Help - looking to buy an Elise S1 for a second time
Discussion
Hi guys and girls
I normally sit on the Aston forum being a V8 Vantage owner, but about 8 years ago I owned a beautiful green R reg Elise for fourteen months. I have to be honest and say it was, and still is, the best car I have ever driven. I loved it, but it proved unpractical as an everyday drive back then. Well I am now in the lucky position of buying another as a track day and sprint weapon and I need a little help. I have a budget of between £8-£10,000 which means a car with between 40,000 to 60,000 miles in hopefully OK condition? I would like either an unmodified (and I know this is difficult) original or a 111S version. Now I have been doing a bit of research over the festive period, I live in southern England and it transpires that most S1's have been going across the channel to France, Germany and Spain in the last twelve months due to the strong Euro. So my first question is two fold:
a) Who can recommend the names of good dealers who sell honest cars?
b) Does anyone have a car for sale?
My second question is what a have been the most common faults and service recalls on the later cars?
Thirdly and finally which are the most popular power, suspension and brake upgrades? As I will go down the route of improving the car over time.
Thanks in advance for your help and insights from a man looking forward to returning to this great marque.
Cheers
PC
I normally sit on the Aston forum being a V8 Vantage owner, but about 8 years ago I owned a beautiful green R reg Elise for fourteen months. I have to be honest and say it was, and still is, the best car I have ever driven. I loved it, but it proved unpractical as an everyday drive back then. Well I am now in the lucky position of buying another as a track day and sprint weapon and I need a little help. I have a budget of between £8-£10,000 which means a car with between 40,000 to 60,000 miles in hopefully OK condition? I would like either an unmodified (and I know this is difficult) original or a 111S version. Now I have been doing a bit of research over the festive period, I live in southern England and it transpires that most S1's have been going across the channel to France, Germany and Spain in the last twelve months due to the strong Euro. So my first question is two fold:
a) Who can recommend the names of good dealers who sell honest cars?
b) Does anyone have a car for sale?
My second question is what a have been the most common faults and service recalls on the later cars?
Thirdly and finally which are the most popular power, suspension and brake upgrades? As I will go down the route of improving the car over time.
Thanks in advance for your help and insights from a man looking forward to returning to this great marque.
Cheers
PC
Hello and welcome.
With regards to your questions about dealers, you might like to have a chat with Will Blackham who's well known on SELOC (best owners site IMHO) who usually has good, reasonably priced stock, and who will source a car for you if you so require. This has just come on line which looks good value...
http://forums.seloc.org/classified.php?action=ad&a...
For info read the buyers guide sticky at the top of this thread, all your questions should be answered there or thereabouts. Also http://wiki.seloc.org/a/SELOC_TechWiki is a great resource.
With regards to your questions about dealers, you might like to have a chat with Will Blackham who's well known on SELOC (best owners site IMHO) who usually has good, reasonably priced stock, and who will source a car for you if you so require. This has just come on line which looks good value...
http://forums.seloc.org/classified.php?action=ad&a...
For info read the buyers guide sticky at the top of this thread, all your questions should be answered there or thereabouts. Also http://wiki.seloc.org/a/SELOC_TechWiki is a great resource.
Hi Paul, Seloc is your friend for anything you need on technical info. Great techwiki and the archives are full of useful stuff on brakes, suspension, tuning etc.
I've been slowly turning my car (99 S1) into a track/sprint car over the past few years so I'll give you a resume of what I've done.
Started life as a boggo 120bhp S1. Fitted refurbed interior from S1 111S (wanted a bit more comfort for diving to/from track (essential when you live in Devon!) - for serious track use you might want to look at offerings from Tillet and MOG (new seats are on my to do list again!). Fitted a close raio geabox from an S1 111S. Fitted set of 340R delivery wheels (wider than boggo and lighter), Uprated brakes to EBC discs and currently using yellowstuff pads (but will be switching to either Carbon Lorraine or Pagid RS42 at the next change). Chucked out the seat belts and fitted a harness bar and harnesses. Fitted Nitron one way adjustable dampers, refurbed suspension changing all bushes, balljoints, refurbed steering rack, new TREs etc, fitted Toyo 888 tyres.
Next on the list is a set of Piper 633 cams and a solid 4-2-1 (hoping that will give me about 140 ish bhp plus keep the torque. If (when?) the head gasket eventually gives out then I'll get the head ported and 'valved' hopefully pushing power towards the 160 mark - about as much as a standard bottom end is comfy with and keeping me in production class. I also want some data loggin kit and a tyre pressure/emp monitor.
For the future I may drop a Ford Duratec engine in or build a stronger bottom end and then fit some throttle bodies To the K. All depends on if I stay Sprinting or scratch a racing itch.
Costs?
Seats - about £1k
Cams - £600
4-2-1 - £500
Nitrons - £1250
Head work - about £600
Gearbox - about £300
Brakes - less than £500 all round (EBC and Carbon Lorraine)
Wheels - about £600.
Harness Bar and Harnesses - about £350
For engine work you can't go far wrong than talking to Dave Andrews at DVAPower or Roger Fabrey (kiwirog on the forums) at Sabreheads.
Scuffers on here is always a mine of good info and Chris Randall (randy) always helpful particularly wih suspension stuff. Plenty o others oo but you'll soon sort out the good from the bad.
Csn't help with a car I'm afraid - good'uns are thin on the ground apparantly (and today's Times might see some getting bought to sit in storage
).
I've been slowly turning my car (99 S1) into a track/sprint car over the past few years so I'll give you a resume of what I've done.
Started life as a boggo 120bhp S1. Fitted refurbed interior from S1 111S (wanted a bit more comfort for diving to/from track (essential when you live in Devon!) - for serious track use you might want to look at offerings from Tillet and MOG (new seats are on my to do list again!). Fitted a close raio geabox from an S1 111S. Fitted set of 340R delivery wheels (wider than boggo and lighter), Uprated brakes to EBC discs and currently using yellowstuff pads (but will be switching to either Carbon Lorraine or Pagid RS42 at the next change). Chucked out the seat belts and fitted a harness bar and harnesses. Fitted Nitron one way adjustable dampers, refurbed suspension changing all bushes, balljoints, refurbed steering rack, new TREs etc, fitted Toyo 888 tyres.
Next on the list is a set of Piper 633 cams and a solid 4-2-1 (hoping that will give me about 140 ish bhp plus keep the torque. If (when?) the head gasket eventually gives out then I'll get the head ported and 'valved' hopefully pushing power towards the 160 mark - about as much as a standard bottom end is comfy with and keeping me in production class. I also want some data loggin kit and a tyre pressure/emp monitor.
For the future I may drop a Ford Duratec engine in or build a stronger bottom end and then fit some throttle bodies To the K. All depends on if I stay Sprinting or scratch a racing itch.
Costs?
Seats - about £1k
Cams - £600
4-2-1 - £500
Nitrons - £1250
Head work - about £600
Gearbox - about £300
Brakes - less than £500 all round (EBC and Carbon Lorraine)
Wheels - about £600.
Harness Bar and Harnesses - about £350
For engine work you can't go far wrong than talking to Dave Andrews at DVAPower or Roger Fabrey (kiwirog on the forums) at Sabreheads.
Scuffers on here is always a mine of good info and Chris Randall (randy) always helpful particularly wih suspension stuff. Plenty o others oo but you'll soon sort out the good from the bad.
Csn't help with a car I'm afraid - good'uns are thin on the ground apparantly (and today's Times might see some getting bought to sit in storage
).Hollywood Wheels said:
How comes your looking for an unmodified car, if you're going to be doing trackdays/sprinting? Surely you want a car that someone else has spent good money on improving/replacing all the stuff that WILL need replacing on an S1?
I want the fun of doing it all myself. Early doors I want to enter via the Regulations for Roadgoing Production Cars. So the more stock the better.Hi,
Im selling a 111s, 99v reg for £9k. The 111s has VVC 143 bhp engine, close ratio gearbox, drilled disks, better seats, nicer interior parts, different front clam for the headlight covers and a different front grille as standard.. plus mine has s2 suspension, stainless exhaust plus a host of other things.
Call me on 07736 276730 if your interested, the car geniunely is awesome but its time for a change! :-)
Im selling a 111s, 99v reg for £9k. The 111s has VVC 143 bhp engine, close ratio gearbox, drilled disks, better seats, nicer interior parts, different front clam for the headlight covers and a different front grille as standard.. plus mine has s2 suspension, stainless exhaust plus a host of other things.
Call me on 07736 276730 if your interested, the car geniunely is awesome but its time for a change! :-)
providence1 said:
Hollywood Wheels said:
How comes your looking for an unmodified car, if you're going to be doing trackdays/sprinting? Surely you want a car that someone else has spent good money on improving/replacing all the stuff that WILL need replacing on an S1?
I want the fun of doing it all myself. Early doors I want to enter via the Regulations for Roadgoing Production Cars. So the more stock the better.Road going production allows a fair degree of mods (its what I'll be doing this year).
There's also a Lotus on Track series for Elises within the Borough 19 Sprint series - unfortunately for me Borough 19 is in Eastern England.
Have a look at the DVApower website to get some ideas on what you can do with the K engine. As you may know the Blue Book is now available on-line so will help you make sure your car meets regs although you need to also check for local regs for the series/championship you intend to do.
TIPPER said:
providence1 said:
Hollywood Wheels said:
How comes your looking for an unmodified car, if you're going to be doing trackdays/sprinting? Surely you want a car that someone else has spent good money on improving/replacing all the stuff that WILL need replacing on an S1?
I want the fun of doing it all myself. Early doors I want to enter via the Regulations for Roadgoing Production Cars. So the more stock the better.Road going production allows a fair degree of mods (its what I'll be doing this year).
There's also a Lotus on Track series for Elises within the Borough 19 Sprint series - unfortunately for me Borough 19 is in Eastern England.
Have a look at the DVApower website to get some ideas on what you can do with the K engine. As you may know the Blue Book is now available on-line so will help you make sure your car meets regs although you need to also check for local regs for the series/championship you intend to do.
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