A Huge Thanks To Essex Autosport

LIVY · June 23, 2012

I thought I'd share my experience of Essex Autosport.

After a good few years of my S1 being garage bound & gathering dust I decided to take the plunge & get it repaired but this time with something a lot more reliable & something that would give me the buzz I had when I first bought her.

So after trawling the forums reading lots of posts about conversions I decided to have an N/A Honda done & eventually settled on EA.

I gave them a long list of things to do & after eight weeks I collected her this morning. I can't thank Andy, Tony & the rest of the team for building me such a fantastic car.

Since picking it up I've spent all day driving everywhere just for the hell of it & I can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow, I just can't stop grinning.

The surprise on the bumper huggers faces when I pull away is priceless & it's even better when they take forever to catch up.

The engine is just amazing & feels so smooth, it's happy cruising along in sixth & eager to give you a punch in the back when needed. The Nitron Street Series & geo have transformed the handling & it feels better than it's ever done.

The attention to detail on the install is way beyond what I expected with loads of little things done without asking & all FOC as well.

The level of customer service from day one through to collection has been exceptional & the regular emails Andy sent with step by step photos of the work done just gave me bags of confidence that my car was in the best hands.

I know it's not cheap but if you are in the position to have this conversion done then go for it, you won't regret it.

I just wish I'd done it sooner. Suffice to say I'm one very happy customer

richbk · June 23, 2012

congratulations sounds epic.

like getting a new car.

would you be kind enough when you have some time( when your not driving) to drop me a pm with

a break down of what they did, plus prices, as im pondering going a similar route,

selling my S2 exige, getting an S1 elise to upgrade plus another fun car for commuting.

im sure whilst i'd enjoy the elise i would miss the power therfore an honda conversion would be high on my list to things to do

along with suspension, brakes, etc. etc

many thx.

richbk

p.s do you have any before / after shots??

Martin R · June 24, 2012

Rich, consider a Duratec as well before making a decision. I expect Steve Williams 250 bhp conversion goes quite well

richbk · June 24, 2012

Would sure consider alll options, the Elise would be even more of a Toy / track car and upgraded over time. I'm struggling to justify 18000 or so tied up in a car I drive 10/12 times a year so would be looking at keeping costs as low as possible whilst delivering the speed that would mean I didn't miss the push in the back the exige gives.

fentuz · June 24, 2012

Rich, consider a Duratec as well before making a decision. I expect Steve Williams 250 bhp conversion goes quite well

Martin, you know the only real good s1 swap is a good 1,9 kserie engine with independant TBs...

Martin R · June 24, 2012

Martin, you know the only real good s1 swap is a good 1,9 kserie engine with independant TBs...

I didnt say i would do it Bill. A 1.9K is the way forward if you like getting your hands dirty

MilesH · June 24, 2012

Welcome to the Honda club There are a small few of us on here with them fitted.

Your post reminded me of the first time I drove mine (over 5 years ago now), the grin is huge, and trust me you never getting tired of 8,600 rpm!

Would be great to see some pictures

Edited June 24, 2012 by MilesH

mambosasa · June 24, 2012

Welcome to the club!

The Hondas are bloody addictive. Enjoy and be safe.

Oh, we need pictures.

Bis.

MilesH · June 25, 2012

Out of interest how many of us Honda elise owners are there on MLOC?

Me

Bis

Dan

Steve J

Leigh (Dr H)

Edited June 25, 2012 by MilesH

mambosasa · June 25, 2012

Livy

Miles_hot

Laura · June 25, 2012

Great write up, sounds like you are certainly enjoying it so far - doubt that grin will ever go.

The guys at Essex Autosport are absolutely brilliant, saved our skins twice now at Spa and with the work they did for us on the Exige a few months ago it drives & feels better than ever, looking forward to getting to stretch its legs properly at LeMans in August

LIVY · June 26, 2012

Hi Guys

thanks for all the positive comments. I'll do a write up & post some pics soon, its been a busy start to the week so haven't had much chance but I'm heading down to Goodwood on Friday with Mrs Livy for the weekend so planning to do a mini road trip write up then.

It would be great to meet up with fellow Honda Elise MLOCers, if any of you are heading down to Goodwood it would be nice to put a faces to the names.

Believe me I feel like I know you all already with the amount of post reading I've done of the last year.

As with EA a lovely group of people. Andy had warned me of the VTEC bark and I wasn't quite prepared for it when it first kicked in..............I can't get enough of it

LIVY · July 10, 2012

Hi All

Well as promised here are the photos of the conversion and the final result.

Took a trip to Goodwood FOS and the car performed faultlessly even having to sit in traffic for nearly two hours on the journey down. I did notice that the revs were fluctuating from 1000-1500rpm and Andy at EA is looking into this for me but other than that I'm loving it and taking every opportunity to go for a drive even though the weather is crap.

I've added the pics to my gallery and added them below