foolycooly

I've got bored waiting for an S to be sourced in Japan now - been waiting almost 4 months for them to find one, and am getting tired of waiting.

I've been looking around at alternatives since I enjoyed the S so much, but have decided I want to try something different for a bit instead, so I've been looking around at S1 Elises for a bit.

Found a nice looking example that I;m going to look at tonight, but wondered if anyone here had any helpful advice as to what to look for aside from the usual?

I;ve had a look on the SELOC pages, and got a few pointers from there, but you guys seem to know a fair amount about other Marques so thought I;d throw it open to you lot as well.

Cheers

Simon

MarkB

Head Gasket failure - will probably have happened, so look for evidence of quality repairs done (bills etc.), and if they have a remote stat, so much the better.

Receipts for work done in general.

Listen for knocking coming from the dampers, worn dampers are common at the age these cars are now and are not cheap to replace, so negotiate the price down accordingly.

Look at brake disc wear, another expensive item to replace.

Remember these cars are much rawer than the S2000 so bumps and rattles are the norm, weak points are the engine and suspension so check them over carefully.

HTH

foolycooly

Cheers Mark,

This is the one I'm going to look at this evening;

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/208689.htm

Says its had the suspension replaced with Koni, and pads done recently, plus its got uprated discs - so will have to check the receipts I think.

MarkB

Looks like it's been well looked after by the description.

Check when the suspension and disks were done, if over 5 years ago budget for replacements.

One thing, it's a 3rd party 160 conversion, not an actual Sport 160 from Lotus, so although it's got a lot of the bits, it should be priced accordingly (ie. as an uprated standard car, not a factory 160) - having not seen the prices for a while I can't say if it is or not,
Make sure he knows you know that the case and negotiate if it seems high.

S1s with the K series are pretty common so be prepared to bargain and walk away if anything is suspicious.

Good luck, seems like a tidy car from the pictures and description.

MarkB

Oh, and if it's a conversion, the should have supplied him with a dyno print out. No print out, no proof (not that Lotus ever got the claimed bhp from any of their cars, but......).

Crusoe

I know the history on this one and it has really been pampered and a great spec, if you can go the extra money it would be worth it, tempted myself but not really practical enough as a only car. http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/197618.htm

Bada Bing!

Both of them look in great nick!

S1's look a little dated in red, but suit quite dark colours IMO. Don't expect to "get" the car till you've asked more of it than you would an S2K though.

It's only when you look for more that it really stands out. That doesn't make a lot of sense does it?

foolycooly

Makes sense to me Bada

It'll be interesting to see how it corners compared to the Scooby as well.

Thanks for the advice guys - knew I could rely on you lot

MarkB

That's a good car, top dollar but then it has the kit to match the price.

Bit of advice regarding test drive, the car WILL understeer if you drive it like the S, weight up the front end more than you would expect to when going into a bend (trail brake into the corner if you can) to get the fronts to stick, then use the fact that the weight is over the rear wheels to get on the power nice and early.

That's when you begin to 'get' mid engined, when you think of where the weight is and use it to your advantage.

And that's when you decide you have to have one as the handling shines through.

Bada Bing!

I knew Mark would explain it better than I.