Newby on the hunt for a Lotus
Discussion
Bear in mind with sports cars, its very much a buyers' market at the moment with the economic situation and the onset of autumn. Hence haggle very hard and ensure you get a cracking deal.
Personally, i'd buy privately at lower cost.
What Lotus are you after? There are numerous Elise varients, for example. Get a good one and hardly anything else on the road will come close for driving pleasure, IMHO. I have an Elise S1 Sport 160 and its absolutely nuts.
If you're after Lotus dealership recommendations, i'd give both Bell & Colvill plus Lipscombe a definite thumbs up.
Stacks of info in the Elise / Exige sub forum.
Justin
Personally, i'd buy privately at lower cost.
What Lotus are you after? There are numerous Elise varients, for example. Get a good one and hardly anything else on the road will come close for driving pleasure, IMHO. I have an Elise S1 Sport 160 and its absolutely nuts.
If you're after Lotus dealership recommendations, i'd give both Bell & Colvill plus Lipscombe a definite thumbs up.
Stacks of info in the Elise / Exige sub forum.
Justin
It all depends on how seat of your pants you want and how much pose you want?
My personal preference is the Esprit. (As for which model - that's an entire thread on its own) early stephens cars (kinda 88-92) are outrageously cheap at the moment and you get a hell of a lot of car for your money - ESPECIALLY if you get an SE. If you go down this path, read Lotus Esprit World.com 'from cover to cover' and join Lotus Esprit Forum.com
Exige would be my personal Elise variant preference. Nutter's car.
Elise? It's an Elise! It does what it says on the tin.
(Then you get the rarer stuff like the 340r or 211) And of course, the oft forgotten Europa which I've driven and is an absolute blast. It was the last 2 seater Elise variant with a VX220Turbo engine in it.
Both of those come with outsourced engines (Rover or Toyota) and can be cheaper to run if you do your research (bear in mind a K-Series is just a K-Series)
Last but not least there's the Elan - front wheel drive so a bit of a cruve ball but up there among them as one of the best handling FWD cars ever made. Again, far eastern engine. *Definitely* get the Turbo version and turn it up - REALLY fast then!
As for run factor?
You can't go wrong!
Whichever you buy you will be getting one hell of a driving experience and a HUGE smile
Just make sure the specific car you get is a "gooddun"
What a fun decision to make
My personal preference is the Esprit. (As for which model - that's an entire thread on its own) early stephens cars (kinda 88-92) are outrageously cheap at the moment and you get a hell of a lot of car for your money - ESPECIALLY if you get an SE. If you go down this path, read Lotus Esprit World.com 'from cover to cover' and join Lotus Esprit Forum.com
Exige would be my personal Elise variant preference. Nutter's car.
Elise? It's an Elise! It does what it says on the tin.
(Then you get the rarer stuff like the 340r or 211) And of course, the oft forgotten Europa which I've driven and is an absolute blast. It was the last 2 seater Elise variant with a VX220Turbo engine in it.
Both of those come with outsourced engines (Rover or Toyota) and can be cheaper to run if you do your research (bear in mind a K-Series is just a K-Series)
Last but not least there's the Elan - front wheel drive so a bit of a cruve ball but up there among them as one of the best handling FWD cars ever made. Again, far eastern engine. *Definitely* get the Turbo version and turn it up - REALLY fast then!
As for run factor?
You can't go wrong!
Whichever you buy you will be getting one hell of a driving experience and a HUGE smile
Just make sure the specific car you get is a "gooddun"
What a fun decision to make
NINA1951 said:
Esprit ! Unfortunately i'm only 5 foot nothing so that ones a definate no. Needs to be fast, but idiot proof to drive as i don't have the best track record.
I'm probably looking at new, but depends on the deal.
Oh, and yes posing is good.
Sounds as though an Elise SC with traction control might be the ticket. The supercharged models have more accessible performance.I'm probably looking at new, but depends on the deal.
Oh, and yes posing is good.
As I said, haggle hard. There should be good deals out there at the moment.
Good luck.
Justin
Gassing Station | General Lotus Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff