RE: PH Fleet Intro: Lotus Elise Sport 135

[chevronb37]

Good luck with running on shoestring. My car (a very pampered S1 Exige) is this week having:

Cam belt service
Harness bar fitment
Harness fitment
Attention to knackered gear linkage
Attention to battery warning light flicker
New windscreen (crack due to doing a trackday. A known weak point)
New rear toe links and geo
Emerald ECU installation.

Never let anyone kid you these are cheap cars to run and maintain if you want to track it plenty and keep it tip-top.

However, I've never driven such an intoxicating (literally - that VHPD is poisonous) vehicle. They're incredible. Enjoy!

[mcmikey43]

I run an S2 and its just failed its MOT so will be replacing the brake calliper this weekend. The cars are easy to maintain yourself if you have any reasonable spanner skills.

I have the Nitron street series suspension and find the ride is acceptable, better than my missus Mini was on 17's anyway. A change to 15's gave the nod to the Mini now though.

Im getting a VVC head cleaned up at the moment and plan to install piper 270 cams then fit it to the car. There is now a company reprogramming the mems 3 so you don't even need to buy the emerald any more. Overall not cheap as such but I'm no rich boy and its not breaking my bank whilst being a great drive both on the track and around the North York moors where I live

[Alex]

I nearly won one of these in a PH raffle once.

[PascalBuyens]

tomoleeds said:

Hows the ride ive heard they can be back braking on our roads ?

Standard Elise suspension is quite ok, with Nitrons the ride quality is even better. I used to run something like 450/600Nm Nitron 3-way adjustables and that was just lovely to drive, and very controllable.

The only thing that does take some getting used to, are the very thin cushions in the seat.

Ah, reminds me of the fun I had in the Dusseldorf tunnel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ut9H51yg-g

[aww999]

A ten grand car, plus upgrades, is a "shoestring"? What does that make my £1k MR2 project, a frayed thread from a tramps underpants?

[icepop]

My '53 plate ELISE S2 costs peanuts to run. Your main costs come from arseing around with them, and changing bits that probably dont need replacing. My std suspension is fine @30k, and the handling is the best I've experienced for road driving since my 7. Stop relating the track upgrades, and costs, to road use. Just get an Elise, and if you use it on the road only, it'll run for alot more than 30k and you'll probably only need to replace the tyres.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Steff said:

Dave Hedgehog said:

i really dislike the elise, exige every time for me

they are pretty much identical under the skin

yes i know, and i know i am mad, but the elise is just so cute and girly and the exige so aggressive

[wackojacko]

Nice.


Interesting tread pattern on those tyres.

[slowmatt]

Nicely written piece, I think it will appeal to many, strangely enough I'm a ex-hot-hatch-current-warm-hatch-driver wanting a rwd sports car which is not an MX5 but can be run on a shoestring (handy bit oh google optimisation there as well), looking forward to more posts!

[New Scot]

Alex said:

I nearly won one of these in a PH raffle once.

I thought about entering that competition but forgot the cut-off date, so didn't!

[bigsillyV10]

Always find it a bit strange to read about people who talk about doing things on a budget, then can afford to have a 10k "spare car" in the garage. I suppose having a company car would allow you to do that, but the tax is awful on most company cars so it does cost a lot.

Still nice bit of writing and whilst not my favorite car by a long way its good to see the joy it brings coming through.

[dapearson]

That £10k (plus upgrades) would have got you a k-series engined road going caterham. If you're intending to do mostly track work plus v limited road miles that would be my recommendation. Running costs are much, much cheaper.

[dapearson]

Having said that, i miss my S1 Elise. Deep metallic purple was such an attractive colour on which to apply polish!

[Garlick]

Alex said:

I nearly won one of these in a PH raffle once.

So very nearly....

[LewisR]

£9500 seems really steep to me. I sold my '02 S2 for £10300 in '07.

[Captain Muppet]

LewisR said:

£9500 seems really steep to me. I sold my '02 S2 for £10300 in '07.

Prices for S1s have gone up.

[Futse]

Great article on a great car. Sold mine last year, and miss it a LOT!

[zebedee]

Captain Muppet said:

LewisR said:

£9500 seems really steep to me. I sold my '02 S2 for £10300 in '07.

Prices for S1s have gone up.

indeed, looks a bargain to me

[Donkey62]

I don't understand the Yokohama Advan Neova LTS downgrade? i thought they felt squidgy on turn in and stuck like bubble gum until they cooled off then were like worse than crap budgets thereafter. The nitrons be nice though very worth while upgrade!

[Captain Muppet]

zebedee said:

Captain Muppet said:

LewisR said:

£9500 seems really steep to me. I sold my '02 S2 for £10300 in '07.

Prices for S1s have gone up.

indeed, looks a bargain to me

Gives me a nice warm glow inside that my 160 is slowly making money. Or would be if I could stop driving it everywhere.