STANDARD (LOW) POWERED ENGINE COMPARISON

[ferg f]

Reading all these comments and having been round KH a "few times" I would admit, if I had been looking to track my 1.6 I would have made a huge mistake in buying her.

But having bought her and not having had any previous experience with the Elise I was happy with the purchase.

Wasn't so happy with the bill from Murray Motors for a new radiator though!!!!!! I've had big maintenance bills before but this was absurd, £1300 for a radiator!!! Thank goodness a kind person on here has since put me on to Ken Brown in Hillington.

[smitstui]

£1300 ouch!

Why did it fail? I have never had one fail.

[StiflerMR2]

All that said, I had that n/a Exige with strange wing things on it at the next sidc day. It felt outclassed next to all the supercharged Elises. I really noticed a step change in trackday speed since the V6 Exige and Elise 220s came out. There were always faster cars before but now the majority are faster.

I remember being behind you in my S1 on that day and having a great time trying to keep up!

FWIW power is seductive but you get use to it, hence the desire for more. I remember the first time I buried my foot in the Europa after coming from my S1, I thought it was a rocket ship - now it seems a little pedestrian.

I still think for pure thrills an S1 is an amazing place to put your money and a 1.6CR with a few tweaks would be a great place to start Elise ownership. I love the pale blue ones

The good news is there really are no bad elises!

[Ferg]

I think that sums up nicely. An S1 on a clear track is a wonderful thing.

[smitstui]

I still think for pure thrills an S1 is an amazing place to put your money and a 1.6CR with a few tweaks would be a great place to start Elise ownership. I love the pale blue ones

Hijacking thread slightly, but I had my eye on this one, just not in a postition to buy yet. One of my favourite Elise (or Exige) colours.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified ... New&page=1

[ferg f]

£1300 ouch!

Why did it fail? I have never had one fail.

Apparently the OEM radiator isn't the best of designs (which I am sure anyone having been about Lotus would have known) and it was an end tank that had just decided to give up. Murray Motors seemed to think that for its age this wasn't too bad!

I had been out for a spirited run, temps were normal never over 92 degrees. When I got home I was just driving her in to the garage and there was a little spray on to the windscreen and a split second later a load of steam...... garage floor covered in coolant.

There had been no indications as to an issue, no liquid on the garage floor and no change in liquid levels, guess I was just unlucky for it to happen after a mere 1000 miles of ownership.

Pity I hadn't known about Ken Brown at that point as I could have had a better aftermarket radiator fitted at a fraction of the cost.

[campbell]

I changed an S1 radiator for all-alloy a while back. Got 7 trouble free yrs out of it. Placcy end tanks on std ones are infamous...

[Dark]

Hijacking thread slightly, but I had my eye on this one, just not in a postition to buy yet. One of my favourite Elise (or Exige) colours.

Stunning in that colour! Although not sure it counts as low powered!

[ScottJ-PS]

OP back again. I've been reading all love as it has been posted. Seems a 220bhp is the way to go ....

But to answer my question. I didn't find the 1.6 any faster than my 2.0MX5 and that seems to be born out by a few others. Not actually driven a 1.8 Toyota 134bhp yet. My 120bhp K makes a lovely sound, revs freely, and is fast enough 90% of the time, its just the odd overtaking times when more bhp would be good.

As a wise man said to me last week, at the end of the day an Elise is an Elise and 80mph is 80mph. Looking at current used values I'll stick with what I have as it would cost thousands to change.

The only time the car felt gutless was my one time on KH when I had Exiges and Evoras doing double the speed down start straight.