Wanted WTB: A nice Lotus Elise

There’s at least one on BaT every week. That’s the market for them.

 

An elise is an excellent choice, its the one car i would never sell. Those with big budgets who ignore an elisoe are missing out on perhaps the most seminalcar of the past 20 years.

My advice is to start with a bone stock car, as always the factory knew what ti was doing. You can add some mods from there. Build got better with the years, but basicaly buy a good well taken care of one.

The question is supercharged or not. the answer depends on the roads youre on. Personaly I find the NA motor to be more than plenty. The one mod to do is to change the cam changeover point from 6500rm to 5700. for the big straights of omaha maybe a supercharged car makes some sense for the low down tq, the stock supercharged car wont lap any quicker though.. You might want to contact Boe fab in Kansas they may have a lead on some some good ones. gator Matorsport in Indy is also great.

BAT has them listed, you can also find them on ebay. Many were not driven much so its good to look for single owner cars that had limited use..

 

Lotus, my first love…. Best of luck as it is such a fun car.
I’d also join Lotustalk.com - check out the classified section there.
I’d LOVE a white S260 Exige!!


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I won’t sell. They’ll never make cars like these again, ever.

It’s a snapshot in history that will never return.

 

More than a snapshot, it is yet to be repeated or topped.

Possibly if caterham or some other sympathetic party buys the elige program from Lotus, they'll develop the machine further.
In my perfect world the car would loose the airbags and other frippery dropping a few hundred lbs and gain a really smooth motor.
I could see the current honda turbo mtoor from the civic R, but that woudl make the machine a beast with lots ow low down Tq, a different animal.
Another directs would be the morcycle derived V8 that radical makes, youd still have that low tq need to rev feel but endless top end.

As is theyre simply superlative excellent, the long stroke toyoita/ymaha mtoro can be a bit buzzy beign the only critique, but thats fitting with its english roadster heritage. 195 hp in a 1900lbs car is more or less perfect though.

 

Beauty and the beast.
One is 1875 lbs and 195 hp, it plays on road and track, asks for little and is full on entertainment.
The other is 2300lbs 370ish hp and is a completly different machine, its a battleax to the elsies rapier..
They both have the exact same tub/frame centre section.
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Pics of your V6 Exige!


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Beast
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I found my 2005 Graphite Grey Elise a tough car to enter but a blast to drive.

 

I’d go for a 2006 Exige over an Elise.

 

Different animals.Wider front tires on an exige less sweet steering, no roof off, harder shocks, depends on use.
06 is an interesting exige in that it had no supercharger, so one can add an aftermarket one for better power.
Exiges have some aero and weigh more.

For road and ocasional track work I like an elise, better rear vision, nicer steering feel(175 fronts and yoko 0o8) top off.

 

I've driven with Sean in his Elise, in his Exile and a few other cars of his...

BUT, I can confidently say, the Elise is always the one he goes back to and says "dude, you just cannot beat it, this thing hugs the road, steers like it's on rails, and you don't feel like you're going to kill yourself (ala in a 750+hp supercar)". It checks a LOT of boxes.
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Sean, do you prefer the Elise for better entry/exit since you can take the top off? My 2005 with the top on was a hard entry for me.

 

This pic is illustrative of the versatlity of these cars. Here it is cleaned and on road wheels/tires where it works great in that enviroment,
Theres another set of wheels which one can see in the prior pic, those are exige wheels with 888Rs in wider fronts. Those tires make a lot more huming noise and the steerign is quite different, fine for driving to the track but lacking the on road steering sweetness. On track the 888rs are magic, they stay good not getting greasy all day, and grip is amazingly close to the yoko slicks I used to run the car on. If anythign 888Rs are better because their grip works better with the suspesion. This car has the track pack which i think is 10% stiffer springs and bilstein non adjustable shocks from factory. To me they work great on road and on track with the 195 hp. I did get an adjustabale front roll bar to stiffen it up a little and we put in -1.6 degrees of negative caber up front, that all made a big difference in front end grip on track. it also means on street at the limit youre not going to understeer, which may or may not be good depending on driver.

I used to drive on track with the traction deactivated because it felt intrusive. As I got better at balancing the car on corners and the car aligned better I realized that if youre using all 4 tires equaly the traction wont need to activate and youre going a lot faster. Lets call it a teachable moment.

Thats how I got to drive the Maclren Gt4, he was black ***ged for not letting me past at lrp and then blasting down starghts only to be in the way on corners. Hed couldnt understand how this little car was so quick at lime rock. Simple you dont slow down for corners, just use the brakes to settle the car for the corner ahead. Theres a whole art to drivign these little cars that you miss on somthng more powerful and brutal, but if you can lean those skills and then translate them to a faster car thats the way to be fast.

On our Ct backroads youre not going faster in any other car no matter whats ts potential may be, and on a small track like lrp yeah youre not tangling with a Gt3 but then theyre no quicker thorugh the bends despite all the power because its a crutch. Ive seen a pro driven(f3 champion) stock elise slaughter evrything at a test and tube day at LRP.

Its the metronome car for me, always start the season in it, that way I'm forced to be quick and not rely on brakes or power, translate that corner quickenss to a faster car once youre set and then there are some truly epic speeds. But If I start in the fatser car, its easy to get lazy use the brakes too much and rely on the power to add speed back off the apex. Thats the problem with vettes and many vette drivers, they lack finesse and all the power grip and brakes are a crtutch which holds the driver back from advancing.

An elsie to me is simply the perfect balance and bland of forces. But for highway or just straight roads probably there are better options.

 

I think its two years since I took the hardtop off,(is still a british roadster with a pita to remove roof unless you just use the softop which is easy) so its not the roof Getting in I just slide one leg in and down into the seat. Im 5:10 and a bit long torso.
Exit I just pull my leggs up and pivot sideways in the seat to put both feet on the ground and roll forwards wedging myself out with elbows on the bodywork. Its just technique, lol. The 4cyl exige is to me a much harder car, the front tires are wider its lees sweet at the wheel, you cant see out the back and its simply more track focussed. A Na elise to me is a harmonious balance of evcerything

the exige v6 is the same tub but with a roll cage its more complex getting out , there I pull myself up off the seat by holding the cross bar on the top and rotate to a feet out postion while hanging from the bar. Helmet needs to be put on inside side the car because theres no other way to get in with it on, and taken off before exit, although i bet if I had to get out in a hurry it would happen helmet on. So for me the elise is the comfy spacious car.

its pretty cool transitioning from one to the other, because all the interior and control placement is the same, so it feels familar, given limited track time its good to be in familiar looking cockpit although they drive very differently... The longer wheelbase of the exige v6 makes it more stable and a little less eager to pivot, add to that a wider track front and rear, slicks and a shorter steering ratio and its quite heavy at the helm and far more direct. Toe out in front and more than -2 dgrees negative camber means its wanting to turn left or right and needs to be held straight at speed.

If you get the rear out its very easy to control and correct which is different to an elise, its more forgiving none of that dancing on ones tippy toes feeling at the limit you get in an elise. A battleax to the elise rapier. Ive never gotten to the limit of the front end, well at the glenn going though the esses coming up the hill to turn 3 youre acclerating past 130 and the front can feel light if you rush it and then you feel like you might just go straight off the bridge, but thats bad driving technique and lack of brain calibration where it all is rushign at you really fast and you worry about getting across for the turn, at that spot you're 20-25 mph faster than the else and still acelrating hard. The solution dont panic take your time slow hands and the car is in a slot. After the esees once youre on the straight you look in the mirror and the Gt3 or whaterver that was right behind you going into turn 1 is now multiple car lengths further back, fast as they are they wont make the distance before the bus stop where you can brake later and slow less.


On slower tighter corners in 2nd even once going straight if the speed is low you can spool up the rear tires and in 3rd its pretty easy to smoke the rear wheels comming off the apex or such is the tq, you really just feed in the power feeling the limit of rear traction winding off lock and letting the car drift towards the tackut. Mutlistage traction control from the motec has made that all a lot easier to modulate and reduced rear tire wear by 40% and that without spooling up the tire before traction control.

The differences are that an elsie on track with 888rs the tires can last 4-5 days and those as $1k tires. Pads last 14 days. The exige, slicks last 2.5 days more or less maybe 3 at the glenn which is easy on those things. pads are maybe 5 days and far more expesive than for an elise. Each corner arrive 20-25 mph or more faster you can brake later harder and still carry more speed if your brain can spool up to that level, just intense, the elise by contrast is a ballet and arguably more fun. At a place like the Glenn the exige is near 15 secs per lap faster.

Those two cars show the versatility of the elige platform, Ive also driven a aftermarket intercooled supercharged elise which was somewhere well north of 300hp and it was quicker than a 4cyl exige 260. My issue with mded supercharged 4cyl cars is the power becomes really narrow and peaky so while the headline numbers are great, practicaly speaking they're not much qucker. Although the 300hp else I drove was quick right through the gears so it can be done.

 

Top can come off on an Exige. Front clam allowing for wider front tires is key here. You can always go down tire sizes, not up. Better supported bucket seats. Big difference there with the pro bax seats.

Weight difference between the 2 cars is marginal. Probably coming from the added spoiler. I ended up putting on a dry carbon spoiler that probably weighed 5 lbs. Took off another 10-20 lbs with my clear lexan MT-Draco rear hatch, but then again, I am the only person in the U.S who has one .


I prefer NA over supercharged for simplicity, less weight, and better sound.





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Nice looking car.

 

Thanks. Sold the car Feb last year, but I did keep the MT-Draco rear hatch. New owner had the car reviewed by some Youtuber. Reviewer was more drawn to the Exige than the Cayman .

Youtuber got it right at the end. “Simplify, then add lightness.” This is the core of the Elise/Exige driving experience.

 

Sickkkkk


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Dude you sold it!!!
What were the specs ?


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Yea. Needed space for the new Jeep. Otherwise, would keep it forever.

2006 NA Exige. Mostly bolt-on NA stuff. DRS headers, AP Racing cup brake upgrade. Ohlins 2-Way TTX. Arqray muffler. ITG cold air intake. Front/rear sway bar upgrade. 1.8 way Ikeya Formula LSD. Inokinetic shifter. Stock ecu. The next step was an ecu upgrade for a bit more power, but honestly, it was fun as is. They’re never gonna offer cars like this in the U.S again. Too much of a go-kart for the road I guess.

 

Marshall Goldman has a nice one for sale right now...

https://www.marshallgoldman.com/used-vehicle-2008-lotus-elise-c-1439/

 

That's almost what it sold for new 13 years ago. Prices going up, up and away!