Scottish Elises

Hi,

Just thought i'd introduce myself to everyone. I just bought a Europa S a couple of weeks ago - it's my first Lotus. The car I had before this was an Audi S5, which was an awesome car too but in a totally different way to the Europa. I did do a number of mods to the S5 too, added AWE exhaust, AWE downpipes to remove secondary cats, H&R suspension and 20" forged wheels. Put a few pics of that up too.

I was told that this Europa was first owned by a former member of this site who sadly had terminal cancer.

I haven't taken any decent pictures of the car myself yet but I have a few from the advert. I'm also planning to make most of the Thorney Motorsport upgrades to the car over the next year or so too although I can't decide whether to go for the Larini exhaust system or the Milltek Sport system....anyone have any videos of how either sounds??

Great car with what I've heard was a great previous owner in Lawrence.

It is Lawrence,s car, I am sure you will loveit.
Please try look after the 070707 sticker above the exhaust, It will hold many great memories for lots of people on here.

Cheers, and

Stu

Fantastic that the car has found its way back to the forum.

I drove it once or twice when it was Lawrence's and really enjoyed it - not a track car, but a fantastic road car.

I'm sure you're going to love it!



Cheers,
Robin

SAJ wrote:I haven't taken any decent pictures of the car myself yet but I have a few from the advert. I'm also planning to make most of the Thorney Motorsport upgrades to the car over the next year or so too although I can't decide whether to go for the Larini exhaust system or the Milltek Sport system....anyone have any videos of how either sounds??

Two words of advice from a VX owner

1. Avoid Thorney like the plague, and use Courtenay Sport instead

2. Millteks have a very patchy reputation in the VX world, so i'd plump for a Larini or (if they do them for Europa's) 2bular.

oh and

Well done Saj and welcome aboard.

No pressure, by the way !!


Campbell

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

Stu160 wrote:It is Lawrence,s car, I am sure you will loveit.
Please try look after the 070707 sticker above the exhaust, It will hold many great memories for lots of people on here.
Stu

Unfortunately the 070707 sticker seems to have been removed by the previous owner, I’m the third owner. I’m assuming it’s a date that symbolises something – can you tell me what it is?

robin wrote:Fantastic that the car has found its way back to the forum.
I drove it once or twice when it was Lawrence's and really enjoyed it - not a track car, but a fantastic road car.
I'm sure you're going to love it!

Cheers,
Robin

Precisely the reason I bought the car, with it being my first Lotus I can get use to Lotus ownership before moving up the scale to the more hardcore cars (and the Mrs drives it too). I’m actually surprised at how easily you can live without all the created comforts that most modern cars have. To be honest for me only air con is important, I can quite easily live without the rest.

Lazydonkey wrote:

SAJ wrote:I haven't taken any decent pictures of the car myself yet but I have a few from the advert. I'm also planning to make most of the Thorney Motorsport upgrades to the car over the next year or so too although I can't decide whether to go for the Larini exhaust system or the Milltek Sport system....anyone have any videos of how either sounds??

Two words of advice from a VX owner
1. Avoid Thorney like the plague, and use Courtenay Sport instead
2. Millteks have a very patchy reputation in the VX world, so i'd plump for a Larini or (if they do them for Europa's) 2bular.
oh and

I take it you’ve not had good experience with them (Thorney)?
I know that the Europa and the VX220 turbo are very similar but do Courtenay actually offer upgrades for the Europa?

o7o7o7 was a big weekend tour emanating from the Scottish Se7ens community and others, in which Lawrence was a major catalyst / participant.

Took place around 7 July 2007 (!) involving a run up the west coast of Scotland to (I think) Clachtoll campsite, or was it Big Sands at Gairloch...or both?!

Has since been followed by one or two other large-scale summer trips to same area, although nothing was put together by the same groups for this year...eventually the cracks start to show

Those who attended the original trip can probably tell you more. I only made it to the o5o7o9 version, held last July, which was also a blast.

If you are interested in getting further afield in Scotland, watch out for various camping or "Campaganza" trips which we try to put together within Scottish Elises from time to time. You'll be amazed at how much gear you can get in the boot of an Elise, never mind a Europa, the use of camping keeps costs down, whilst allowing us to get a lot further north to some of the best and most deserted roads the UK has to offer

SAJ wrote:I take it you’ve not had good experience with them (Thorney)?
I know that the Europa and the VX220 turbo are very similar but do Courtenay actually offer upgrades for the Europa?

Nope fraid not. Dont have a problem with the guy personally but his standard of work and his customer service "skills" leave a lot to be desired. He tends to post frequently on forums that he also owns and moderates.........and as such the casual observer thinks there are no issues! Some of the independent BMW and VX boards show a different storty though. It's exactly the same engine as the VXT so i dont see any reason why courtenay wouldnt work on it - gotta be worth a call anyway.

Either that or use the companies that Hoffmans used for their racing Europa.

from another Europa owner, I think that makes 3 of us on here now

I haven't had experience of Thorney but have heard some bad things elsewhere, Hofmanns on the other hand appear to have a great reputation so I would follow the recommendation on that, Courtney appear to have a good rep too.
I am pondering an exhaust change but as Donkey said Milltek seem to have patchy write ups - I think Larini is where my money may end up.

Enjoy the car, they are something special IMHO.

As per Robin, welcome along and great to see Lawrence's car back in Scottish_Elises.

He was one of the founder members of S_E, and a much loved friend of many of us.

tut