PH Carpool: Lotus Elise
Why a looked-after Elise won't let you down
Phil Barker, (aka pthelazyjourno) introduces us to his S1 Elise. Girls don't like it apparently...apart from that it's all good!
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"Everything about the S1 is designed to make it light, fast and fun. The Advan Neova tyres offer a silly amount of grip, it turns in quickly and in most cases without understeer, and will surprise those foolish enough to lift off the brakes or throttle mid-corner. It shifts too, at least up to 60mph, and is surprisingly fast for a car with less than 130bhp. It's also easy to unsettle the rear with a heavy right foot when it's raining; with care or deft hands and feet are needed on second-gear roundabouts.
"One of the nicest aspects of ownership is the Lotus community. I've made genuine friends through Owners club SELOC, people have gone out of their way to help me, give me lifts, share tools, give up their time, let me park my car on their drives, dispense advice - I really can't praise the experience highly enough. It's also been an invaluable resource when working on my Elise, making it easy to change parts like the radiator or suspension bits.
"It does get through consumables quite quickly, though parts are cheap - lots of MG, Rover, Peugeot and Vauxhall bits on there. My recent clutch change at an indie cost £500, my last service £130. I wouldn't fancy running an S1 on a shoestring, though. It's at that age where things will inevitably wear out. I've budgeted between £1000 and £2000 per year. Do the work yourself, and it'll be fine - I changed the radiator myself, costing £300, but have also got the receipt for a similar job, with the previous owner paying over £1000 in labour alone!
"The roof on mine doesn't leak at all, I can get a set of golf clubs and folding bag in the boot (driver and woods behind the seats), and it's the perfect car now petrol prices have gone up, with 40mpg easily possible. It's also the only car I've owned where random people have offered to buy it for more than I paid, but this one's definitely not for sale!"
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1) can you REALLY pick up a 'looked after' Elise for a lot less than £8.5k? I don't think so, and they are increasing in value.
2) You must be doing a lot of miles to budget £1-2k on one, £500-£600 is what I budget (including tyres over the course of 2-3 years), but then you might be doing 'normal' roadcar mileage in yours.
I think the S1 Elise is a good car to run on a shoestring because it is so simple, most normal modern saloons could be far more costly to keep on the road.
S1 is nicer than the S2 though, met a chap last weekend who is having his S2 set up to handle like his old S1 as the understeer is doing his nut in!
135 sport would seem good. But I guess price dictates all. In truth a 1.8i 118bhp one is probably just as much fun to drive. And VVC motors are pretty cheap to pick up these days. Swap on a ZR160 TB and a few other bits and you could easily swap in a 160-170hp VVC motor into an early Elise I'd have thought.
1) can you REALLY pick up a 'looked after' Elise for a lot less than £8.5k? I don't think so, and they are increasing in value.
2) You must be doing a lot of miles to budget £1-2k on one, £500-£600 is what I budget (including tyres over the course of 2-3 years), but then you might be doing 'normal' roadcar mileage in yours.
I think the S1 Elise is a good car to run on a shoestring because it is so simple, most normal modern saloons could be far more costly to keep on the road.
S1 is nicer than the S2 though, met a chap last weekend who is having his S2 set up to handle like his old S1 as the understeer is doing his nut in!
Budget depends on whether you do maintenance yourself or not - unlike a business just because the budget is there doesn't mean I have to spend it!!!
On the other side - radiator, clutch, balljoints could see you easily into £2k. There are loads of bills that could cost £500 - dampers, steering rack, brakes, tyres etc etc. Not suggesting that everything should be replaced at once, but it makes sense to have the budget in case it does go wrong.
Things add up. From a personal standpoint, I'm trying to replace as many parts as possible while money isn't an issue - TBH unless the head gasket goes I don't really expect it to cost anything for the next few years now though, servicing aside, so unless one of us is unfortunate I'd imagine after 3-4 years we'll end up spending the same.
Budget depends on whether you do maintenance yourself or not - unlike a business just because the budget is there doesn't mean I have to spend it!!!
On the other side - radiator, clutch, balljoints could see you easily into £2k. There are loads of bills that could cost £500 - dampers, steering rack, brakes, tyres etc etc. Not suggesting that everything should be replaced at once, but it makes sense to have the budget in case it does go wrong.
Things add up. From a personal standpoint, I'm trying to replace as many parts as possible while money isn't an issue - TBH unless the head gasket goes I don't really expect it to cost anything for the next few years now though, servicing aside, so unless one of us is unfortunate I'd imagine after 3-4 years we'll end up spending the same.
135 sport would seem good. But I guess price dictates all. In truth a 1.8i 118bhp one is probably just as much fun to drive. And VVC motors are pretty cheap to pick up these days. Swap on a ZR160 TB and a few other bits and you could easily swap in a 160-170hp VVC motor into an early Elise I'd have thought.
Plenty of leg and head room once you're inside. They are rather narrow though, so not really a car for fat people. Agree with the fat person bit too. That also makes it tricky getting into the car - helps if you're, er, flexible!
Have the units fitted to the Lotus been more reliable?
Did Lotus carry out any modifications to the engines before they were fitted to the Elise?
Pretty much word-for-word what I'd have written about my Smart, so my likelyhood of doing a Carpool write-up and getting it published has now gone from tiny to microscopic 
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