Elise S1

[SidewaysSi]

Smitters said:

SidewaysSi said:

I have both, a heavily modded Elise S1 Sport 160 and a K Series Caterham Superlight and must admit that for me the Lotus has the better steering.

I actually think you need to heavily modify an Elise to uncork it.

I have spent around £7k on upgrades on it (hate to work it out) but bloody hell do I love it.

Going to be buried in the thing!

Ha, just goes to show it's horses for courses. I'm inclined to agree - I think that the design and the chassis of the Elise are pretty revolutionary, but it's riddled with limitations based on cost and timing.

I must say, I'm not normally a fan of the 160 spoiler, but with a body coloured roof that side profile is just awesome. I'd be very interested to hear where you money went and what you felt were the most impactful upgrades. I have a plan of my own for improving the car but as always, it's very fluid.

Thanks, the Elise is a joy. If I had a gun to my head to sell one, the Seven may need to go. But hopefully I can keep both for the rest of my days.

Upgrades on the Lotus are:

- Nitron dampers (450/525)
- Vibratechnics engine mounts
- Faster steering rack (2.4 turns lock to lock)
- Ali radiator
- Ultra Close ratio straight cut Quaife gearset
- Quaife LSD
- Custom Corbeau seats, Schroth harnesses
- Quickshift gearchange
- Ali belled discs, braided lines and RS42 pads
- Larini Club sport exhaust
- Carbon Hurricane induction
- Upgraded toe links
- Lightweight flywheel and race clutch

Sure there arw a few more bits that I missed off.

Best upgrades are the engine mounts, gearbox, exhaust, diff, dampers and steering rack.

Here's the Seven - upgrades are lowered floor and the cage. Was put in it yesterday and just love the thing. Oversteers so naturally

[Smitters]

Nice one. An interesting list and I'm not surprised the most tactile mods have been impactful. I'm busy reorganising life but once I'm more settled I plan on attending slowly to all the little niggles I have with the S1 in order to turn it into the car I think it should have been. That's not to say trying to wreck it, just subtle improvements over OEM to give it some longevity and a sense of being special that bare plastic and Vauxhall indicators just don't quite give...

But for now, I'll be adjusting the rear clam, because the drivers door glass is rubbing. Marvelous.

[Smitters]

Well, sad times, but all good things and all that. I have decided to sell the Elise and use the money to fund a kit car build I can tackle over the next few years with my boys. I've enjoyed owning the Elise tremendously and while it was always a dream to own one, I've arrived at a point where I'd like to build a kit from scratch, so I have to make some room.

I nearly sold it back to the previous owner, but I think there was a bit of disappointment on his part over the lack or originality in the car once I'd got my teeth into it. It's a fair point, but when I bought it, it was an absolute dog to drive, bearings shot, shocks empty of oil and desperate for a proper service, so there was no way it was staying standard when revised or improved parts could go on.

Hopefully the kit car build thread will be more eventful as this was a little quiet, but then I didn't actually mod much on the car - I just enjoyed it!

[Tin Hat]

Smitters said:

Well, sad times, but all good things and all that. I have decided to sell the Elise and use the money to fund a kit car build I can tackle over the next few years with my boys. I've enjoyed owning the Elise tremendously and while it was always a dream to own one, I've arrived at a point where I'd like to build a kit from scratch, so I have to make some room.

I nearly sold it back to the previous owner, but I think there was a bit of disappointment on his part over the lack or originality in the car once I'd got my teeth into it. It's a fair point, but when I bought it, it was an absolute dog to drive, bearings shot, shocks empty of oil and desperate for a proper service, so there was no way it was staying standard when revised or improved parts could go on.

Hopefully the kit car build thread will be more eventful as this was a little quiet, but then I didn't actually mod much on the car - I just enjoyed it!

Onwards and forwards, if you have had your fun and you have the passion for something different then best go with your heart.

Anyone who prefers an S1 with ‘original’ dampers to well fitted Nitrons must need their brain testing, that is the best modification that you can do by a very, very large margin in my opinion ( having spent probably £15k on mods over the years)

[Smitters]

So this happened:







Mrs Smitters was very pleased we had garage space, space on the drive and generally one less vehicle to worry about, tax, insure and throw money at needlessly.

Then 49 hours later, this happened:



My earnest attempt to arrive at destitute singledom continues here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...