Diesel

I had a spin in one yesterday - was a bit tatty but priced well. Looking for a track car that the missus can also use to pop to the shops [and not shop too much!].

Was a bit underwhelmed by the engine - zero charisma or presence - but it gripped, handled and went well as expected.

They all seem to be many owners, and to have had a fair bit of maintenance [am looking at early S2's]. VERY rattly interior too that didnt seem to last well.

Any tips or pointers - particularly in the sweetness of the engine dept - would be very welcome [and yes as an ex TVR owner I think a sports car should ideally give you a tingle down below when you fire it up, if not a full raging H on!]

D

NeilT

got an Elise S1 this end, bought it last yr on an S plate, had the headgasket replaced a few weeks (£500) later and the seats retrimmed by Lotus (£600) and it looks good and goes well now. The Elises hold their value very well, so I dont expect to lose much money when I part with it (toying with the idea of a Noble)

Raw power isnt the idea with the Elise, its all about the handling, and on a dry road with a decent driver theres little to touch it (on a wet road its a different story!) it sticks like glue and when and if it does lose grip its pretty easy to correct.

Got a Lotus Sport exhaust fitted and induction kit. Makes quite a noise on full throttle.

Use mine at weekend, and odd trip to work, a 2nd car to my STI. Out of the 2 the Elise is my favoured drive on a good day.

Very good on petrol (well, comparted to the STI, probably uses less than a hot hatch), and being lightweight, seems pretty good on tyres, brakes etc.

It takes a while to get the hang on getting in though.

As I dont use mine everyday I bought a battery conditioner that keeps it tiptop, apart from that not much to say really.

Head over to SELOC | Lotus Enthusiasts Club for more info...

Oh, heres some pics if you're interested

Diesel

Thanks Neil - much appreciated. Good to know that you would prefer it to the Scoob on certain days.

Is yours a bit rattly - no big deal, but as it is so bare, wondered why the one i tried was so noisy?

Is it naughty in the wet?

D

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

had one and loved it, S1, if a few quid comes my way i would love another

wilfthree

Had one for 2.5 years. Great car when you're in the mood. Not so good when you're not. Not the sort of car your missus will want to pop to the shops too often in tho' so you may save on the clothes bills as well.

Rattles often indicate suspension probs. Mine didnt rattle till the rear shocks got worn out.

NeilT

yeah, mines a bit rattly too - always has been. I think a lot of it seems to be the rear boot/engine cover.

In the wet its a bit dodgy, probably much like most cars of its design.

I think the Scoob can take a rest in the garage today, weathers too nice to leave the Elise sat there

Out of interest - what TVR did you have? Considered one for a replacement when I sell the Elise later this year, early next.

Neil

Diesel

I guess you mean it is a bit tail happy due to the power to weight ratio in the wet?

I had a TVR V8S - no cat's 4.0 V8 engine. I had it for 5 years, and other than the annual £600 service [and that is back then!] had no issues with it. It was such a looker at the time and sounded absolutely gorgeous. Scoob [that followed] dynamically would have made mincemeat out of it, but the TVR was a bit of something special, as half of Denmark and Sweden will testify when I popped over and woke them all up!

D

greg.g

Diesel

Was the elise you went out in a standard car or 111s etc?

I have had an S1 111s for around 2.5 years now, comming from a 288bhp scooby.
The elise has never been about brute power (it aint got any ), but it makes up for it in handling and driver feedback.

They all rattle to some extent.

If your after it as a track car and you you get it cheapish, the suspension will probably be past its best.
I had ohlins fitted on mine last year and with sticky R888 tyres its great on track.

Just remember that if you get the car cheap, budget extra cash for new suspension, bushes, track rod ends and steering rack. They are all known wear points on an elise.

Greg

ps

If you take it out in the wet, budget for a spare pair of pants as well!
Their light weight can make them inclined to aquaplane.

Diesel

The one I went in was a very standard S2.

It had had a lot of work done, inc a new short engine @ 40k, 5k ago] new disks etc. They do seem to be heavy on 'bits' I'd expect to change on my very heavy BM at 130k miles? Why should such a light car need new suspension Greg?

Thanks for the info - very valuable.

D

scrappydog

Generally, an Elise will not make your spine tingle when you start it up. A sports exhaust and a hurricane induction kit improves things, but nowhere near as special as a decat V8 soundsl. However, they look special from the outside and feel special when you're sat in them. Ignore the engine starting and point it down an empty twisty road and you will grin from ear-to-ear.

I'm not saying they are the best car in the world, far from it, but if you prize handling and steering feel above all else, then not much else will do regardless of budget.

You say you've looked at S2s, what sort of price range are you looking at? I'd say andything from 12.5K to 14K would get you something pretty good and not rattly or too tatty.

Regarding the comment on suspension, this was very common with S1s as the Koni dampers tended to start rattling. I'm not aware that it was such a problem with the S2s though. How many miles had it done?

As far as wear and tear goes, if you are going to track it then the rate of wear on consumables compared to your BM or a Scoob is considerably less. track either car and you will chew through brake pads and tires after 1 or 2 hard tracksdays. You can quite easily go through 4-5 trackdays without too much wear.

Sounds like the car you looked at was a little tatty, but then again it depends on budget. However, as I'm sure people have said before, better to pay for a tidy example rather than spend extra money putting things right.

Good luck on the purchase

Andy

Diesel

Thanks Andy. The one I saw had 43k miles. And, as you say, I tracked my RS4 once and cried all the way home when I saw the tyres! Nice lightweight car is the way forward. I was looking to spend about £10k [and less on tyres!]. D

greg.g

I think you would be pushing it at 10k for an s2.
If the car is going to be taken on track and weekend blasts only, then perhaps you should consider an s1. They are lighter than the s2 and you can pick up an ok one for 8k ish. Spend the remaining 2k on upgrading the suspension etc and you would have a superb little car... much better than a very tired s2 for 10k.
Another option would be to look for a S1 111s. This has the vvc engine with better performance and a close ration box plus more comfey seats and a few other bits and bobs.

As to why the suspension etc should wear so quickly surprised me as well.
The s1 was built to a budget when it was designed and the best shocks they could get off the shelf was the koni's.
The S2 had a better budget during design and other parts suppliers were happy to design shocks for the car rather than off the shelf. The result was that S2's have bilstein shocks which are far better.
Its a common upgrade for S1's to fit the bilstein shocks. The cost is around £750 fitted.

As has already been said, have a look at SELOC for more info.



Donnington last year

Type R

Set up well they are fab little cars my 2nd one:

scrappydog

I would go with everything that greg has said. You *may* get lucky and find a good S2 at 10K, but likely you will find a 12K car (10K + 1K + 1K of extra work in the next 6 months). Having owned an S1 and now an S2, I'd have to question why you want an S2 over the S1? I went from a tweaked S1 to a track orientated 135R because I wanted to do a fair bit of track work, the S2 is a bit more practical in terms of luggage capacity, (for later models) a vastly superior roof and I'd always wanted an S2!

However, I would suggest that 9K would get you a really good S1 with all the goodies that you need for the occasional bit of track time. If you wanted to do a lot of track work, then 7.5K would get you a good base car and then spend another 1.5K on wheels, tyres and suspension. Loads of choice S1-wise if you wanted.

Having said that, if you've got your heart set on an S2 and don't mind that you wil generally be looking at the used/abused/or slightly tatty examples then take your time and a decent one may come up. 43K miles does not seem particularly high, so I'm surprised the one you looked at has had such a hard time.

The only other things I would add regarding the S2 are:
- The short roof (circa 2003 onwards) are much easier to put on and off than the earlier long roof ones. Short roof can be taken down and put up whilst sitting in the car; the long roof requires faffing around outside the car. The S1 roof is even worse though!
- Don't be fooled by so-caled suspension "upgrades" like GAZ, Leda, etc. The S2 suspension is a pukka mono-tube damper and pretty trick for a road car. The common ugrades are Nitron or Ohlins; both at other 1K a set.
- Standard S2s are set-up for understeer due to geometry and pram-like front wheels. You can get the geo done cheaply (Elises are *very* sensistive to geo) and you can buy wider front wheels
- HGF is very common. If it happened early in the cars life it is usually a good sign as it was caught early!
-Unless you are running 220bhp+ upgraded car (i.e. Audi Turbo or Honda engine), brake upgrades are limited to better pads and discs. On the subject of discs and pads, stay away from EBC stuff as it does not suit the Elise.

Lastly, the club-scene thing with the Elises is really lively (if you're into all that). There are loads of trackdays and trips organised.

Good luck with the search and don't be put off by tatty examples. They are generally cheap as chips to run as they are light on consumables and have shopping-trolley engine and gearbox.

Cheers,

Andy

Diesel

Thanks guys, REALLY appreciate you taking the time.

Not sure what 'HGF ' is though. and why a lightweight car on 40k should need new shocks? Still Konis were £45 a corrner last time I changed them on me Mk1 Escort Would have thought that this was THE last car that you would deem to 'improve' with non original susp parts mind? It is surely its stock very raison d'etre!!!

Great pic!!!

Thanks again.

D

greg.g

HGF = Head Gasket Faliure.

Not a massively expensive problem to put right if it does happen.


The thing you have to remember with lotus is that right from the early days they have not as a company worried about using the parts from other companys. Their production runs have tended to be in small numbers. So when designing the car the cost of developing say a shock absorber for a small number of cars is very high in research and development. Consequently they often used to shop round and see what was already available on the market for the best price. Hence, koni's were chosen for the S1 on a price issue. Out of interest, lotus themselves only envisaged making and selling up to 1500 elises. They were completely taken by surpise by the amount of interest generated by the elise.

What i am trying to get at is that the koni's were not put on the car as they were the best option for handling and performance. It was purely a price issue and what was available at the time. Better stuff was available by the time the S2 was designed, hence they went for the bilsteins.


If price was not an issue when they designed these cars, then they would have been made with ohlins or nitrons as standard.

So in keeping with this, when stuff wears out on our cars, we tend to upgrade to a better product rather than trying to keep it as original as possible.

Colin Chapman was never a man to avoid change and push boundries.
After all, he was responsible mid engine racing f1 cars, spoilers and skirts, downforce, racing tub crash structures, racing suspension to name a few.

Lotus was not a company to avoid change.

madras

For what it's worth the only thing I hated about Elise ownership (S1) was sitting in traffic in the rain, the car would turn into a mobile sauna.

Apart from those occasions I loved every minute.

madras

Jim_B

iTrader: (1)

Nice replies from Greg above... I would also look for a S1 111s.. Cracking car. The extra power & short ratio gearing is really noticeable.

Diesel

Yes, sometimes I just love Scoobynet