Scottish Elises

Hi folks,
I haven't got one yet but I'm looking.

I've been an MX-5 driver for more years than I care to mention and have sprinted/hillclimbed one for the past 3 years. I'm fed up coming last and I think I'm ready for something a wee bit quicker.

Not sure what I'll be getting but I've always had a soft spot for the VX........... I might still be last but at least I'll be within 10 seconds!

I've got a bargain basement budget and I really want to keep the Mazda if I can so wIsh me luck in my hunt for a car.

Cheers,

Kev

Welcome & best of luck!

If you're looking for a hillclimb/sprint elise and it was to be a dedicated car, then the earliest S1 you can find would be the car to go for - better still if it's in mostly original condition rather than being an ex-race car.

If you want to use the car as well as enter it in the events, then an early S2 would be a better bet, but your budget might not stretch to that unless you sell the MX-5?

I think a VX will make a terrible hillclimb/sprint car without major modification - they're quite a bit heavier - makes no difference whatsoever on the road - but in a competitive environment, you'll regret it. I wouldn't mind betting that a MkI 1.8 MX-5 is as quick as a standard VX220.

There was a guy I knew a long time ago when I was more regularly at the ring who spent a lot of money making his standard VX220 better - in the end what he achieved was impressive, but it just returned the car to standard elise sort of performance.

Cheers,
Robin

Martin Smith competes in the hills and sprints with his VX. His car is quick (we had some good battles back in the day with my std Elise) and he is quicker still these days but Martin has made quite considerable modifications.
As Robin says the VX doesn't have the same potential as an Elise, early S1 the way to go...or a bike engined 7-a-like for even more fun/£.

Hi Kev, welcome to Scottish_Elises. We have a few VX owners on here, and the car is very good value at the moment.

However as Robin says, if you want to compete the Elise S1 is a far better bet . You must have started just after me as Ali Crozier and myself did the Scottish Sprint Championship in 2005, and Ali was Sprint Champion that year in a standard Elise 111S. We also have two members who are competing this year in S1's. You can pick up an early suitable S1 for around £7K, possibly even with uprated suspension and other useful mods, maybe even an uprated engine.

You will get plenty of useful advice on here when you actually start looking.

tut

I love my car very very much but i've got to say if i was going to do sprints and hillclimbs i'd follow the advice of the wise gents above.

The VX prices are competitive at the moment, but once you look at changing the wheels (std front is a 175/55 17" ) and the suspension any saving over an Elise is lost.

As a road car it can more than hold it's own IMHO but as a competitve car, unless you're goign to go down the route Hoffmans did with the Europa (which is essentially a VXT) then you'd be better off in Lotus land.

All that being said you're more than welcome to have a look round my modded VX and go out for a bast if you wish

Welcome to SE

howdy

Kev, although I said that an S1 would be your best bet, if your budget stretched to £10K then a VX 220 turbo would be a good alternative and the power would put you up closer to the front and it is still an A8 car.

There is one on Pistonheads at the moment http://pistonheads.com/sales/1118021.htm £9.9K with only 16,000 miles, upgraded calipers and disks, price reflects that it is a CAT D but only front clam damage so you get a respray out of it.

A cheap remap will take it upto 250hp, so only stiffer suspension if it was needed.

tut

Yuo're still going to be limited to standard bridgestones though - so you'd need to change the wheels too. And if you want to use funky light wheels you'll need to get rid of the astra hubs and std discs and put elise stuff on*

According to lotus the 2.2 is 850kgs and the turbo is 930kgs so you do pay in weight for the increase in power. As with most hethel products the younger more powerful models don't exactly scamper away from the older less powerful ones. My car can keep up with a turbo up to sensible road speeds.

* EDIT : There are compomotive and TD wheels that fit the standrd hubs but they aren't always that easy to get hold of, aren't that light and cost c. £800 a set IIRC. Standard potenzas are fine for road use and take a good battering on track but you'd probably want stickies for competing.

Can't beleive i'm actually talking someone out of buying a VX !

Kev, obviously take advice from a VX owner first like Lazy, as I am only going from figures as I have never driven one.

tut

I think the turbo is the worst VX variant I have ever been in - all the weight seems to be added on the end of a 5m pole sticking up somewhere behind the rear axle; it's truly horrible.

I've been in one both at Walshy's and also for one (vomit inducing) lap of the ring.

Of course this isn't an issue on the road, but at the limits I imagine it would be hard to control the power/grip - to make the most of it you would certainly need to be able to feed in the throttle at the "wrong" moment in order to get full power by the time you're unwinding the steering - but no matter how well you play that game you're going to get caught out, either pushing the front wheels wide or spinning up the rears unexpectedly - after all the engine does produce some power even before the turbo gets to work.

Non-turbo is the way ahead!!

What is the tyre choice like in your class?

Cheers,
Robin

Lordy, just shows if you have not driven one, did not realise that there was that much difference between the two.

List tyres include 888's and 48R's.

tut

robin wrote:Non-turbo is the way ahead!!

This man speaks the truth

Thanks for welcomes and advice. Lots to think about.

I appreciate that an early S1 makes the best base car (weight is everything) but the car has to double up as a second road car and be acceptable to the missus - I'm therefore not looking to be Class A8 champ (I'd splash on a two-eleven if I wanted that ). I'm really looking for a road car that I can do occasional sprints/climbs in. This season is proving too much for me (I'm scheduled to do 23 competive events as far afield as MIRA, Olivers Mount, Anglesey, Harewood blah blah) and I'll be doing much fewer events next year. I'll be driving to/from all events - no trailers for me (not yet anyway)!

If I sold the MX-5 (and my massive collection of bits) later, I could afford some engine tweeking too. Ever since I drove Anglesey in a mate's 260bhp MX-5, I quite like superchargers

I'm in no desperate rush. I'll be competing the MX-5 for the rest of the season (only 11 events to go!).