So last week I finally blatted up to Dave Walker's rolling road at Watton in Norfolk (tel. 01953 889110) to find out the truth. Dave's reputation for re-mapping the K-series using his own Emerald ECU into a smoother, more powerful re-incarnation of the lumpy, popping, farting original VHPD is second to none. And as Dave will be setting our car up again once the mechanical work has been carried out, it seemed the sensible thing to do.

With the car strapped down for the power runs, Dave closes the workshop doors and powers up the industrial-sized air-conditioning unit that stabilises the temperature by supplying masses of chilled air into the sealed room.

With ear defenders on, it's time to make a few exploratory runs to get a feel for the engine before one full-power blast up to the rev-limiter in fourth. Before we start, Dave warns me that the engines he has tested never get above 190bhp, but I watch the read-out closely, fully expecting my engine to get close to the 192bhp at 7800rpm that Lotus used to promise.

Dave's experience tells and the read-out stops at a mere 181.7bhp at 8012rpm, 10bhp less than claimed. Torque is nowhere near where it should be either at 134.8lb ft at 6576rpm (Lotus quotes 146lb ft at 5000rpm). I'm a bit shocked by the results, to tell the truth, but I knew it wasn't going to be good news as soon as I saw how much black smoke was blasting out from the exhaust during the power run - a pointer to the dreadful standard engine mapping of a VHPD causing the engine to be 'over fuelled' on full load.

What's promised after all the changes have been carried out is an engine producing around 195bhp, a smooth idle, no popping and farting on part throttle and a revised rev limit up around the 8200rpm mark. I can't wait.