This Stretched, V10-Powered Lotus Elise Build Will Blow Your Mind

Some car guys dream bigger than others. You’re looking at a stretched Lotus Elise powered by the F1-derived 5.0-litre V10 engine from the E60-era BMW M5. We’re going to need a minute, over here, and possibly some fresh underwear.

This incredible build is the brainchild and work of Dustin Anthony, owner of custom supercar-builder Monivetti Automotive. Called the Monivetti Era, it’s effectively a prototype for a whole series of builds aiming to envisage Dustin’s perfect future. If it contains angry V10s stuffed into lightweight chassis, sign us up.

The story of the build is far too long and detailed for us to cover in a single news story, but the gist is that a red Lotus Elise was chopped out from the bulkhead backwards and lengthened. The whole rear of the car is now centred around a custom tubular space frame and a Porsche transaxle, not to mention the small matter of that whacking great V10 and a gorgeous Pagani-style high-level four-exit exhaust.

The build has lasted almost three years and involved a huge amount of engineering and re-engineering, both for the custom parts and making sure that the overall concept would function as intended. It already sounds stunning, as you’d expect - hit the video at the top if you haven’t already.

To give the platform the rigidity it needs, Dustin, who also owns an original Honda NSX, extended the tubular frame over the open cabin and gave the car a roof. Massive rear tyres handle the traction as part of a much wider rear track, and it looks to us like the front track is also wider, with fatter, larger tyres.

In case you’re wondering whether the whole thing will just disassemble itself the first time it’s driven in anger, fear not. Dustin says that everything designed and built for the car has passed Finite Element Analysis tests with Solidworks, a virtual laboratory for testing designs in real world-accurate ways.

The wider bodywork is all bespoke for this car. All-in, there’s over $70,000 in parts spend and around $200,000 worth of his time, Dustin says. The detail seems to be incredible, like the headlights he built from scratch along with the wiring and harnesses to mount and operate them.

There’s no forum build thread, as such, but you can follow the latest updates on the Monivetti Automotive Facebook page. Dustin tells us that there’s a proper promo video coming in the next month or two, and we can’t wait.