Scottish Elises

Evening,

Thought I would say a quick hello as I have been thinking about changing my evo for a s1 Elise.

The evo is a second car, and a fantastic one at that, but I have always fancied an Elise so going to start doing some research into running costs/servicing/general info before I venture into the market!

One of the big factors in wanting to change is trackdays, I own a dedicated Clio 182 trackday car but I'm currently breaking it for spares. The evo was going to be its replacement but I fear it may be a massive money pit, and I'm after more fun than fast ( the Clio done this brilliantly!) so hopefully an Elise will fit the bill perfectly!

Anyway, hopefully you guys can help with any questions I have along the way

Cheers
Craig

Evos are epic, but if you want to do trackdays and have some epic fun at a bargain price you really cant do any better.

The fuel usage will be the first thing you notice - you can run till lunch at least, and go on track as much as you want in an S1 Elise - vs probably 2 tanks or more in an Evo for the am alone!

With the way the road laws and lgislation in the Uk is headed, I think cheap track thrills are were its at

Happy hunting

Welcome Craig,

For so long as the car doesn't break down then the running costs will be small - most standard tune K-series elises are pretty frugal. The toyota engined models less so, but still frugal compared to an evo (less than half the power = less then half the fuel).

Even when it does break down, compared to a broken Evo, I suspect the costs will be manageable.

If you're worried about reliability then you might want to see if the budget stretches to an S2 instead as a variety of common faults with the S1 were fixed (wheel bearings, heat shield, exhaust manifold, some aspects of the electrics, less leaky in the rain, and lots more besides). There is a small weight penalty, but not worth worrying about given your goal of having fun. The only downside of S2 is skinny front tyres, but this is easy to fix by putting on a new set of wheels (on which you can keep your track tyres; keep standard wheels for road tyres).

Anyway, whatever elise you get you'll find you love it, especially on track, but they can be depressing when they turn unreliable, so be prepared with a bit of a budget for that and don't be afraid of fixing whatever breaks

Cheers,
Robin

along

Mark