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| A Mad Chef in Colorado Cooks Up an
Exotic Lotus By AdPix.Biz There is a wild man running free in the mountains of Colorado. So what else is new? This wild man is a car-tuner techno-geek genius, from Sweden, and he has created the world’s fastest Lotus. Wild genius or mad scientist might be more appropriate. Just don’t hum the Swedish Chef song around him (“ba DUp be Deeeeeeee Zee PUr DE dooo…Yurp! yurp! yurp!”) Johan Hybinette is one of those computer types that knows more electronic acronyms than anyone ever needs. He can connect your DivX to your Cat-5e while re-writing your FAT. He has an Internet-connected laptop (not just one of those weenie cell phones with a cute keypad) mounted in his giant diesel dually. He designs super-computer networks for a living up in the picturesque hills of Colorado. Johan also runs 2 companies: one computer manufacturing firm and another providing cyber security. But Johan still does not have enough to do, and we’re glad, because he applied his “Why Can’t I?” out-of-the-box thinking to one of the best sports cars ever made, a uniquely special exotic created by the wizardry of sports cars’ original genius out-of-the-box thinkers, Colin Chapman from Lotus. Chapman specified, for example, a steel “Y” frame in which the engine can be mounted lower, between the forks. The body is composite. It will not rust or rot and is extremely light-weight, as well as easy to repair. Around the “Y” frame Chapman incorporated suspension from F1 technology. Lotus was the world champion in the top levels of racing around the world. The Lotus 29 won the Indianapolis 500, Mario Andretti piloted his Lotus 79 to the 1978 World Championship. Jim Clark was World Champion in the Lotus 49. Lotus was the winning-est F1 team from 1960 to 1981.The Lotus Mark 9, Lotus Eleven and the Lotus 14 won at LeMans. Even the modest Lotus Cortina sedan won off-road rally’s, GT and road championships. Dan Gurney, Vic Elford, Stirling Moss, Graham Hill and Innes Ireland were among the giants that drove for Lotus. Lotus does not get enough credit for their engineering prowess. They (Chapman) invented a form of the MacPherson Strut suspension. They switched to rear-engined cars in 1960 with the Lotus 18. Their Lotus 25 was the first monocoque racing car. They invented the use of ground effects, multi-element wings, and side-mount radiators for race cars. Many of their innovations, such as four-wheel-drive turbine engine cars, one of which nearly won Indy, were banned from racing as being too good. Chapman had early fame with such ideas as his “wobbly wheel”, which looked quite ugly compared to the elegant wire wheels of the day. But Chapman understood the significance of “unsprung weight” early on. Do you see any wire wheels on race cars today? Formula cars are so homogenous these days you may not realize what an innovator Chapman was. Look at his early Lotus formula cars, such as the beautiful Lotus 49B, and compare it to the heavy, clumsy-looking cars it raced against. For road cars, Lotus invented Active Suspension and Active Anti-Noise technology. They were the first to use composite construction and hidden headlamps and pioneered multi-valve engines. Today, their Elise uses advanced aluminum and composite adhesive construction - a technology that makes the cars much stronger and lighter than anything else. The same technology that they will use for the new generation Esprit. Chapman unfortunately also came to be known for making his cars a bit too lightweight. Rumor has it that he felt a race car was too heavily built if it did not fall apart once crossing the finish line. Early Esprits, in fact, may have gone a bit too far. One had the rear suspension attached directly to the motor – a great idea in racing but far too bone-jarring for the road. This reputation unfairly tarnished Lotus, especially when the unreliable Lucas electrics were used. To Lotus’ credit, however, their engineers took Chapman’s best ideas and enhanced them, removing some negatives, and continued to massage the Esprit over its decades of development. Lotus has officially stopped Esprit production, but Johan is continuing as Chapman would, making it better and better in unique ways, without ruining a good thing. Despite seeing Johan’s smiling face driving this huge dually truck with antennas all over it and a snake’s nest of wiring inside, you, and every other vehicle on the road, are first drawn to what’s on his trailer – a bright yellow Lotus Esprit that looks menacingly serious, but for the loud black polka dots all over it. |
Once your eyes adjust to the
thermonuclear yellow paint and the crazy dots, you can
see this car is
actually very well done. Johan did not just put a bigger
turbo in it
and paste dots. There are not many after market parts for an Esprit. The Esprit is a well-balanced exotic package as is. So Johan had to customise most everything. Johan custom-matched the V8’s twin turbos and custom fabricated the intercoolers, along with the ECU unit that controls fuel mixture. He says it took weeks to crack the ECU “code”, but now he can get the maximum power, along with the impact he gets from propane and nitrous injection . Johan’s Esprit growls a little louder than most. It is a slightly more menacing sound. But it is not at all the rough knocking that one would expect from a car shoe-horned with this much power. Just the ECU modifications upped the stock 350 horsepower to around 450 horsepower. But Johan needed more. He replaced his water injection with propane. This injects at -400 F., reducing engine air intake temperature, raising boost to 20+ psi and increasing octane effectively to 140. He says it is also great for tailgate parties! (it vents excess vertically through the engine gills behind the driver [see photo]) Some “stock” items were determined sufficient: APEXi AVR-R Boost Controller and the APEXi AFC Fuel Controller. But he now needed more air intake, satisfied by custom engineering there, too, custom exhaust, and unique gearing ratios, which connect with Kevlar clutch and lightened flywheel. The end result of this mad-man’s recipe is, according to the dyno, 712 horsepower. And his Esprit still only weighs 2600 pounds. The body widened another 4 inches to accommodate the widest rubber he could get back there – 335/30 Pirelli tires (285/30 on the front) on Kinesis wheels. These tires are only shared by such contemporaries as the Lamborghini and Viper. He was able to slowly sculpt the flares outward from the doors. It is hard to tell it is not stock without looking down the side from the front. From the rear, especially with the custom rear air diffuser, it just looks like a really mean Esprit. Since Johan races this car he thoughtfully incorporated a 10-point welded roll cage, custom of course. It is just barely visible around the rim of the large sun roof. A built-in fire system, 6-point harness set, and kill switch add more safety as well. His master-chef electronic knowledge helped him cook up a controller unit that displays feedback from boost, TPS, knock sensors, RPM, duty cycle, and many more. Johan’s mad Esprit is quite the contender on the show car circuit, winning at NOPI and most regional events. But he also races it at the Silver State Challenge and the Bonneville Salt Flats, where it clocked 210.7 MPH at the radar and a ¼ mile in 10.9 sec. And the dots? Like Chapman, Johan does not get enough credit for his engineering prowess, either. It seems that there are some in the Lotus club establishment that, in their zeal for excising weight from their cars, cut out their sense of humor. Johan has this irreverent streak about him that is quite refreshing. Johan brings his car without pretension. Last year it had a “Taxi” light on it. “Yurp! Yurp! Yurp!” |
Performance: 1997 Lotus Esprit V8 twin turbo Twin custom intercoolers Twin HKS SSBOVs Twin reflowed turbos Custom racing cams Custom racing ecu APEXi AVC-R Boost Controller APEXi AFC Fuel Controller Propane Injection 100 shot Nitrous Injection Custom air intakes Custom geared transmission for high speed driving Kevlar Clutch Lightened Flywheel Larger Injectors Custom Exhaust System Exterior: Custom 4" widebody Custom rear diffuser Kinesis rims with 335/30 Pirellis rear and 285/30 front Custom Glasurite 3 part paint job Safety: 6 pt harnesses Automatic built in fire system Kill switch 10 point welded roll cage Interior Momo steering wheel Diamond plate floorboards Sony mx-1 hd player |