I was driving my 1988 Lotus Esprit this past weekend and the transaxle pretty much gave up the ghost. The transaxle is a Citroen C35 transaxle....normally goes in a Citroen delivery van. Not a good transaxle for anything that will do over 60mph on the freeway.
I was contemplating engineering an Audi transaxle adapter plate but then got to thinking....why am I sticking with the turbo four banger? And, having to deal with all the trouble of engineering an adapter plate (Audi to Lotus)...
Screw it. I'll put in a SBF with an 016. It looks like there's plenty of room in there for a SBF. Probably would be best to go with injection....although, 4 IDAs sticking up through the engine cover (visible under the rear hatch glass) would raise a few eyebrows.
I'm thinking a basic 331 stroker with good alloy heads and forged internals would do it nicely. I have a stillborn flat crank SBF project on the shelf but that's likely Phase 2 of the project.
I can get an 016 configured with an LSD and strengthening kit for about $1,000 bucks. The 331 should be around $5K, with injection another 2K. My '88 has inboard rear brakes so I'll have to get some later rear uprights with the brake ears...another $1K with all necessary bits....Kennedy kit. So I guess the budget for this is about $10,000.
It's going to be slow....busy job and four kids doesn't leave a ton of time. But I'll start it this winter and maybe have it ready by end of summer 2015.
Should be quite a car. Wish me luck.
ps. won't be quite like this, but should be pretty fast: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8lA8_QSRA[/ame]
I was contemplating engineering an Audi transaxle adapter plate but then got to thinking....why am I sticking with the turbo four banger? And, having to deal with all the trouble of engineering an adapter plate (Audi to Lotus)...
Screw it. I'll put in a SBF with an 016. It looks like there's plenty of room in there for a SBF. Probably would be best to go with injection....although, 4 IDAs sticking up through the engine cover (visible under the rear hatch glass) would raise a few eyebrows.
I'm thinking a basic 331 stroker with good alloy heads and forged internals would do it nicely. I have a stillborn flat crank SBF project on the shelf but that's likely Phase 2 of the project.
I can get an 016 configured with an LSD and strengthening kit for about $1,000 bucks. The 331 should be around $5K, with injection another 2K. My '88 has inboard rear brakes so I'll have to get some later rear uprights with the brake ears...another $1K with all necessary bits....Kennedy kit. So I guess the budget for this is about $10,000.
It's going to be slow....busy job and four kids doesn't leave a ton of time. But I'll start it this winter and maybe have it ready by end of summer 2015.
Should be quite a car. Wish me luck.
ps. won't be quite like this, but should be pretty fast: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8lA8_QSRA[/ame]
Attachments
-
108.3 KB Views: 599
-
170.3 KB Views: 1,659
-
177.5 KB Views: 1,456
-
121.9 KB Views: 659
-
155.6 KB Views: 681
Last edited: