Looking for an Elise 111s? You may want to read this ..story
Discussion
Then let me tell you a story.
I owned a lovely silver 111s with a nice new red leather interior, and sprayed silver doors pods with all the alloy bits added from door pod screws through to handbrake cover; which I thought set the car off really well. The only thing that bugged me about the car was that somewhere along the line the carbon fibre dash inserts had gone missing and had been replaced with standard ones.
Ah well not to worry I thought, I'll just find some new ones and replace them.......until one fateful day on my drive home from work.
I had just glanced down at my speedo having come to a complete stop on the motorway in some traffic and noted that the milage now said 11k and smiled to myself thinking of the hassle I had gone through getting hold of a letter of verification on my speedo head change from Bell & Collvile; the milage was actually closer to 38k you see.
And then WHAM!!! Some sod drove into the back of me, next thing I knew I was on the hard should and my beloved car was in bits!
I took all my pics of the car to well known (South Coast) Lotus specialist, as I did not want the car repaired by some dodgy insurance company repairer; he took one look at the pics and stated that the car should never be repaired in his opinion as it would never run true again; unless of course it had a new chassis / tub fitted. Ultimatly the car was written off by the insurance company and I never saw it again......or maybe I did.
So I removed the private plate and the car reverted back to its old reg number of V710 JTF.
So there you have it, a nice little bit of history, should you be looking for Silver 111s.
Matt
I owned a lovely silver 111s with a nice new red leather interior, and sprayed silver doors pods with all the alloy bits added from door pod screws through to handbrake cover; which I thought set the car off really well. The only thing that bugged me about the car was that somewhere along the line the carbon fibre dash inserts had gone missing and had been replaced with standard ones.
Ah well not to worry I thought, I'll just find some new ones and replace them.......until one fateful day on my drive home from work.
I had just glanced down at my speedo having come to a complete stop on the motorway in some traffic and noted that the milage now said 11k and smiled to myself thinking of the hassle I had gone through getting hold of a letter of verification on my speedo head change from Bell & Collvile; the milage was actually closer to 38k you see.
And then WHAM!!! Some sod drove into the back of me, next thing I knew I was on the hard should and my beloved car was in bits!
I took all my pics of the car to well known (South Coast) Lotus specialist, as I did not want the car repaired by some dodgy insurance company repairer; he took one look at the pics and stated that the car should never be repaired in his opinion as it would never run true again; unless of course it had a new chassis / tub fitted. Ultimatly the car was written off by the insurance company and I never saw it again......or maybe I did.
So I removed the private plate and the car reverted back to its old reg number of V710 JTF.
So there you have it, a nice little bit of history, should you be looking for Silver 111s.
Matt
I assume you are referring to this ad http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1414470.htm (nowt to do with me btw). I am no expert, but from the pic you posted above, it does not look like it needs a new chassis. Just a rear clam and perhaps and wishbones on osr. Perhaps the engineer meant it would need a new subframe rather than chassis?
Edited by Phil. S. on Wednesday 6th January 14:30
Phil. S. said:
I assume you are referring to this ad http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1414470.htm (nowt to do with me btw). I am no expert, but from the pic you posted above, it does not look like it needs a new chassis. Just a rear clam and perhaps and wishbones on osr. Perhaps the engineer meant it would need a new subframe rather than chassis?
Just telling you you what someone who works on these cars day in and day out told me. I am no expert so would not have an opinion either way. Odd though that the seller makes no mention of this damage and suggests it was written off due to cosmectic fibre glass damage don't you think?Edited by Phil. S. on Wednesday 6th January 14:30
Edited by MattW on Wednesday 6th January 15:40
Phil. S. said:
I assume you are referring to this ad http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1414470.htm (nowt to do with me btw). I am no expert, but from the pic you posted above, it does not look like it needs a new chassis. Just a rear clam and perhaps and wishbones on osr. Perhaps the engineer meant it would need a new subframe rather than chassis?
I might have changed the wheel as well.............Edited by Phil. S. on Wednesday 6th January 14:30
MattW said:
Then let me tell you a story.
I owned a lovely silver 111s with a nice new red leather interior, and sprayed silver doors pods with all the alloy bits added from door pod screws through to handbrake cover; which I thought set the car off really well. The only thing that bugged me about the car was that somewhere along the line the carbon fibre dash inserts had gone missing and had been replaced with standard ones.
Ah well not to worry I thought, I'll just find some new ones and replace them.......until one fateful day on my drive home from work.
I had just glanced down at my speedo having come to a complete stop on the motorway in some traffic and noted that the milage now said 11k and smiled to myself thinking of the hassle I had gone through getting hold of a letter of verification on my speedo head change from Bell & Collvile; the milage was actually closer to 38k you see.
And then WHAM!!! Some sod drove into the back of me, next thing I knew I was on the hard should and my beloved car was in bits!
I took all my pics of the car to well known (South Coast) Lotus specialist, as I did not want the car repaired by some dodgy insurance company repairer; he took one look at the pics and stated that the car should never be repaired in his opinion as it would never run true again; unless of course it had a new chassis / tub fitted. Ultimatly the car was written off by the insurance company and I never saw it again......or maybe I did.
So I removed the private plate and the car reverted back to its old reg number of V710 JTF.
So there you have it, a nice little bit of history, should you be looking for Silver 111s.
Matt
Good for you Matt. I would have done the same in your position. Dave.I owned a lovely silver 111s with a nice new red leather interior, and sprayed silver doors pods with all the alloy bits added from door pod screws through to handbrake cover; which I thought set the car off really well. The only thing that bugged me about the car was that somewhere along the line the carbon fibre dash inserts had gone missing and had been replaced with standard ones.
Ah well not to worry I thought, I'll just find some new ones and replace them.......until one fateful day on my drive home from work.
I had just glanced down at my speedo having come to a complete stop on the motorway in some traffic and noted that the milage now said 11k and smiled to myself thinking of the hassle I had gone through getting hold of a letter of verification on my speedo head change from Bell & Collvile; the milage was actually closer to 38k you see.
And then WHAM!!! Some sod drove into the back of me, next thing I knew I was on the hard should and my beloved car was in bits!
I took all my pics of the car to well known (South Coast) Lotus specialist, as I did not want the car repaired by some dodgy insurance company repairer; he took one look at the pics and stated that the car should never be repaired in his opinion as it would never run true again; unless of course it had a new chassis / tub fitted. Ultimatly the car was written off by the insurance company and I never saw it again......or maybe I did.
So I removed the private plate and the car reverted back to its old reg number of V710 JTF.
So there you have it, a nice little bit of history, should you be looking for Silver 111s.
Matt
s111dpc said:
What's odd to me is the damage in the OPs photo differs from the damage in the sellers photo. Thus I assume that the OPs damage led to the Cat 'D' and then the current owner pranged it requiring additional clam work 
so the ad is either:a) showing a different crashed car
b) for a car that has been ringed
b) the same car crashed a second time
MattW said:
Phil. S. said:
I assume you are referring to this ad http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1414470.htm (nowt to do with me btw). I am no expert, but from the pic you posted above, it does not look like it needs a new chassis. Just a rear clam and perhaps and wishbones on osr. Perhaps the engineer meant it would need a new subframe rather than chassis?
Just telling you you what someone who works on these cars day in and day out told me. I am no expert so would not have an opinion either way. Odd though that the seller makes no mention of this damage and suggests it was written off due to cosmectic fibre glass damage don't you think?Edited by Phil. S. on Wednesday 6th January 14:30
Edited by MattW on Wednesday 6th January 15:40
Hi, This is my car!
I was not aware it had been damaged before and bought it in september from Admiral Insurance with the damage as shown in my add.
I have just done an hpi check to see if i could find out a bit more so i could update my add, The car has had 5 owners now and your not recorded as the previous owner on my v5 so it would suggest that your insurance company decided that the car could be repaired again and sold it on to someone who had it fixed then went and had a smaller accident,then i bought it.
I advertised the car as having low miles as that is what the speedo states and the car is very clean so i had no reason to doubt it, i did not realise that you had changed the speedo and was given no service history from the insurance company
If you have any documents or any more pictures please could you let me have a copy of them as i would like to build up a history of the car. A copy of that mileage certificate could be handy as it sounds like you had a job getting it.
I would appreciate it if you could email me via my add or give me a call if possible.
Thanks in advance, Phil.
I was not aware it had been damaged before and bought it in september from Admiral Insurance with the damage as shown in my add.
I have just done an hpi check to see if i could find out a bit more so i could update my add, The car has had 5 owners now and your not recorded as the previous owner on my v5 so it would suggest that your insurance company decided that the car could be repaired again and sold it on to someone who had it fixed then went and had a smaller accident,then i bought it.
I advertised the car as having low miles as that is what the speedo states and the car is very clean so i had no reason to doubt it, i did not realise that you had changed the speedo and was given no service history from the insurance company
If you have any documents or any more pictures please could you let me have a copy of them as i would like to build up a history of the car. A copy of that mileage certificate could be handy as it sounds like you had a job getting it.
I would appreciate it if you could email me via my add or give me a call if possible.
Thanks in advance, Phil.
At least everything will be out in the open for buyers to make up their own mind... yes it's been in a few stacks but honesty is a better policy IMO. It's not as if these cars can't be repaired to as-new standard (especially when the damage is to the bodywork - I'd rather have an Elise with a replacement clam than a steel / aluminium car with beaten out / filled and repainted panels...
That looks bloody good value to me - the damage shown above would cause the Insurance companies to bulk a bit but its easily repaired as Chris has said earlier. If it only has one instance of being written off recorded at HPI against it then its only been written off once! There are plenty of Elises on the road which have had similar or far worse damage & not recorded so why should this car be any different?
I didn't see the previous ad so don't know what was said but the ad seems honest now anyway & a good price
Saying the car would never run true from that damage is absolute rubbish - ask Randy if his Europa runs true after the damage at brands!
I didn't see the previous ad so don't know what was said but the ad seems honest now anyway & a good price
Saying the car would never run true from that damage is absolute rubbish - ask Randy if his Europa runs true after the damage at brands!
Edited by junks on Thursday 7th January 09:28
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