Elise - we Salute You

[ed]

Ha good times.

Not eloquent enough to summarise as well as the people above.

Its been a blast, lots of highs and some lows too....

Some highlights: Road runs, Trackdays, Tut towers, The Ring, Frolics, Le Mans 24, Weddings, Beers and Currys etc etc.

Met a wonderful bunch of people and made some great friends!

Feel very lucky!

A new Elise may soon be impossible to buy but this great bunch of people will continue to thrive I am confident of that!

[Mr Momo]

Good times indeed - not as mad as some, but at least I had an Elise (ahem)

Autocar's 111R road test was the turning point. Sat in my first S2 shortly after - Town & County, the same day sold-up and shipped the cars south.
2nd hand 111S test drive at Murray's turned into a new 111R daily driver (2004), thanks to Mr Robertson. Felt like a Le Mans 917 looking out of the screen at first, then it became demonic. Young enough then not to damage my hips.

Met most of you on here (Yahoo first :-0 - then on here from 2005 - check your profiles !) and at Murray's trackday, plus coached by Martin Donnelly at Hethel. A few road runs in all weathers ("Cabrach" trip in Jan '08 - ice and snow - tut in faulty heated jacket and bare feet), beers and curries, spanners and sponges, TT2007, learning about geometry (Mark Hutcheson's string !), not getting caught by Her Majesty's finest at Crathie (toot toot and a wave was enough for me !)

Not all roses : Bust it a bit (my fault - thanks for the help Ali C) - 6 months and £18k later it was fine.
Sold in 2008 after falling out of love, which could easily have been solved by buying a decent set of wheels/tyres (lost confidence in the front end).

No car for 6 months, then bought the Toxic Frog (from Gareth) and a Panda 100HP on the same afternoon - leading to TT2010 - the most enjoyable car extravaganza. An Elan Sprint DHC ticked a box, but never again.

Thanks to the car, I am fortunate to have met some of you and have the scars and stories to prove.

[avdb]

Bought my Elise S2 new in 2007 and after nearly 14 years sold it last week. I bought the Elise after my first visit to MMC to replace my MGF. It has been a very cheap car to run without any problems and the Toyota engine has never failed me.

The Elise has been the most fun car I have ever had. Have had so many fun trips with it and met many people through car events, campagnes etc. The Elise always gets compliments from everyone.

I am enjoying the Mustang now and look forward to the new offerings from Lotus. Maybe Type 131 or future Lotus EVs.

[campbell]

Mustang, eh - bit of a leap!

[Tim S]

Bought my Elise in 2003. One of the last of the K series. The first and so far only new car I’ve ever bought.

As with you all, many memories. Two trips to Spain, several to the Alps, lots of ‘Ring trips (still proud of going enough in 2006 to buy an annual pass), and so many trips to great places in Scotland.

Still got it and it gets used all year. Now just over 100k miles, and it’s only failed to proceed twice – once with HGF and then just last week with a split oil pipe.

I’ve grown older than it has – now I mostly use it just for pottering about doing boring trips, while complaining about how noisy it is, but I can’t bring myself to sell it. Even when just dawdling in the sunshine, nothing’s ever going to beat it for feel and involvement.

Happy memories of evening Borders road runs too…!

[alicrozier]

Some monumental times over the years thanks to my original Elise and meeting the people on here!

I picked up my first Elise, a Silver S2 111S, from Town and County in Aberdeen the afternoon of arriving back from honeymoon in October 2002. I remember my first road run following Scotty and watching him take off over the jumps south over Cairn O'Mount to meet up with tut and a few others and heading back north. Lots of nonsense swiftly ensued with a Walshy day at Crail and the first tentative steps into trackdays at Knockhill. This ramped up to obsession and with encouragement from Lawrence, competition in Sprints and Hillclimbs in 2005 and winning the Scottish Road Car Title - stickered up but still daily driving it!

I lumbered Graeme with the Elise in October 2005, recalling the MMC technician querying the strange left hand tyre wear pattern and the ECU reading 120 standing starts since it's last service. Also Graeme later regaling me with tales of his inability so see out of it due to shot blasted windscreen, misaligned headlights (needing a new front clam) and various other 'cosmetic' issues.

The replacement Magnetic Blue S2 Exige 190 was fantastic, some great fun at Spa in the wet was probably the highlight but it went up for sale far too soon in Feb 07 as we prepared for an expat stint in sunny Lagos. While away the 'shared shed' was an adventure in every sense! A £5K S1 Elise, what could possibly go wrong? Shared ownership with Stu and Ed who meticulously maintained it (or not) for me to use on expat breaks. French Frolic, Monaco (almost doing an 'Italian Job' up the col de Turini) and LoT at Le Mans with Ed and big G being particular standout events.

Flush with ill gotten gains on return from Africa in July '08 I splurged on another Exige, a nearly new S2 British GT Edition. This was epic fun, doing the donkey punch trip, more Frolics, Nurburgring etc. Meeting the fastidious previous owner at Oulton park 3 months into ownership when I'd done 10K miles and the car was filthy with tyre marks and brake dust (he hadn't taken it out in the rain)...he was nearly crying. lol

July '11 saw me swap the Exige for an Aspen White 2-Eleven...best...move...ever! Performance Pack, Carbon GT2 seats...what a car, none of the driving compromises of any previous Lotus. Just needed a can of man up and appropriate clothing for the weather! Too many great memories to mention in the 7 years and 30,000 miles. Frolics a plenty, Atom antics, Spa and Nurburgring trips. Along the way a Daytona Blue Evora S Sports Racer joined it in the garage in 2015 and was fantastic for the daily driving duties.

The latest (and probably greatest) swap was after Andy G knowingly taunting me with drives of his new 3-Eleven at Donnie late in 2018. A plan was hatched and the Evora and 2-Eleven went their separate ways to be replaced by my current 3-Eleven in Dec 2018. Green with Yellow stripes and a single drivers seat it's next level in every sense. I think it's fair to say I've had more issues with it than any other Lotus (sticking cam change initially then new clutch needed, mainly due to it standing at a dealers for 2 years from new) but all sorted by Craig and the highs still far outweigh the lows. Nurburgring trips, Spa, Zandvoort etc it is just epic on track but also fantastic on the road. I look forward to many more continued adventures once we're allowed to travel again. 3-Eleven vs Atom4 antics beckon...

[DJ]

My story isn't anywhere near as long-term or hardcore as some on here, but it has been a decent chunk of some fun times over almost 15 years.

After child No 2 came along, the WRX I had was becoming impractical - dismantling a double buggy to get it in the boot! Before trading it in for a practical estate I signed up for a track introduction morning at KH, the one where Sasha took you around in an old Sierra Sapphire before you drove an XR2, a single seater then your own car on track. I loved it. So after another year or so of working out if I could run 3 cars whilst having two kids under 5 - both time and money commitment- and swithering between a 911 (964) and an Elise, I bought an S2 111s towards the end of 2006. I found Club Lotus held their meetings just 5 miles away so went along one night in early summer of 2007. It was full of lovingly restored Elan's, Europa's etc and the average age was about 40 years more than me. All were lovely guys but I clearly didn't fit and one bloke said there was another 'club' that I might find more appropriate called Scottish Elises. Back then, this forum didn't come up via a search tool.
Owned for 4 years my Elise did several runs up north including a couple of trips to Skye, a tour around the perimeter of the north of Scotland over 3 days, a trip to Essex for Walshy driver training and about a dozen trackdays - I think the car is still on here if Kayfur's son still has it?
I never got that 964 but came very close. I was all set to buy a low mileage, red one in Dundee after negotiating a price of about £16k in about 2009/10 but the dealer called Graeme at MMC to underwrite my Elise as a trade-in and the offer was too low. So, if reading this Graeme, you must owe me about £50k in lost appreciation!

Via a Boxtser S, the Elise made way for the Exige 240 PP, bought on here from a fellow SE-er and owned for another 3 years - a car that was way beyond my mediocre talents as a driver. Nice to have owned such a hard-core (to me) machine in ludicrous burnt orange. The Evora was bought after selling the Exige to a girl in Sweden that I think still owns it and has a decent following on Instagram from posting pics of her and the car.

In all honesty the Evora was a slightly uninspired purchase at the time - I couldn't think what else to get. But in the end it might have been my favourite of all the variants, using it for lots of gastro overnight trips up north or to Wales with the Mrs, often with friends with some nice cars. Guess I am mellowing and this held the appeal to me as much as track days did 15 years ago.

I am in a Porsche again just now but a depreciated Evora GT410 sport would be a nice change in a couple of years time and I look forward to what Lotus brings out next. For me the Elise is where it all started and my ownership of the 3 main Lotus products has been a large part of the last 15 years of my life, with some great memories of fun road trips and day's out in my various plastic and ally tubs.

[campbell]

Nice coverage of all 3 models, Dickson. A “depreciated Evora” could be very nice indeed! Wouldn’t need much persuasion on that myself.

[douglasgdmw]

My Lotus journey started on my 30th birthday, Sandra bought me a trip down to Hethel for their driver experience. Never driven cars with driver involvement till that day, a Suzuki Vitara, Vauxhall's Calibra & Renault Laguna (although in yellow with BTCC liverly - those were the max power days) were not exactly adept at driver enjoyment in the twisties. So after a great day at Hethel the thoughts of a sports car were embedded in my brain.

Fast forward to 2002 when we had funds for a sports car, so put a list to Sandra - Delta Integrale, E30 M3 Evo, 964 RS and Lotus Elise. Lancia and BMW were discounted immediately due to Sandra's not liking boxed arches and being LHD meant it was awkward getting into the flats underground car park. Was really interested in the 964 RS but as MMC were local decided to give Graeme a visit. Turned up in the Ford Puma expecting to be turned away, looked down at & shown the door. Graeme could not have been nicer so we purchased our first Lotus - S1 111S, 5k miles, norfolk mustard with hardtop as it was going to be our daily driver.

Found the Yahoo group and a great bunch of people. Loved the S1, although Sandra fell out of love when the exhaust went early doors (MIL recall was not done). So Graeme/Rodger changed it for an Exige 190 back box. Call from Pauline to say the cat also was gone, so choice between £40 for a straight through pipe or £500 for a cat meant my Aberdonian kicked in. However meant that you could now hear it for miles and would pop/bang like a Le Man race car. Neighbours directly underneath the underground car part were not fans with the exhausts reverberation and would give us annoying looks anytime they saw us .

2006, time to change the S1 to a ex MMC demo S2 111R, Aspen white, lightweight wheels and now no worry of HG failure. I loved the extra flurry of excitement when the cam came on. The 111R was probably Sandra's favourite car.

In 2010, change to another MMC ex demo of Lotus Evora in Graeme spec i.e rears seats out and CR box fitted. Amazed how many looks that car got and we enjoyed my 40th with a trip to see the Italian gods aligning (Rossi, Ducati and Mugello). Evora was the prefect Lotus for that trip, enjoyed going up/down Stelvio, trip to Pagani - where to my surprise the workers were 2 deep around the Evora.

The Exige V6 was launched and popped along to MMC for the weekend launch, deal was done although we wanted something different done with the paint.

As the Evora sold we looked for a "interim Lotus" until the V6 was ready. Went to Leeds and tried an S1 Exige 190. Sandra hated it . Dealer gave her a shot of an S2 Exige and she wanted that one . As it was an interim Lotus, due to the amount we would lose with an S2, we decided to walk away but I had a great shot of the S1 Exige.

With continual delays on the V6, due to ramp up of production, selecting one of the limited paint editions and our bespoke request the dates slipped, slipped again and again. Eventually decided to pull the plug and grab the deposit back.

Pistonheads search meant the Lotus ethos was tattoo'd on us and eventually decides to get a 987 Boxster Spyder, closest Porsche got to a Lotus.

Do miss the Lotus and would not hesitate to have another. Without the camaraderie on here, meets etc the Lotus experience would not have been as enjoyable.

George

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