I am no longer an Elise owner

As of October 12, I no longer own an Elise. I loved my time with the car when I was using it on track, and I am glad that I had the experience of owning such a cool car. But, I learned I am not really ready for super-car ownership (or at least a car that gathers so much attention). I love cars, but I did tire of constantly talking about the Elise no matter where I went.

I always enjoyed letting people sit in it though -- although I did once play a bit of a trick on a young guy with a hot girlfriend. I told him to sit in the car, mostly so I could continue talking to his date -- and once he was in I said "crap, there's the owner . . ." -- ha ha. The look on his face was priceless. And one doesn't easily exit an Elise. I only let him scramble for a second or two.

Own one if you can. Get a ride in one if you can.

My next toy arrives tomorrow -- I'll post pics. There's a track day tomorrow. Serendipity . . .

Rob

Well, this better than I expected. Since it's a Lotus I expected this to be a thread filled with pix of a fire.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Well, this better than I expected. Since it's a Lotus I expected this to be a thread filled with pix of a fire.

+1. I was also expecting a fire like Hess had.

Having driven one in an autoX once I am not sure how you could let it go, but then I didn't have to live with it. Hope the replacment is all you want it to be.

I feel the same way. If you hold on to them all then you don't get to experience everything else out there.

I once rear ended an Elise with another Elise. True story.

They are awesome cars no doubt. I don't regret my decision to move on though and I'm sure you won't either.

I'm eager to see whats next Rob.

The board picks up one Elise owner and loses another. Such is life.

I would love to own one someday. Here's an ad local to me, but title and price stink of a scam:

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/cto/3335016120.html

JoeyM wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Well, this better than I expected. Since it's a Lotus I expected this to be a thread filled with pix of a fire.

+1. I was also expecting a fire like Hess had.

I didn't know modern Lotii? had a rep for burning down.

Congrats Hess, can't imagine how fun that will be with all your local roads. But now you need to bring it to Hallett as well.

Dr. Hess wrote: The board picks up one Elise owner and loses another. Such is life.

I love the hummer looming in the background. It's like a gurthy girl looking enviously at a supermodel.

Joey

Not to threadjack Rob, but ...

The H1 belongs to the previous owner. We took it to the bank. Interesting ride. He also still had a Maserati Quadroporte, but just sold the 360 F-car.

Going to be a while before I can afford a track day. In my experience, a track day at Hallett is a really good way to blow one large. And I blew all my spare one larges on the car, as I went over my budget by several.

So Rob?

Where are these pictures?

Here we go:

2003 E46 M3

Congrats Rob! Beautiful car - I'm curious about how it turns out for you, I've been contemplating a similar purchase in a couple years to replace my current E36 daily driver.

Dr. Hess wrote: The board picks up one Elise owner and loses another. Such is life.

<------- Drooling on keyboard.

Sweet! That car is at the top of my bucket list. I still regret not getting one back in the day when I had bigger car budgets.

I'm an M3 & Miata owner who pines for an Elise. Besides being an attention magnet, what other downsides were there to ownership?

Oil changes are a PITA compared to a Camry, but not as bad as an Esprit. A bit noisy inside, especially with a sport exhaust. The seat is sparse on padding, but fits my butt OK. Otherwise, I haven't owned mine long enough to comment.

nderwater wrote: I'm an M3 & Miata owner who pines for an Elise. Besides being an attention magnet, what other downsides were there to ownership?

The car is fragile -- or perhaps it is better to say I worried that it was fragile. Parking anywhere was stressful. People manhandle it -- they slam doors, lean against it, all that stuff. There are no bumpers on the clams -- the front and rear one piece sections.

Interior bits wear and scuff easily. There is a general sense of "fragility" to everything not connected to the chassis or engine.

The staggered tire size reduces selection.

The engine is torque-limited -- not an issue for me, but may be for some.

Space is limited -- it was hard to bring all of my track gear when travelling to HPDEs. I had a second set of wheels and tires with uber-Rs for autox -- I always needed a support vehicle. A trailer would solve this issue.

The pluses certainly outweigh the negatives provided you actually drive it on the track . . . It is cheap on gas, brakes, and front tires. Not so cheap on rear tires, and I think I would have been better off buying two fronts and four rears each time

I never noticed an issue with the not having LSD -- on or off the track. The damned traction control on-off switch is poorly located -- easy to bump with a knee and turn back on during autox runs.

It is a brilliant, fun car for a hard core enthusiast. If your best friend is your co-driver and if he is also one of the most brilliant drivers in our region then get used to second place . . .

Took a friend for a ride today. He said "That Corolla looks really big."

Dr. Hess wrote: Took a friend for a ride today. He said "That Corolla looks really big."

You should take him out in your locost

ZOO wrote: The car is fragile -- or perhaps it is better to say I worried that it was fragile. Parking anywhere was stressful. People manhandle it -- they slam doors, lean against it, all that stuff. There are no bumpers on the clams -- the front and rear one piece sections. Interior bits wear and scuff easily. There is a general sense of "fragility" to everything not connected to the chassis or engine. The staggered tire size reduces selection. The engine is torque-limited -- not an issue for me, but may be for some. Space is limited -- it was hard to bring all of my track gear when travelling to HPDEs. I had a second set of wheels and tires with uber-Rs for autox -- I always needed a support vehicle. A trailer would solve this issue. The pluses certainly outweigh the negatives provided you actually drive it on the track . . . It is cheap on gas, brakes, and front tires. Not so cheap on rear tires, and I think I would have been better off buying two fronts and four rears each time I never noticed an issue with the not having LSD -- on or off the track. The damned traction control on-off switch is poorly located -- easy to bump with a knee and turn back on during autox runs. It is a brilliant, fun car for a hard core enthusiast. If your best friend is your co-driver and if he is also one of the most brilliant drivers in our region then get used to second place . . .

Plus eleventy billion on all points above.

The car is beautiful, fast and fragile. Unobtanium clams and $1500 ea headlights make one nervous about parking and leaving it out of sight.

Not mentioned are the problems with the failing oil cooler lines, oil starvation due to oil pan design and rear toe links failing on track.

I had enough $$$ to buy the car but not enough to fix it if something happened. That greatly curtailed the fun factor for me. Add to that the fact that I was making payments on a car that didn't have working A/C and I was done.

In reply to mblommel:

New to Lotus, were we?

Dr. Hess wrote: In reply to mblommel: New to Lotus, were we?

Heh, no I'm actually a repeat offender.

But, I didn't expect my '77 Esprit S1 to have a better HVAC system than my '05 Elise though...

Anyway, I may buy another Elise in the future. But I would definitely get one that has already had it's cherry popped. Meaning find a wrecked one I can pay cash for and fix. I wouldn't be so worried about anything happening to it then, because it already happened.

Hess, I'd look into getting those oil cooler lines replaced if they haven't been already for piece of mind. I think the Really Light Stuff kit is about $500. Getting the new lines fed through the bonded on side pod is a PITA from what I hear.