240HP Honda Powered Exige

General General Lotus Talk
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quote:Originally posted by Phil Davies:…try and find a s/h 2.0L Civic Type R engine !! - probably be cheaper to ship one in from the US.I wonder if the Jap car importers could/would just bring an engine in?Ian [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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I paid 3900 UK Pounds for a 3000km CTR engine including gearbox, ECU and wiring. It will be installed in my Elise by the end of November if all goes according to plan. It is indeed not easy at the moment to find used Type R engines, but hopefully they will become more readily available as more Civic Type R’s are sold (and crashed…). Getting one from Japanese importers is probably the better option at the moment. The engine Joe uses is also not US spec, it’s an Asian import. The US doesn’t get the Type R (yet). They get the Type-S, which very likely has the same engine as what Honda installs in the European Civic Type R. Only difference is cam-cover color… The Asian Integra Type R (aka RSX Type R) has the 220hp K20A, we get the 200 hp version in our Civics. Joe is currently looking into what makes the 20hp difference and it’s not unlikely the necessary mods are quite simple. Cams and ECU remapping probably. Everyone is invited to visit me to get a taste of the quality of this conversion. I just returned from my visit to PrototypeRacing last week and i testdrove Joe’s Exige on California Speedway - believe me when i say this it the u l t i m a t e! Not only is the power delivery out of this world, but also the shifting mechanism is 100x better than the original. AND don’t forget it’s a 6-speed gearbox! My dream is about to come true… Who’s next? ;-)PJ

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Just had a quote from Handa dealer for S2000 engine + box (�6k+ v.a.t.) 240bhpCivic Type R (�4.5k + v.a.t.) 200bhpThis is rrp.save yourself a phone call.Phil GT

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I just recently bought a 200HP K20A2 on an E-bay auction for $3,000 (1,935 Pounds), that one was an exceptional deal. As PJ says, since this engine is so new, used examples are still quite rare, but as time passes they’ll become more readily available, and prices should come down accordingly. I’m going to use that engine as my naturally aspirated “Mule Motor” to do testing on, just to see exactly how much HP certain modifications produce, and how much they cost. I’ll be reporting all this on my website. www.prototyperacing.com My friends at Hondata, www.hondata.com have already got an additional 27 HP just by re-mapping the Honda ECU.This is pretty exciting, as we usually don’t see quite this much gain from simple map work. The price of the conversion kit will include at least one ECU modification. Honda’s immobiliser system is only compatible with the original car, so we’ve found a way to defeat that system, but what we’re looking to do is re-configure it to be compatible with the immobiliser system used on the Elise. No final answer yet, but I’ll keep you all informed. I’d cetainly be willing to source appropriate engines here in the US, and ship them to you in the UK. Ocean freight is relatively cheap, but how about import duty? Does anyone here know what sort of tarrif we’re looking at facing?

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Joe,I believe the customs info is as follows:Engine Duty = 4.2% (Commodity code = 8407349900)Gearbox Duty = 4.5% (Commodity code = 8708409000)Then VAT (@ 17.5%) is charged on top of that (it’s apparently the only UK tax that is charge on top of another tax). You should however be able to claim back any tax paid in the US.I’m not quite sure if the fact that the items are used makes any difference to the tax. It maybe worth checking with HMCE - http://www.hmce.gov.uk/. [Although knowing our weird laws it may even cost more!]Cheers, Ian [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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Hi IanIt’s not only the UK that deals with import taxes like that… NL is the same. Worse actually - 19% VAT… Tax is a killer!PJ

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Thanks Ian,I guess we’ll just have to de-value these items for the Tax Man. As long as we don’t over do it, that should work out quite well, considering the used nature of the goods.It’s a bit premature, but I just may have a ready source of engines in Japan. Import duty coming in to the US is only 2.5%!

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quote:Originally posted by Joe McCarthy:Import duty coming in to the US is only 2.5%!At the moment! If anybody tells Bush they’ve got bits of steel in them that’ll go throught the roof! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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Ian,LOL!!! Nothing that a$$hole does would amaze me! It seems to get worse every day.American foriegn policy has nearly always been a personal embarrassment to me, having been a victim of conscription in '68, and a survivor of that fiasco.