Interested in an Exige conversion with Audi 400ps/DSG

General Introductions
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Good morning
I was pointed here by a colleague in the Lotus Elan forum, looking for some help please!
I have an Elan+2 that has given me hours of love/hate enjoyment, but being a blinkered Audi RS3 fan for my day driver, I have rather let the newer Lotus models pass me by!
Yesterday though I saw an ad in Germany for a Lotus Exige with an “Audi 400ps DSG”. As this is the engine spec of an RS3, I of course pricked up my ears and wondered if in my years of ignorance, had Lotus done a deal with Audi and used the 5 cylinder engine - something that would have amazed me as Audi are reputed to have sworn that the 5 cylinder engine would never be used outside Audi!
Doing a bit of internet research, I see that Lotus never used Audi, but that Komotec are quite a prolific tuner in Germany and made many conversions, but so far I am unclear as to what powerplant they use.

My question therefore is, are the Komotec conversions well done and reliable, and what powerplant is used. If it is possible to get a car with the handling of an Exige with what is arguably the best engine and box of its type in the world, then I have to get going and make up for my years of ignorance of such machines being made!

Any comments will be well received, and may lead to a new Exige owner!
thanks, Hal

1 Like
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Komotec do many upgrades, but I have not seen them use an Audi engine, there was someone on Seloc a long time ago fitting a 5 pot Audi into an Elise, but I’ve not seen anything about it for a while.

I’m a great fan of the audi 5 pot had 4 of them over the 3 years, three RS3 and a TTRS :wink: not sure it won’t just be too heavy for an Exige though

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Komo Tec’s RS 400 used the EA888 4 cylinder engine + DSG, not the 5 cylinder from the RS3.

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Audi power.

No DSG - and there really is no reason to want a DSG in an exige or elise.

https://classifieds.seloc.org/ads/my-well-known-s1-elise-with-audi-engine/

Bob’s car is extremely well know and proven.

May be of interest as a stating point without all the usual conversion and registration hassles.

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I guess that was the car I bought.
The add was in Berlin for a Komotec converted S2 (what they call RS400).
But the engine wasn’t the EA888 but instead the much simpler EA113 (4 injectors against 8).
Still, with a 6 speed DSG, and 500Nm of torque, it made for a very rapid drive. The weight penalty was at around 40kg over stock (the car was weighed precisely by TUV).