Fun track day car - Exige S2, Elise S3 Cup or V6 Exige?

[five50]

So a decent supercharged S2 Exige is getting on for £30k or more for a later car with low miles. Likely to be at least 5 years old, in some cases 7 or 8.

You can get an early (2013) V6 Exige for £40k or a bit less.

Or you can get a brand new, main dealer, zero miles Elise 220 Cup with aero etc for under £40k.

So pretty limited price spread and I guess you could say, buy any of them and enjoy low depreciation.

Any thoughts on pros and cons? Would the new Elise Cup feel like a step on vs a S2 Exige? Will it depreciate more?

Would the S3 Elise / S2 Exige use meaningfully less consumables on track than the v6 given lower mass?

Is the heavy steering on the V6 a pain? Assume a geo could correct the track understeer that journalists complain about?

Interested in any thoughts...

[CTE]

Journalists are generally people who were good at english at school and can tell a story!
What track understeer?...as with any Lotus I have driven you can play with the attitude as much as you like. Significant tyre wear does upset the finely tuned geometry. The V6 car has more performance so will use more consumables. I would have thought the Elie cup will depreciate the most and therefore probably be the most expensive ownership experience. The V6 is a bit more of a brute of a car so depends what you prefer...personally the V6 every time.

[simpo555]

The following would do it for me and depreciation will be negligible

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/l...

[arcticGT]

I found my S2 Exige very tame at 220HP, especially at bigger circuits like Spa. At 270+ it was more enjoyable but the gearbox is getting close to its limits, so was always on my mind.

£2-2.5K will get you there in an S2 Exige, the Elise will need a bit more with charge cooling, factor in these additional tuning costs and the V6 seems a bargain buy.

[gashead1105]

I've got a V6 and I had an S2 exige for 4 years previous to the V6 which I gradually modified up to c270hp. The V6 is a better car than the S2 and I'm delighted with mine; however the S2 is lighter, better on fuel and seems to have stopped depreciating.

There's a chap on the lotus forums who has both a V6 and the 220 cup. He prefers the 220 cup as a track car, you can find his reasoning on there.

[dunc_sx]

I'd say lightness and simplicity makes the best track cars, look at the main trackday players (Caterham, radical etc) and you'll get the idea. A v6 is going to be heavier on consumables with the double hit of them being more expensive to replace also.

Dunc.

[alicrozier]

I'd say depends on the type of tracks you do.

Tight and twisty you'll have more fun in the 220 Cup, somewhere like Spa you're gonna want the V6.
V6 is so much more car but running costs to match.

Buy a 2-eleven for the best of both worlds and values only going up...
(need to budget extra for cans of 'manup')

[CABC]

you asked for 'fun trackday car', i'd avoid the V6 personally. It's a great car, don't get me wrong. However, the lighter cars are fun, light, agile and plenty powerful enough for UK tracks and will happily take on Spa or the Ring as well. The V6 needs big tracks like S'stone/Spa/Ring just to get into its stride. I prefer hunting down other cars and not always being behind waiting to be let past. So for me the V6 (and GT3s etc) is too fast as i can't afford to visit the Ring every month or hire tracks privately!

[logie1980]

If you were going for an Elise cup is there an argument to save 10k and go for an s3 Elise s? Will you have just as much fun?

[Porsche911R]

£28k on a 220bhp Charged cooled Elise CR would be the wise choice imo, and do tracks like Cadwell and donnington.