the low slung positioning of the engine.
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August
2002 : Lotus
Elise in Suzuka 1000 - Not
just a pretty face.
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The weekend
of 24th/25th August 2002 saw the The 31st annual International
Pokka 1000 km race held at Suzuka circuit in Japan.
The race
attracts many GT entries the most prominent of which is the
ex Le Mans 2002 Audi R8 which took pole position against a
field of cars including Honda NSX, Nissan Skline GTR (Nismo),
Vemac, Toyota Supra, Integra Type R and an unlikely contender
in endurance racing - an Elise supplied and supported in
Japan by Brooke Kensington Ltd.
 ...............
The Lotus
Elise was entered in the "open" category by the Japanese independent
Lotus specialist Wing Auto/Taste Cars of Nagoya. It's a car
previously campaigned in the Italian Vallelunga 6 hour race
and was originally designed by Lotus Motorsport for endurance
racing events.
The specification
of the car was different to cars built for the Elise one make
race series in key areas. Power was still from the Rover K
series producing 220PS (~215bhp) designated by Lotus as "EVO
4" and in this case injected by Weber Alpha (Japan) systems.
Maximum RPM by design was reduced by 700 rpm (7300) to improve
reliability over long distances and camshaft profiles were
softer, again to improve reliability.
The cylinder
block benefited from strengthened walling. Also unique was
a Lotus designed oil-to-water gearbox oil cooling system.
Braking was 4 pot AP front and Brembo 4 pot rear on ventilated
disks. The driving position was central, the same as the original
one make race series cars. The Endurance Elise was also fitted
with a fast fill fuelling system and additional fuel tanks
to extend duration up to two hours and even benefited from
built in compressed air jacks.
In a field
of cars dominated by 6 cylinders and turbo chargers the 4
cylinder normally aspirated Elise was an unlikely contender,
however in usual Lotus style it was compensated for by the
lightweight alloy chassis.
Signs
of wheel bearing wear and possible failure during qualifying
dictated replacement with larger diameter Mitsubishi Evolution
bearings and purpose machined hubs carried out by ex Spice
Engineering staff at Black Box Racing.
Driven
by Kenjiro Katagiri, Hiroshi Hashizawa and Takahiko Hara the
car was forced to finish on lap 51 due to a timing belt failure,
but nevertheless showed the capability of what might other
wise be considered a wildcard entry.
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