1979 Lotus Esprit S2 + Chrysler Turbo

I was doing my weekly Lotus ebay search and came across this:

1979 Lotus Esprit S2 + Chrysler Turbo

I wonder how hard that would be to do with a SAAB 2.3 Turbo motor?

Lots Of Trouble, Unusually Silly?

Why not a newer SRT-4 motor?

saab would be better. If you go for an engine from the og 900, it lays over at a silly angle to keep the engine low

The 2.2 looks like the right vintage, tho. Someone buy it and bring it to Wisconsin and let me drive it.

the only way i would have an Esprit...

and talk like Sean Connery... "Anal Bum Cover"

At the time that was done, that was probably one of the most powerful engines that were cheaply available. If its stock you could still double the power without having to do much work.

Yeah, that Citroen gearbox is going to "love" dealing with the ~220 hp that the seller mentions (not that I believe it actually makes that much, probably more like 185), never mind a doubling of power. If I was modifying that engine to improve performance, I'd look to reducing lag and improving fuel economy, whatever those mods might be, and forget about adding more power to an already fragile situation.

Uh, it is a turbo 1, non intercooled. They started at 146hp and the intakes tended to "choke" up around 12-14psi.

The trick is that the 2.2 turbo makes a decent amount of low to midrange torque so it feels faster than it really is.

Next time, an Audi transaxle would be a better choice. The clutch splines are even the same.

Probably pulling the whole engine and replacing it with a common block 2.5 with 89 TII turbo, intake and electronics would be the best upgrade for that. The TII cars seem to get alot better mileage, and 175hp would be a nice improvement without making too many changes.