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I currently have an s2000 as my dedicated track car, and I'm pondering an Elise supercharged or NA.
Has anyone owned one?
Tony Vaccaro (tvacc@lotusowners.com) is a huge fan / proponent of the Elise - you will often see his very objective comments on BAT regarding Elises, Exiges, Sevens .... he loves em.
Had an Exige Cup as a street/track car for a while. An Exige is basically the same car as the Elise. Great fun on track and no problems with cooling, even with a supercharger. Just make sure you have the dual oil cooler option. The main drawback is that the car is simply not that fast, it feels fast, looks fast, and is a blast to drive, but it will not post low lap times unless heavily modified. They are also very hard to set up, I was never completely happy with how my car felt on track. Have only seen one very fast Exige in Norway, which was a cup 260 set up by a race shop with dampers in the 7k+ range (if I remember correctly)
Had an Exige Cup as a street/track car for a while. An Exige is basically the same car as the Elise. Great fun on track and no problems with cooling, even with a supercharger. Just make sure you have the dual oil cooler option. The main drawback is that the car is simply not that fast, it feels fast, looks fast, and is a blast to drive, but it will not post low lap times unless heavily modified. They are also very hard to set up, I was never completely happy with how my car felt on track. Have only seen one very fast Exige in Norway, which was a cup 260 set up by a race shop with dampers in the 7k+ range (if I remember correctly)
that thing looks wicked! Always wanted a green lotus
my buddy had a non-sc Elise and drove it on the backroads a few times, very quick and legit go cart like handling. I think their awesome, but look at them like a go cart type device, they definitely don’t have the personality, charm or use ability of an air cooled p-car
i still think they’re undervalued and something I’d like to own at some point
I have an Exige (essentially same as Elise) and they're great cars. They have delicate and expensive to repair bodywork, though. A 2mph tap can cause over $10k in damage, so I'd be very wary about using one as a track car unless you can afford expensive bodywork--or you don't care if it gets janky from use.
I currently have an s2000 as my dedicated track car, and I'm pondering an Elise supercharged or NA.
The whole idea of a dedicated track car is cheap, fast and safe. While I love the Lotus it's certainly not cheap to purchase or repair. One of my friends did 15k+ damage from simple off in his.
I opted for a built 300whp Miata for dedicated track duties. I can beat just about anything on track and it's cheap to run and repair.
I suggest you invest more money into your S2000 to get the performance you want out of it.
I had a new 1998 or 1999 (I can't remember) Elise Sport 190 track-only version (before they sold street legal ones in the US), that I accidentally drove on the street some. http://cincyconcours.com/1999/s084.jpg
Bought it to replace my 944 Turbo Cup factory race car for track use, but never really liked it, so sold the Elise and kept the Turbo Cup for many more years.
Then a couple years ago I bought a 2011 Elise street car, thinking it offered exotic car performance and style at reasonable price, but didn't keep it long- sold it on BaT. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2011-lotus-elise-2/
An Elise is tiny, loud, crude, and rough, and makes a stock 911 or Miata or S2000 seem like a luxury car.
If I were younger, I'd probably have one for a daily driver. But I'm old!
The whole idea of a dedicated track car is cheap, fast and safe. While I love the Lotus it's certainly not cheap to purchase or repair. One of my friends did 15k+ damage from simple off in his.
I opted for a built 300whp Miata for dedicated track duties. I can beat just about anything on track and it's cheap to run and repair.
A 300 whp track dedicated Miata has to be about as much fun as can be legally possible!
that thing looks wicked! Always wanted a green lotus
my buddy had a non-sc Elise and drove it on the backroads a few times, very quick and legit go cart like handling. I think their awesome, but look at them like a go cart type device, they definitely don’t have the personality, charm or use ability of an air cooled p-car
i still think they’re undervalued and something I’d like to own at some point
I personally think that brg is by far the best color on an Exige, and most other cars. One of my all time favorite car colors. It is probably the most fun backroads car I have had, but it was just too cumbersome to use (noisy, cold, a pain to get in and out etc). In the end I did not bother to use it except from driving to the track. Might be me getting old, but my very track focused, and a former race car, 993 is a car I love to drive to the shop, work etc when the weather is nice.
At a local Porsche gathering a random guys stops and asks if he can sit in my Exige, and wants me to take pictures of him. He does not give the Porsche a second glance before he leaves, so charm seem to be in the beholder of the eye. (I still do prefer my 993)
06-25-2020, 12:35 AM
