Considering an Evora S

I was here a few months back after driving an Exige & Evora, considering a purchase. Since then, the sun came out (briefly) & a Caterham made sense instead. However, I’ve now sold a 996 Turbo that I had & have gone full circle landing back looking at Evora’s. I drove a n/a car last week & loved it. I don’t want to spend 400 onwards money, so thinking an S makes sense, as would like a bit more go than the n/a car & I like the look of the older cars. Will Blackham has a grey car coming in soon that I hope to see (have been in touch with him). I know to check the trim, gear change etc. The n/a car I saw was peppered with stone chips everywhere - is this to be expected? Any advice welcome. Thanks

IPS falls into the lower bracket.

Fantastic cars, some prefer the looks and slightly softer S1 Evora rather than the more focussed S2/400 models. Don't rule out the N/A either - I went with a well-specced NA over a lower-spec S and I found 285bhp to be plenty on the road.

I've got a 14 plate S1 Evora S Sports Racer (also one of the few grey/black ones), and the road tax is £565/year. It does slightly annoy me that it's that high every time the bill drops on the doormat (especially as I only do about 2000 miles a year in it), but they're very cheap to run apart from that. I've been lucky enough to own various Porsches/Lotuses (Loti?), and overall the running costs of the Evora have been really low compared to other cars of its performance I've owned. They don't seem to depreciate which helps!

I also get bored of cars fairly quickly and I've had the Evora pretty much from new while other cars have come and gone, and while I keep thinking of selling purely for a change I just can't think of anything to replace it with (other than an Emira maybe!), so I'd certainly recommend one. Happy to answer any questions about ownership if it helps.

Thanks for responding. Good to hear such positive things from owners - apart from road tax charges, but that’s just unfortunate as the age of the cars fall within the bracket where it’s expensive. My 996 Turbo pumped out a lot more high emissions than an Evora, but being 2002 was £345 a year. With any of these cars, there’s always the risk of a big bill coming along, but won’t be worse than Porsche - I had new spoiler lift rams fitted early this year - £2.5k!

I’m not too far from Newbury, welcome to come and see mine. Not sure if you’ve spoken to Jamie at Bell and Colvill? He was great when I bought mine, spent ages with me, gave me the keys and let me try it on my own. Really great service.

Thanks P.A , will take you up on a meet and chat. Being the wife is 5ft 1 on a low gravitational day, she struggles a bit. The Elsie we had, we had a Lotus booster. The Westfield she could, no problem, the beemer she has a booster. She has tried a new MX5 and its fine, but however good they are, just not special enough in my eyes, however 20th wedding anniversary next year, I may have to cave in on that anyway.
We did try an Exige and Elise the other day and truth be known, we arent that flexible or athletic now or onwards to consider regular entry/ exits with finesse, hence why the Evora has come up. It could be off the radar if she doesnt fit TBH, but the Evora fits in the garage, has more presence than the Z4 and would be good to be in a Lotus again. I feel it would be a better car for distance and touring as well than the Exige or Elise.
Looking at B&C website, doesnt show really much in the way of stock, so didnt want to waste time heading that way. I have been there with my Elise and bought bits and seemed a decent enough place.

To answer Paranoid Android's request a couple of days ago (apologies - busy weekend), here's my grey SR. I was told very few were made in grey, and several of the ones that were were retained by Lotus for a bit for their use. This one's first owner was Lotus Cars who had it for a year or so until I got it. Sadly it's in storage at the moment while my garage is being rebuilt.

Looks great, snap! There are 4 S1’s in this colour.

I didn't know there were only four grey ones. Any idea of the split between S/non-S and autos/manuals?

I guess the fact there are so few around means we're either members of a super-exclusive and desirable club, or we were the few mugs that bought a car in a colour nobody else wanted

Personally I think the colour really suits it, although its definitely a bit of a love/hate shade. I think it's the same colour Audi use on some of their RS models?

Thought I would just bring this back to life. Having quit my job and having a couple of days to chill before starting a new one. The wife and I went to Silverstone Lotus today. We wanted to try an early and later car, see the differences etc . Met Aimee as well, who was kind enough to just say help yourself. We had a mooch round the early black auto car there, but I dont want an auto, which may explain why it has been there a while. Wasnt a great example as well , in my fussy eyes. We had a later 400 blue car, which I thought was lovely. Silver powder coated alloys means no lacquer peel. Wife wasn't as keen, as she preferred a silver grey 400. It has a black roof. Its bloody lovely . Its 20k above where I wanted to spend, but it has black powder coated wheels, 11k on the clock and is a 2018 car. Has PPF on the front, not any real marks on it and is known by them since new. We preferred this car also over the earlier cars for the body updates and less sill to get in. In fact is is very much the same leg in as my current Z4 Coupe. Internally was pretty mint and the dashboard seemed nicer than the early cars too.
Now the burning question on if the wife can drive it ? Er.................. no, she can't, without a booster cushion. But she doesn't like silver cars either. She has actually changed her mind on that, as she thinks its awesome.
So, budgets. Yup, tough one. We have the daughters wedding next year, which we are contributing to, which is priority. I am sure the coupe will go easily , so leaves me with about 48k to find. Sheesh...................... Sofa is cash free but fluff filled. I have a plan and not always do they work. I also measured the garage out and currently will fit with the rear bumper against the workbench and 25mm front clearance to the door !!