All Carbon-Fiber Lotus Elise is One-of-a-Kind

All Carbon Fiber Lotus Elise

TW Auto Limited of Hong Kong took six months to make carbon fiber car for Chinese customer

By Alex Ricciuti
January 15, 2009 5:46 PM
Filed Under: European, Lotus, Tuners

Carbon fiber saves a lot of weight and is increasingly used in performance cars. But making a whole car out of carbon fiber may just end up being a tad too expensive. But someone has given it a go anyway.

Pictured here is a 2002 Type 72 JPS Lotus Elise built (or re-built?) to order for a Chinese customer by TW Auto Limited.

The Hong Kong based TW Auto has completely replaced both the interior and exterior with customized raw carbon fiber panels. The weight saved on the already feather-ous Lotus Elise? 66 to 88 pounds (or about 40 kg).

Additionally, the diet also included a lighter KW suspension, Lotus Racing exhaust, JP Racing wheels, as well as bigger air intake and air filter.

The re-working of the Elise took a whole 6 months for TW to complete for customer Jimmy Wong.

No details on cost were made available.

Source: carbonfibergear.com via jalopnik.com

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Comments

Joe_Limon

January 15, 2009 6:29 PM

So now it weighs 1900lbs?

_M7_

January 15, 2009 6:50 PM

OOOHHHHHH sh*** this is a nice news, its rare to find somthing good and make it better.

GRAVE

January 15, 2009 6:52 PM

lighter weight mean better performance. but took them a whole 6 month to complete this car! man, how could he stay patient al these months lol

dvangar

January 15, 2009 7:58 PM

it seems to me its just a Foliatec film on the outside http://www.worldcarfans.com/9080612.007/foliatec-sets-world-record-film-fitting-time-on-audi-r8 by looking at the tail lights, but the interior could be the 40 kg saving raw carbon parts

Bremen_Koenigsegg

January 16, 2009 8:07 AM

It looks like carbon fiber to me...

joshg_5

January 15, 2009 8:55 PM

That's reallly cool. But wouldn't it have been a better investment if he had put that much time/money into some performance mod's instead? A lot of work for 80lbs. Most people could loose that weight off their bodies! ha

Xanavi23

January 15, 2009 10:05 PM

well, lighter weight increases top speed, acceleration, handling braking and fuel mileage. So while more power is always awesome, Lightweight works accross the board.

joshg_5

January 15, 2009 8:58 PM

Wicked, very creative!

But from a monetary standpoint, a lot of work for 80lbs!

Wouldn't it have been a better investment of time/money to have just done performance mod's?

A lot of the people who drive those cars could (and should) loose that much weight off their body's! haha

muellr

January 16, 2009 11:45 AM

oh boy! how many poor Chinese workers will have to suffer lung cancer because of that hand labor on carbon? on the other hand how awesome is the base of the real car! plus you can easily recycle aluminum which is not true for carbon fiber at all..

Xanavi23

January 16, 2009 9:53 PM

Ya but CF doesn't need to be recycled, its not a natural ore from the earth that can be depleted like Aluminum.