Lotus Elise, where less is more....

[TR6oldtimer]

A friend of mine just bought this car, at 1,480 lbs it is about 5 lbs/hp. Not much body left, yet still street legal in CA... It is like driving a 4 wheel motorcyle, what a hoot.

https://www.lotustalk.com/forums/1307056-post454.html

 

[jhorton3]

I don't think I've ever seen one of those before. How many were produced?

 

[TR6oldtimer]

The car started as 2005 Lotus Elise, then the PO began removing things until he got to a striped down street legal race car...

 

[jhorton3]

Wow, that's a lot of carving on a car! How did they stiffen the chassis after all that cutting? Reminds me of the Atom that Jeremy Clarkson drove. Face peeling acceleration.

 

[Roger]

Wow, that's a lot of carving on a car! How did they stiffen the chassis after all that cutting? Reminds me of the Atom that Jeremy Clarkson drove. Face peeling acceleration.

He wouldn't have to stiffen the chassis - it's a separate bonded aluminum chassis on the Elise, with a composite body. He has added / modified rollover bar and supports, though.

 

[TR6oldtimer]

The Atom became a part of his inspiration for his "lighter is better" quest. And Roger is correct, the body on this car does little more then provided aerodynamics and a comfort zone for the driver. The rollover bar is what is left from the original cage, with some obvious modifications.

One of the modifications I found interesting was the disc brakes? He had them scalloped (if the is the word), much like a petaled flower, similar to the one depicted on the right in the photo below. The modification was done to reduce rotating mass and increase heat dissipation.

 

[jhorton3]

That's the first time I've seen rotors scalloped. Drilled and slotted yes, but not this. Looks like by scalloping the surface area for the pads to clamp to would be reduced and making the them less effective.

 

[MadRiver]

Funky. Reminds me of the Elise 340R. I'm sure Colin Chapman would be most pleased with that power to weight ratio!

 

[Roger]

I'm not sure he wouldn't have been better off buying a 211, tho' that's not road-legal.

 

[tr8todd]

Here are some wild off the shelf scalloped rotors.
https://info.wilwood.com/RotorListLanding.aspx

 

[Super 7]

Wow

Thats only 390 lbs heavier than my '65 Super Seven... Of course it has a bunch more power.

 

[Super 7]

I think most sport bikes come with scalloped rotors.