Aerobat's Evora Project

[aerobat]

Here's the intentional current status of my Evora S.   Just a little project before summer really settles in.  Only the doors and a portion of the rear clam will remain .....

[aerobat]

Further progress, showing removal of the front bumper, new wider wishbones, and progressive rate lowering springs.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Bibs

[TheKevlarKid]

Your building yourself a GTE... those are all the factory revised wishbones and damper spacing mounts!!

Edited April 6, 2016 by Bibs

[JayEmm]

That's a nice garage.. I can see a Lambo SV and a Ferrari F355 in those pics. Can't identify the orange thing

[Bibs]

Ginetta?

[JayEmm]

It's their kind of colour...

[aerobat]

4 hours ago, JayEmm said:

That's a nice garage.. I can see a Lambo SV and a Ferrari F355 in those pics. Can't identify the orange thing

Hi guys.   Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing.   I'm taking my Evora S, and trying to turn it into a GTE.   It's the full carbon fibre kit from the Lotus OEM, plus the Komo-tec 460 hp upgrade.   It will even be road legal here with the centre-locking wheels.    For better or worse, I've been inspired by the Swizz Beatz look, so it will be wrapped in chrome red.   Stay tuned!

The shop that is doing the work is 200 miles from where I live, but specializes in after-market work on high end exotics.  The green machine is a Gallardo.   

The orange car is a one-off, highly modified Maserati MC 12.

More of those kind of pics at his website:  www.zrauto.ca   

[Bibs]

1 hour ago, aerobat said:

I've been inspired by the Swizz Beatz look

Therapy is available

 

[TheKevlarKid]

7 hours ago, aerobat said:

Hi guys.   Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing.   I'm taking my Evora S, and trying to turn it into a GTE.   It's the full carbon fibre kit from the Lotus OEM, plus the Komo-tec 460 hp upgrade.   It will even be road legal here with the centre-locking wheels.    For better or worse, I've been inspired by the Swizz Beatz look, so it will be wrapped in chrome red.   Stay tuned!

The shop that is doing the work is 200 miles from where I live, but specializes in after-market work on high end exotics.  The green machine is a Gallardo.   

The orange car is a one-off, highly modified Maserati MC 12.

More of those kind of pics at his website:  www.zrauto.ca   

Orange maserati for me please!

I don't think the original centre lock wheels will work with the new longer wishbones. That was the whole point of them, to get rid of the spacer they used on them to fill the arches out. It knackered the handling up and meant only two turns of lock with the centre lock spacers. 

[aerobat]

I guess I'll let you know .....   

[TheKevlarKid]

I have already done what you are doing above and converted a car to the longer wishbones.

If you're using the Mansory centre lock wheels and spacers (as used on the original GTE design), then the rears will work as they were made to fit with the std length rear wishbones, but the fronts will stick out 40mm+ each side what with you now using the longer modified front wishbones... 

The mansory wheels and centre locks were originally made to fit on the standard wishbones both front and rear, it was a cheap and easy way to widen its stance in order to fill out the GTE widebody arches.

There was a side effect to this though as it screwed up the front geo and handling (rear was okay), it also affected the amount of wheel lock. They had to put stops in each side of the steering rack to prevent turning the wheel more than one full rotation in each direction else the wheels would clatter into the wheel arch linings on full lock without them.

The factory not only had the new front wishbones made longer to make the car work and handle as it should but they also had a set of bespoke 5stud wheels made to mate up to the new wishbone and fit where they should properly...

Did you not buy the new lotus 5stud wheel set with the wishbones?

 

[Bibs]

I've split these posts out of the Evora picture thread as it deserves it's own topic (and was getting very mixed up in there!). 

[silverfrost]

Awesome project, and fair play to you for having the balls and the cash to pull apart a new car to put your stamp on it . A lot of respect for that . 

Really looking forward to this as it is not something you tend to see very often if at all !

[Danelaw]

I'd love to do this, but I'd need much deeper pockets than I currently have as I'd need to pay twice - once for the car and again in bribes to keep hwmbo happy.

Look forward to seeing more photos - it's like having the excitement of the project without the cost and worry!

[aerobat]

Thanks guys for all the input - I've forwarded your comments on to the shop doing the work.

The need for deep pockets certainly is becoming more and more apparent as time goes by.   And all because I love the looks of the GTE !    Komo-tec has shipped the supercharger upgrade, now we have to wait and see how long international shipping takes, and clearance through Canada Customs.   We keep asking over and over again about the CF body parts.   All we've heard is that the large parts have been fabricated, but they're still working on the small parts.

We are hoping against hope that this project can be completed by the end of April.   I will post updates as they become available.

[silverfrost]

One sentence John, you only live once.   Good luck with getting the rest of the bits through customs and looking forward to seeing the GTE body take shape.

[aerobat]

Thanks Dan !    

[Danelaw]

One thing about the Evora is that it also looks good without its skin, and that certainly can't be said of all cars. 

[JayEmm]

I recall a documentary on the making of the Elise (available on Youtube) where they showed the car for the first time at the show (Can't recall if it was the NEC or wherever), but they had a complete car and also the aluminium tub on display, and they reckoned the tub was what got more looks.

[aerobat]

It is very clean and impressive, isn't it?

[JayEmm]

On 3/25/2016 at 06:54, aerobat said:

 

I can't help but keep looking at this picture and seeing a McLaren. Maybe it's the shape left by the absence of headlights.

Are those two rads at the front for engine cooling or are they AC related? There's another rad in the middle, tilted, is that right?

[JAWS]

@JayEmm

The central tilted radiator is the standard one with an A/C condenser attached to it, plus two fans. The other two radiators either side, attached to the elephant ears are oil coolers. On pre MY12 Evora S's they are both directed to the engine on post MY12 a manual car has one cooler an IPS has two, one for the engine and one for the transmission.

[JayEmm]

Awesome thanks @JAWS.

I had bad memories of the 993 (911) having the AC rad in the front wheel arch, they always got clogged with lots of crap and fell apart.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

What happened to those extra GTEs that Stratton Motor Company were rebuilding?

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

On 08/04/2016 at 10:08, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

What happened to those extra GTEs that Stratton Motor Company were rebuilding?

Anyone?