Zack's Lotus Exige S left handed shifter project

[l0wb00st]

Hey guys. Been a while. I bought a new car in February, so here's a small novel and some pictures. The car is a 07 Lotus exige S. It uses a Toyota 1.8L with a small roots blower. Not much power but it weighs just over 2000lbs.

I was in a motorcycle accident about 10 years ago and lost all movement in my right arm. Because of this it's a real hassle to drive left hand drive manual cars. I bought the exige because they have very wide sills on the interior.The car uses a Celica trans that's cable shifted so I had the idea to mount a shifter on/in the left sill for me to use with my lift hand instead of reaching over myself to shift. I found a local fab shop that was 100% confident they could do the shifter, so i bought the car. After having the car for about a month, the shop decided that they couldn't do the shifter. So I'm now trying to figure out a solution myself. If anyone is interested in helping/ taking the project let me know!

I've done a few minor cosmetic changes to the car (taillights, carbon pieces, etc) but don't have much of a plan to add power as it's not really a straight line car to begin with. I've got a new set of wheels and tires on the way as well so I'll add more pictures as I get them. Let me know what you guys think!

Click to read more...

 

[Mook]

holy crap, there is NOTHING to that interior

ive always loved the look of these...in yellow, its so so sexy.

i'm willing to bet with the minds we have on this site, someone could figure something out for you.

 

[l0wb00st]

Yeah it's pretty bare bones to say the least hahaha. I wasn't sure about the yellow until I saw it in person. I've got a few ideas for the shifter I'm just not sure if they'll work

 

[10sec]

Name your ideas so we can get an idea of what you're thinking. Do you know what's underneath the huge ass sills?

Awesome car though, I've always loved these and I am not a fan of yellow and that car pulls it off damn well. Probably one of 3 cars I like in that colour. Are you going to track it at all? I was chasing an S at Gingerman raceway in my s2000 and it was pretty damn fast. The TQ and the weight of it just rocketed out of the turns.

 

[Blood on Blood]

Very nice!

 

[JimmyGT]

Always through these were sharp looking cars! Very cool!

 

[The Beast]

Nice car I never knew it was a 1.8 Toyota under the hood.

 

[l0wb00st]

Name your ideas so we can get an idea of what you're thinking. Do you know what's underneath the huge ass sills?

Awesome car though, I've always loved these and I am not a fan of yellow and that car pulls it off damn well. Probably one of 3 cars I like in that colour. Are you going to track it at all? I was chasing an S at Gingerman raceway in my s2000 and it was pretty damn fast. The TQ and the weight of it just rocketed out of the turns.

Definitely planning on getting the car on track eventually. I haven't been on a track in any car in 5 or so years.

So underneath the sill is the frame
(Extruded aluminum frame pieces bonded together) as well as a small amount of open space. There's more open space the further towards the front of the car that you go as the sill gets wider towards the front of the car. I don't want to cut or notch the frame, and there isn't more than maybe 3" of open space between the frame and the outside of the sill at the widest point. So I dont think there's room to fit anything next to the sill, but there should be enough room to run the cables towards the back of the car and I believe there is already a place to route them. So I think whatever shifter I use will probably have to go on top of the sill. The problem with that is that the car is very small and I can't get out of the car with an entire shifter mechanism on top of the sill. So I'm thinking of bonding a base plate to the top of the frame (under the plastic of the sill) and use some sort of quick release mechanism so I can get in and out of the car. I added a picture of a drawing for the riser plate.

So we still need a shifter mechanism. My thought was to use something existing already if i can rather than trying to build an entire shifter mechanism. The lotus uses a Celica gts 6 speed cable shifted trans. From what I've seen, most cable shifters in cars use a shifter similar to the picture I added. That's from an evo X. It has the front/ back cable attachment at the bottom, below the pivot point. And it uses an L bracket kind of arrangement to change the left to right movement of the shifter to a forward/ back movement on the side to side cable. The lotus is odd in that the connection for the front to back cable is connected above the pivot point, not below, changing the direction the cable is moved. So this narrows the available options for shifters unless I can rig up something that mirror images the cable movement. Overall height is an issue as well as the amount of total movement side to side that the shifter has. I added 3 pictures of an aftermarket shifter for an Elise/ exige. Circled in green is the front/ back cable connection. Circled in blue is the side to side cable connection. Circled in orange is the "cable block" mount. Take this shifter, and make a new mounting plate for it. The mounting plate sits on top of the riser plate and is attached with quick releases. I'm thinking something like these:

Quarter-Turn - Stainless Knob & Shank - Fixtureworks

www.fixtureworks.net

Then I would need a way to make the cables attach/ detach on quick releases (not sure of how to do that yet) maybe something like this:

Snap-In Fasteners - Fixtureworks

www.fixtureworks.net

And then a couple of pins similar to these to release the cable block:

17-4 Stainless Shank - Aluminum Handle (Metric) - Fixtureworks

www.fixtureworks.net

The cables and block detach from the shifter. The shifter detaches from the riser and the whole shifter moves out of the way leaving only the cables and cable block. Giving me enough room to get in/ out. The cables can run through the sill, around the wheel well up to the trans. The current cables run straight back from the shifter in the center of the car. Go under the engine and trans and then loop up to the top of the trans.

Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[RedBeard]

Such a beautiful car, and I love that color!

 

[10sec]

I am pretty sure your idea is a plan that will work out pretty damn well. Not really sure how I could improve on that.

 

[IDAFC21]

You've always had some great taste in cars this is awesome.

 

[Mook]

Bumping this for work crew.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

holy crap, there is NOTHING to that interior

ive always loved the look of these...in yellow, its so so sexy.

i'm willing to bet with the minds we have on this site, someone could figure something out for you.

I may be thinking of the Elise but I'm pretty sure Lotus stopped importing into the US because they wouldn't put air bags into their vehicles. Lotus is very much an "everything you need nothing you don't" car design philosophy wise.

 

[Lead Pipe]

I've sat in this car. Just a fun fact.

 

[l0wb00st]

I am pretty sure your idea is a plan that will work out pretty damn well. Not really sure how I could improve on that.

Thanks! I've gotta do some measurements and double check some stuff but I thought it was a pretty decent idea

I may be thinking of the Elise but I'm pretty sure Lotus stopped importing into the US because they wouldn't put air bags into their vehicles. Lotus is very much an "everything you need nothing you don't" car design philosophy wise.

They stopped with the Elise/ exige in 2011 because of some requirements they didn't want to conform to. Can't remember what it was, but I know my exige has an airbag for the driver and one for the passenger.

I've sat in this car. Just a fun fact.

Did you sit in it yet? My memory is shit hahaha You and cam squeezed in there together would be pretty hilarious though

 

[Dan00Hawk]

Is importing a RHD model from Britain out of the question?

 

[l0wb00st]

Is importing a RHD model from Britain out of the question?

Importing an entire car is out of the question at the moment since it isn't old enough to be imported legally. I could do a RHD swap but I didn't really want to do that. I have a rhd car and while it's fun, it's a huge pain in the ass sometimes. Mix that in with a small car with terrible blind spots and no rear view mirror and it just becomes more of a hassle than it's worth. If I can get a left handed shifter that would be the best option

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Looked it up, it appears they didn't have "smart" air bags that change deployment with impact speed. If you can do the LH shifter awesome. That'd be a really neat add. Maybe you should look at some of the paraplegic stuff? Not sure if it's electrically made or mechanically made but they had a "joy stick" to control the vehicle.

 

[RAM-ROD]

That drawing looks so damn familiar. ??

 

[NOMIEZVR4]

THere is a magician by the name of turbojoe out in the south burbs. Look him up, he can fabricate ANYTHING.

 

[95SC]

Pretty cool little toy , congrats

 

[Eagle]

Skimmed over the thread, see that you're fabbing a cool shifter for obvious reasons, and totally agree with most that the car is SEXY and should definitely be fun.

What's the plans for it long term?

 

[l0wb00st]

Skimmed over the thread, see that you're fabbing a cool shifter for obvious reasons, and totally agree with most that the car is SEXY and should definitely be fun.

What's the plans for it long term?

Thanks! I wanted something fun that I could drive most days in the summer because the evo breaks every other time I drive it haha I'll probably do a track day here and there with it as well.

I actually came up with the idea for a left hand shifter before I decided on the Elise/ exige. I initially wanted to buy a new gt350 and make a left handed shifter. But converting from a cable shifter to a linkage mechanism on the trans and fitting the shifter in the car made it pretty much impossible. I started looking for other cars and then remembered how wide the sills are on an Elise/ exige and figured it would be a perfect candidate for a left hand shifter. I actually tried to get my dad to buy an Elise when they came out in 05 because I was like 17 and couldn't buy my own. Now I get to own one and i'm trying to convince him to buy a ford GT

 

[l0wb00st]

I Also added some supplemental air to the intercooler with some mini scoops behind the carbon ones. The stock roof scoop doesn't actually grab much air, especially with the roof off so i figured this would be something that could easily fix that

 

[l0wb00st]

I thought this was mildly hilarious. The odometer reset button stopped working on the lotus. Lotus wanted $105 for a new OE button. It's a simple, cheap, shitty little momentary contact button. 2 wires, couldn't be more simple. So instead of buying a $105 button, I had a "$105" button made out of billet (and shipped from Australia) for $45.

Pic of stock button for reference