Anyone received their new Elise 2?
Discussion
Night,
No I hadn't. I will be taking a closer look tho'
GTM are based near me, and the new(ish) KV6 powered car in standard 177bhp tune (could be tweaked to 220+) is fast. 0-60 in 4.8 150mph+
Very similat to an elise, mid mounted K series (1.4-2.5) minimalist interior and all available from £15000.
Got to be worth a look!
Sparks
I wouldn't go near kit cars for daily transport, if you're doubtful about the quality of Lotus or TVR you aint seen nuthin!!
And I've been there with a Westfield which are one of the better ones!
My friends GTM Rossa ended up as a pile of goo on the A46 after it burst into flames and he's got a mech eng degree so knew what he was doing.
I owned a kit car for 7 years as my daily transport and Bertie is right. Unless you have mechanical experience and are prepared to 'keep on top' of all the little jobs, you get problems. I would work on my car at least once per month (equivalent to a 400 mile service!). Thats the kind of commitment to mechanics you need to keep 'em reliable.
The trouble with kit cars is very rarely the powertrain bits borrowed from well tested mass producers, it's all the other bits. The fixings working loose, the electrics going wonky, bad earth connections, water ingress and so on.
It's obvious really, kit can manufacturers do little or no endurance testing, less even than TVR and Lotus if that's possible.
They're designed to be weekend toys and as such don't need to take day to day abuse and generally they can't.
You wouldn't get me putting my £45K into a Noble either, wot no resale value!
I'm not saying they're not good to drive, just not to live with on a day to day basis.
Buying a fully built kit car defeats the purpose IMHO. Its a very proud moment when you receive the registration confirmation and attach the number plates of a car you built yourself.
Owning a kit car is very much a hobby. I am sure the GTM is a nice car, however as Bertie has said, take into account that reliability will be an issue and there is no garage that you can take it to.
All cars have to be maintained. With a Lotus or similar small production car you can take it to a fully equiped garage with access to 100's of experts. My garage gives me a curtesy car whilst mine is being maintained. With a kit car the best person for the job is yourself and even basic maintenance takes time.
Kit cars are brilliant, they a fun to build, run, and maintain. I would recommend anyone with a mechanical interest to build a kit car. BUT I would never recommend to someone without mechanical knowledge buying and using a kit car as every day transport.
Time for my latest update.
Finally got round to some test driving this weekend. Having visited lotus near St Albans, Fernhurst and Hawthorns last weekend I booked in with Hawthorns to drive the elise and chimaera back to back and see what the wife and I thought.
Well,contrary to all expectations, I found the Chimp an absolute joy to drive and quite managable into the bargain (only 4l though). The car just didnt stop putting a grin on my face and sounded awesome. However !!!!! My wife is only 5ft4in - she couldnt reach the peddles very easily....lol. Even with the chair fully forward it was a stretch, making driving extremely awkward - needless to say this has tainted her view of the car (how distressed am I). Fortunately she was able to drive it but just couldnt get the full travel of the pedals without having to lower herself in the seat.
I on the other hand just couldnt get enough of it - maybe I should test drive the 5l as well....mmmmmmmmm.
So ...... to the Elise. Having driven the Elise 2 things were pretty much as I expected they would be on the original. Hawthorns let us take out a 111s (VVC Engine) although I couldnt notice much performance difference between the 111S and the Elise 2 (? is elise 2 non VVC).
Needless to say it handled like a dream and it really is easy for the less experienced performance driver to get a lot of enjoyment out of it. So to the wife.... well, she loved it (oo er). This was of little surprise as its of similar proportions etc to her MX5 - and she could reach the peddles. She was a lot more comfortable egging it on and found it less heavy on the steeering (even though the Chimp had power steering). I felt I could have a lot of fun in this car on some country lanes where I would no doubt have had to go much easier with the tiv (hardly a surprise though).
So to the verdict - undecided.
I think some more driving is in order. I have spoken to Hawthorns about adjusting the pedals on their Chimaera demonstrator so that the little lady can have another go and formulate a proper opinion. She still loves the TVR and as a pasenger enjoyed it far more but the simple fact is if she cant reach the pedals to drive comfortably then it'll have to be the elise.
I have to say though that contrary to my initial expectations of performance car dealers Hawthorns have been truely superb so far. To be able to get BOTH of us driving BOTH cars back to back was exactly what we needed.
I can only hope and pray that a little peddle adjustment will resolve the wifes problems with the TVR as all things considered it would be my choice. The elise would be a close second so i will be far from gutted if we end up with one - a nice choice to have me thinks. Only thing is, the elise has no burble, it sounded too bland (imho - although can anyone comment on how a sports exhausr improves things??) wheras the Tiv really did create the full on schoolboy sportscar passion - wohoo !!!
So - A little more driving and a few weeks in traction for the missus and we should be nicely sorted.
MROL
Having owned 5 TVRs including a 4.0 Chimaera, Griffith 500 and others and also having a track day car, Elise Sport 160 with the sports exhaust, at the same time I have to say, GET THE CHIMAERA!
Sod the consumption, and yes the Elise has better feedback, although it's dodgy on the limit, you'll enjoy the TVR more, IMHO of course.
And at least in the TVR you CAN adjust the pedals!
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