Scottish Elises

I already posted this on SELOC, so here it is anyway in wonderful cut and paste edition.
StevenL suggested I post here.

Hi!!!!



Hi everyone!!

I'm new. This is my first post.

I've been secretly wanting an Elise for many years.
Having owned integrale's for the last 15 years and an avid Lancia fan, the need never came up.

Well, we purchased an MGF VVC three years ago and absolutely loved it. Replaced pretty much everything on it but now want something a bit newer and more fun.

So, we sat down and started looking at cars, primarily for the misses, I was given a few cars thrown at me. First a Mercedes SLK, so I suggested the only one I would buy is an SLK55, but it drank too much fuel. Then she said she liked the boxster, but after much discussion we decided it was too pretentious.

I told her about the Elise, expecting a hurl of abusive rant about boys car, breaks down, looks too sporty etc... to my surprise she liked it. Then, when she heard about the mpg it sealed the deal.

So here I am, money burning a hole in my pocket, very excited about shopping for a car for her. More excited than she is.

Going to look at one tomorrow evening, titanium/tan, 134 111s with very low miles.

Hi again!!!!!!

Grant

Steve.

Hope she likes it - often too spartan for the fairer sex

Hi
I'll be the pretentious one nearby in Sunny Crieff

I'm clearly far too pretentious to acknowledge you joining the forum, but will make an exception this time.

Hi Grant, welcome to the S_E Forum.

There is an S1 111S and also an S2 model, which one have you gone for? Not sure what your 134 refers to though, the original put out 145hp, and the later one 160hp, both being VVC engines. As you said low mileage I presume that it is an S2.

tut

Tut

134 bhp Elise will be this one

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/ ... 07/1539069

That's not a 111S though Iain.

tut

tut wrote:That's not a 111S though Iain.

tut

Agreed...................hence my post

Noticed your post on Pistonheads and was going to suggest joining here so welcome.
As mentioned that is a Toyota engined S model not a Rover vvc engined 111s.
If you are looking at that price range your choice of S2 Elise are Rover 111s or the Toyota engined 111R or S models.
Cheaper will be the standard rover engined S2, dearer will be the supercharged SC model or the later 111r renamed as the R.

These 2 sites provide a bit more info about the various Elise models if you still aren't sure.
http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Elise_model_history
http://www.elises.co.uk/models/

Ah, just realised that it is the small engined Toyota. However Grant slipped 111S into the description which confused me.

Difficult for me to advise on that model Grant as I have always had higher powered Elises, but I do suggest that you try another couple of models before you decide. Even compared to the original 118hp Elise, I found it struggling for power.

tut

Welcome to SE Grant. Later cars have got much better build quality and certainly the Toyota engined cars have much better reliability. Good luck with your search.

After a few more real ales (holidaying in St Andrews) and most of a bottle of Crusted port ( so much better than a bottle of the Buckfast, Donald even though I'm a Lanarkshire man) my opinion is a S is no mans land. Not the torque, great brakes of the 111s and not the kick of the 2nd cam of the 111r.
Does have the values of an Elise so give it a go and see if you like an Elise in general about cornering, great handling, fun on B roads but see how it feels and revs compared to your MGF, think about with that engine if you ever want to pass anything on a straight ( even normal cars or turbo diesels) you have no chance with a 134hp Elise.
So my recommendation is try don't buy until you have tried a 111s and 111r.
I've had an 111s and a 111r and so much prefer the 111s for fast road driving.