Dropping A BMW V10 Into A Lotus Elise Sounds Like The Stuff Of Legends

Stretching a Lotus Elise chassis to fit a proper big engine is nothing new but the fact that the car you see here was built by one man in his garage makes it a pretty crazy project.

Dustin Anthony, owner of Monivetti Automotive, decided he wanted a BMW V10-powered Lotus Elise and three years later, his dream car is about to become a reality.

Anthony worked on the project alone and that involved cutting in half the Elise’s chassis and pretty much design and fabricate a custom rear subframe in order for the E60 M5 engine to fit in. The car’s wheelbase is extended to 110 inches and the track is wider by 14 inches.

A Porsche GT2 six-speed transaxle transmission was bolted upside down to the engine via a custom CNC machined adapter plate and a custom clutch. Anthony also built a new body and created the electrical system from scratch, as well as designed and built new bespoke headlights.

Anthony says he has spent over $70,000 in parts and three years of hard labor and he certainly deserves all the praise he can get for his commitment. Stretching a Lotus chassis and giving it ridiculous power might be something we’ve seen before thanks to Hennessey but the fact that a single man did it by himself is simply astonishing.

This stretched Lotus has also passed Finite Element Analysis tests with Solidworks, ensuring that the chassis is safe and capable of handling the newfound power. Anthony plans to build more custom supercars through Monivetti in the future but until then. watch out for a screaming white beast filling people’s ears with angry V10 noises.