RE: PH Carpool: Lotus Elise S1 Sport 135

[MJRL]

MMM V6 Exige soon.... *dribble*

[Mr E]

thewheelman said:

They were pretty good fun in their day, plus cheap to run, which was a bonus.

Still lots of fun now.

[RobCrezz]

Really want an Elise with a Honda lump!

Good article.

[Harry H]

1998 on a J Palmer corporate day on the Wednesday tried an Elise. Went and ordered a new one the following Saturday. And I've still got it.

Racked up a massive 32k miles in those 13 years. Not a lot of miles but a great deal of smiles

[Si_man306]

I had an S2 exige but even though it was only 3 years old with only 17k on the clock, so many things were already completely rusted through (fan brackets, rad, air con pipes) and nothing was easily accessible- clam off, pull huge parts of the car apart and repeat etc..so the garage bills were insane- thankfully a warrenty sorted them out.

Superbly 'special' car where every trip was an event. In the wet with no T/C and the engine behind you it really tested your bravery though.

Would love an S1 for sunny trips to the dales one day though

[AndySpecD]

Great write up, silver ones are the best too


(mine)

Reliability? Mine's on 103k and still going strong

[atl]

chevronb37 said:

I had a a similar issue on an even throttle in my Exige through Church at Anglesey - in mine that's taken at 80-85mph. Certainly raised the heart rate. Can't blame the car though really, it's me who's driving it, not the other way around. Too much ambition, not enough talent...

Great article and nicely sums up the pain and joy of Elise ownership. I have a battery to change this weekend as it happens. Oh good.

Theres a very nice man by the name of Andy Walsh who can help you with the issue of oversteer....

http://www.carlimits.com/

[donna180]

atl said:

chevronb37 said:

I had a a similar issue on an even throttle in my Exige through Church at Anglesey - in mine that's taken at 80-85mph. Certainly raised the heart rate. Can't blame the car though really, it's me who's driving it, not the other way around. Too much ambition, not enough talent...

Great article and nicely sums up the pain and joy of Elise ownership. I have a battery to change this weekend as it happens. Oh good.

Theres a very nice man by the name of Andy Walsh who can help you with the issue of oversteer....

http://www.carlimits.com/

Suspension is likely to be, at best, a mix-match of worn/worn-out/replaced and geo probably not set to any tolerance.....

As for the tyres, I'd stick with AD08s over R888 - the latter might give a marginal improvement on dry tracks but not by much if the various a:b dry track laptimes are anything to go by and the 08s are heavily biased to dry running anyway....

[Dagnut]

thewheelman said:

For those on a lower budget, just as much fun can be had in an MX5.

The MX5 is fun but it doesn't corner like an Elise or anywhere close

[HDM]

Nice write up.

Quick question concerning the photo of the seat and harness; the way the harness is set up seems to suggest it could fall off the shoulders of the wearer in a crash, I though a harness like this had to be used with a 'race' seat, one with cutouts so the harness is more integrated into the seat? [I'm no expert whatsoever, it just looks a bit 'wrong']

[otolith]

Dagnut said:

thewheelman said:

For those on a lower budget, just as much fun can be had in an MX5.

The MX5 is fun but it doesn't corner like an Elise or anywhere close

Or accelerate like one. Or communicate like one. It does go sideways more benignly, though.

[Frimley111R]

HDM said:

Nice write up.

Quick question concerning the photo of the seat and harness; the way the harness is set up seems to suggest it could fall off the shoulders of the wearer in a crash, I though a harness like this had to be used with a 'race' seat, one with cutouts so the harness is more integrated into the seat? [I'm no expert whatsoever, it just looks a bit 'wrong']

No, you can do either but one is much cheaper as you don't need new seats. The might look like they'd fall off but in practice they never do. They are a PITA in a day-to-day raod car though.

[Thorburn]

otolith said:

Or accelerate like one. Or communicate like one. It does go sideways more benignly, though.

My old MX-5 was an absolute bugger in the wet, very snappy whenever standing water was involved. Actually find the Elise more predictable.

[Thorburn]

HDM said:

Nice write up.

Quick question concerning the photo of the seat and harness; the way the harness is set up seems to suggest it could fall off the shoulders of the wearer in a crash, I though a harness like this had to be used with a 'race' seat, one with cutouts so the harness is more integrated into the seat? [I'm no expert whatsoever, it just looks a bit 'wrong']

Bit of a contentious subject with them. I think the general consensus is if you have bolt in harnesses crossed over behind the seats and are tall enough that they rest on your shoulders, not the seat, then you should be okay.

Personally I didn't see the point in fitting a safety device and installing it in a way which might be unsafe as I'm not particularly tall, so picked up a set of Exige Pro-bax Sports seats .

[soad]

Nicely worded article, loving the car too.

[otolith]

Thorburn said:

My old MX-5 was an absolute bugger in the wet, very snappy whenever standing water was involved. Actually find the Elise more predictable.

We had a MKII with a limited slip differential and 195/50/15 tyres - very predictable, very benign.

[Thorburn]

otolith said:

We had a MKII with a limited slip differential and 195/50/15 tyres - very predictable, very benign.

Open diff on mine. Could well have been the tyres, but had a couple occasions where it snapped sideways at low speeds (under 20mph) on standing water. No incident either time (although once I must have missed a concrete wall by inches as the tail swung out), but just didn't inspire confidence.

[duff]

Pablo16v said:

This wouldn't be the same Danny Milner who is the editor of MBR magazine?

Yes, looks like him. Dep Ed iirc.

[chevronb37]

donna180 said:

atl said:

chevronb37 said:

I had a a similar issue on an even throttle in my Exige through Church at Anglesey - in mine that's taken at 80-85mph. Certainly raised the heart rate. Can't blame the car though really, it's me who's driving it, not the other way around. Too much ambition, not enough talent...

Great article and nicely sums up the pain and joy of Elise ownership. I have a battery to change this weekend as it happens. Oh good.

Theres a very nice man by the name of Andy Walsh who can help you with the issue of oversteer....

http://www.carlimits.com/

Suspension is likely to be, at best, a mix-match of worn/worn-out/replaced and geo probably not set to any tolerance.....

As for the tyres, I'd stick with AD08s over R888 - the latter might give a marginal improvement on dry tracks but not by much if the various a:b dry track laptimes are anything to go by and the 08s are heavily biased to dry running anyway....

In my case I can't blame the suspension - it's running Nitrons and set up by Martin Edwards who has run race-winning S1 Exige race cars for years. In my case I went in a little too quickly and the back started coming round. I caught it and we continued; albeit with a little less vigour the next lap. My suspicion is that the tyres were over-inflated for track work. Toyo Proxes T1-Rs which prove way too grippy for my ambitions on the road but they heat up on the track and you can feel the car moving around on the tread blocks. It was inexperience and lack of talent which caused my little transgression but kept the car on the island (more through good luck than good judgement) and we lived to fight another day.

I will do a Walshy day when time/money permits in order to make myself less crap though!

[Tin Hat]

Had mine for 12 years - It's a B&C Super 160.

It has been entirely reliable over my 40K, with various mods having taken place - The best of which has got to be my Nitron dampers, they absolutely tranformed the car 7 years ago and you MUST do it!!

TH