Note: This is the result of a bit of site neglect. It was written on a plane somewhere between Arizona and Virginia and is only being posted to satisfy my own ego. This is simply a representation of where my overworked mind was at the time.

The combination of work and summer in Phoenix has prevented anything interesting happening in the last few months. Out-of-state travel would be required for any track days and even then I would have to stay home for more than a week to make that happen. With a car so finely set up by the previous owner (limited-slip differential, lightened flywheel, ACT clutch, etc), there isn’t a whole lot that needs to be done to the car despite my desire to tinker a bit. One aspect that was killing me was the tires being used for daily driving and interstate travel. No one needs R-compound tires to get to work (or across state lines) and with that in mind I sourced a set of “base” wheels and tires on the Lotus forum for $500. While just sporting extreme performance summer tires as opposed to barely DOT-legal slicks, these tires will allow me to run guilt-free miles.

I have grand plans in mind for a supercharger project next year. As with any car with better handling characteristics than straight-line speed that acts as a daily driver, the mind begins to wander towards more power. When I owned the Miata I long fancied a supercharger kit based off the Jackson Racing MP45 setup originally intended for Civics and the like. At $3800 sans intercooler and only an additional 40whp it was probably in the running for most expensive forced induction kit factoring the horsepower per dollar. Regardless, it caught my eye. Reading various Miata.net posts detailing the problems people had, along with fully realizing my mechanical ineptitude, I vowed to never add forced induction to my daily driver. This will undoubtably require a sane, somewhat sensible car that will pull daily driver duties. As with the choice made last January, the cars in contention for a daily driver vary weekly. Two particularly fun weeks were deciding I didn’t necessarily need a 315hp Elise but just the stock setup and an Aston Martin V8 Vantage. They’ve tumbled in price lately and I wasn’t able to find many tales of woe from people using them as daily drivers. Right now though the (slightly more) sensible side has won out and I’ve decided something in the $15-20k range would suit my needs just fine. Lately the two choice I’ve been going between are the Mazda RX-8 and the BMW M3 (e46).

My last foray into the rotary world was troubled but interesting. I always thought I’d be back though, even if it meant a slightly boring alternative to the twin-turbo classic. I always thought the RX-8 was a bit underpowered for its chassis (and certainly its competition) but that was operating under the assumption that it was acting as an only car. With a supercharged Lotus in the wings, all of a sudden a four-seater 220hp rotary sedan doesn’t sound so awful. And before anyone complains, I don’t believe for a second the 13B-MSP makes 232hp. If you look at the various stock dynos posted on various sites, even 220hp seems generous. Never mind that though, it makes a wonderful noise, the shifter is fantastic and the interior is far nicer than anything at that price point has a right to be. The e46 M3 is under consideration as the 2002-2003 models are beginning to show up for 20k with 55-70k miles. While that’s a few more than I’d like, it’s hard to argue with an inline six that makes 333hp and revs to 8000RPMs.

Whether any of this happens will depend on a variety of factors which include intelligent minds being available for help (I’m a terrible mechanic), whether I’m still in Phoenix next year and of course whether my company is still willing to pay out the silly number of overtime hours I’ve come to expect. It should be fairly realistic to start shopping for a daily driver in late winter/early spring of next year and begin the install sometime in the summer (which makes perfect sense given the temperatures here in the summer).

To quote someone on LotusTalk.net in regards to why someone would want to supercharge an Elise or Exige, “The Elise looks like a supercar and accelerates like a BMW.” I’d like to change that.