Pedigreed PerfectionistsWe say you get a better rib-bruising, calf-trembling, blister-forming driving beatdown in the Lotus Elise and Mitsubishi EVO MR than any other four-wheeled vehicles for sale in the United States, dollar for dollar. Vastly different in proportion, style and mechanical arrangement, they are similarly abusive to notions of limits. They are in the same price park, but as discrepant in pure sex appeal as Monica Bellucci and Martina Navratilova.
The Elise's taut fenders, slung with sinuous strakes, radiate from a chassis extruded from Colin Chapman's vision of mechanical ambrosia. The MR is like a chisel-angular, mechanical and wears its purpose without ostentation.
Grandma could drive an EVO packed with fellow blue hairs and a trunk full of walkers to Denny's with nary an "oh dear," but she'd compromise her colon just thinking about the yoga required to climb into an Elise. These are very different cars. But, in the enthusiast world, they serve a common purpose: providing driving pleasure above all else. And both do so with unique and engaging character.
Weakness is not a word that enters descriptions of either, so can they be made better? Can the aftermarket best the solutions proffered by scores of O.E. engineers intent on creating the best driver's cars on the market? The aftermarket thinks so. We might agree. This month, you find out.
Forcedfed EliseThe Forcedfed turbocharged Elise sits in dappled light. Shadows obscure its details, but its lithe form and compound lines betray an awesome store of dynamic energy. The audacity, we think as we approach, to fuss with blessed simplicity. How do you improve on perfection? How do you make better a blissful, unfettered driving experience without compromise or negative consequence?
Forcedfed, based in Livermore, Calif., set out to grow the Elise's already considerable performance envelope: to make it faster, grip more tenaciously, decelerate with greater fervor and fight even harder to be the best piece of metal you've ever strapped to your ass. Forcedfed succeeded. And despite all doubt, we find not compromise, but genuine improvement everywhere.
We won't regale you with tales of pitching the car over blind, off-camber crests or sliding it toward apexes of slick, decreasing-radius turns. Those tales didn't happen. Such heroics are unnecessary, even foolish in a car whose limits are on the flat, rightmost portion of the bell curve that forms your frame of reference.
The point is you don't have to drive like a ham-fisted dipshit to receive the spiritual benefits of linking turn to vista to sweeper to euphoria. This car will generate as much grip as you have huevos. A bingo hopper doesn't have enough balls to slide it on the street.
The impressive 105 hp per liter produced by the Toyota 2ZZ-GE has much to do with its 11.5:1 compression ratio, high enough that a drink from the wrong fuel nozzle will generate more knocks than a hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Forcedfed blows gently, then, with an intercooled turbo kit that makes 7 psi of boost.
The heart of this system is the most appropriately sized turbo we've seen strapped to a "tuner" car. The Garrett GT28R ball-bearing turbocharger is ideally matched for this engine and powerband. This little guy throws out 7 psi of boost from 2600 rpm all the way to the 8400-rpm redline, where boost tapers to just below 6 psi, meaning full boost is available for an astounding 5800 rpm.
The operator of the dyno to which the Forcedfed Elise was strapped was unfortunately tricked by its tachometer, where fractions of an inch separate the first 3000 rpm, and didn't start measuring until that point, thus the discrepancy on the dyno chart. Rest assured the car is making full boost and more horsepower and torque than stock before that figure.
The equal-length tri-Y stainless-steel exhaust manifold to which the turbo is mounted is TIG-welded sex, with jewel-like execution. Exhaust exits through a 3-inch downpipe, high-flow catalytic converter and 3-inch stainless exhaust system.
Sacrificial oxygen molecules are carefully harvested. A sealed aluminum intercooler duct routes fresh air through a compact intercooler core that can support 400 hp. Mounted to it is a dedicated puller fan assembly with an electronic thermostat.
Also supplied with the turbo kit is a modified oil pan with trap door baffles to ensure the pickup is submerged in oil, regardless of lateral loads. The pan's capacity was increased by a full quart and it was tapped for the oil return line. The stock fuel pump can deliver enough juice, but the injectors were upgraded to 550cc units controlled by a Unichip plug-and-play piggyback ECU.
We're surprised the stock radiator remains, given the difficulties experienced by other Elise tuners who stuffed the engine compartment with Honda power. We could not, however, get this engine to register any temperatures on the digital dash readout north of those produced by the stock car, even as we pounded out pass after pass in quarter-mile testing. An ACT heavy-duty pressure plate and street/strip organic disc holds up fine to our dragstrip abuse without slipping, while providing perfectly civil engagement.
Power delivery is stupendous, negating the motivational deficit south of the arrival of the big cam at 6200 rpm on the stock Elise. At 4000 rpm, the Forcedfed Elise makes more power than the standard machine at 6500 rpm.
Torque is a word without place in any discussion of the stock Elise's charm, but the Forcedfed turbo kit engraves it on page one of its playbook. The turbo Elise will pull from idle without complaint, making a maximum of 49 lb-ft more than stock. If these numbers sound small, remember the whole power-to-weight thing and do the math. The more you drive the Forcedfed Elise, the shorter you hold each gear, finding that it's plenty fast even when short shifting at 6000 rpm.
The extra 78 hp and 49 lb-ft of torque push the car to a 12.5-second quarter-mile time at 114 mph. The mid-engine layout and big tires help produce the traction-limited 4.4-second 0-to-60 time. We won't deduct points for minor driveability issues, as the Forcedfed crew was sleepless getting the turbo kit mounted for our test, and we think the problems are solvable with quality time behind the keyboard.
If you insist on ascribing a negative byproduct to the growth of its straight-line machismo, you could argue the Forcedfed car is less involving than a stock Elise, requiring less work behind the wheel to go fast. You no longer have to keep the aluminum to the aluminum on every uphill section, hoping to build up enough speed to take advantage of the stock Elise's significant limits.
You can also better live the adage, "Better slow in and fast out, than fast in and dead out." Yardsticked against our other favorite, the EVO, the boosted Elise is more cerebral and less aerobic. To drive up a mountain pass in a stock EVO as fast as you can in this Elise at a restrained trot, your legs and arms would flail at the controls in self-preservation like a chimp with a shock collar strapped to his nads.