What would you do

[SCEL1SE]

Obviously, this being a lotus section, some buyers maybe biased, but some may not, hence why I'll ask the question.
I had a supercharged Elise, which I sold on several months ago to buy a house.
Loved everything about it, could not fault it at all.
However, now i am gonna look at getting something RWD again. I thought about several options, S1 honda, S2 honda SC, Exige S1, S2, and finally a caterham.
Never owned or even driven the caterham, but from speaking with owners, they do look serious fun.

I am not sure at present my budget. I currently have an FD2 as my daily. I'm probably gonna keep this, which would potentially give me a budget of 20k.

What would you do, 20k caterham or 20k lotus? And why.

[Cotty]

From my personal point of view, if you have just bought a house I would assume you would need to spend some money getting it up to scratch, new kitchen, new bathroom etc. Can you afford to drop 20K on a car. We are all different maybe you can.

On the other hand do you need a 20k Caterham or Elise. Would a 10-15k version not do very similar things? My 16K Elise does everything I want it to, apart from being quiet on the motorway. Would a car costing 4K more be 4k more enjoyable/fun? Probably not.

But back to your question Elise. Less raw, but im over 40 so that maybe a factor. Old git hat on.

[ch427]

I'd pick the lotus, even though the caterham is a great car you will probably find yourself driving it less due to the British weather!
I'm in a similar position, when my car sells I have £20k to play with but sadly this may have to go toward my next house deposit or modernising.
I may be able to sneak 6 months in a lotus though if I'm canny!

Edited by ch427 on Tuesday 4th March 09:17

[grumpy]

ch427 said:

I'd pick the lotus, even though the caterham is a great car you will probably find yourself driving it less due to the British weather!

As above really. I had a Tiger,(seven type car), with no roof before I had the Elise and I toyed with the idea of replacing the Elise with an Atom at one stage, but as I use the car most weekends and do regular European trips the practicality of the Elis won out in the end.

[SCEL1SE]

Here what your saying guys.
That was my concern regarding the weather and the Caterham, however I would make sure I had the full weather kit.
Quite frankly, driving the Elise in wet days is no fun at all, Its a health hazard, and you get no joy of driving in those conditions, so no doubt It would see equal time as the lotus on the roads. But I know what you mean, you do have more protection in the Lotus from the elements.
Regarding a 15k car, Yeah if the right one came along, sure I'd go less. I just thought 20k seems to get you more than a base model. I know the less powered models are fun, which is fair enough, but I reckon I will need something around the 170bhp at least! I'd like something marginally quicker than my previous Supercharged Elise.
Nah our house is Pretty sorted, so determined to have my toy again, missing the Elise big time. When I get home from work(overseas) I will be making a point of testing a Caterham, see how I get on.

Seems to be Pro's and Con's to both. The Caterham will need to be good to steer me away from the Loti, cos basically It's about the best car I've owned, loved everything about it.

[Fantuzzi]

SCEL1SE said:

Here what your saying guys.
That was my concern regarding the weather and the Caterham, however I would make sure I had the full weather kit.
Quite frankly, driving the Elise in wet days is no fun at all, Its a health hazard, and you get no joy of driving in those conditions, so no doubt It would see equal time as the lotus on the roads. But I know what you mean, you do have more protection in the Lotus from the elements.
Regarding a 15k car, Yeah if the right one came along, sure I'd go less. I just thought 20k seems to get you more than a base model. I know the less powered models are fun, which is fair enough, but I reckon I will need something around the 170bhp at least! I'd like something marginally quicker than my previous Supercharged Elise.
Nah our house is Pretty sorted, so determined to have my toy again, missing the Elise big time. When I get home from work(overseas) I will be making a point of testing a Caterham, see how I get on.

Seems to be Pro's and Con's to both. The Caterham will need to be good to steer me away from the Loti, cos basically It's about the best car I've owned, loved everything about it.

I guess you're in the horrid position of having to a have a hoon around in a Caterham...its a hard life...

[minimalist]

Since you already had an Elise, why not scratch the Caterham itch. if you buy well you shouldn't lose much/anything and if it's not for you, it's an easy switch back to Lotus.

[Flatinfourth]

These are two very different cars with very different driving styles, time out in a quick Caterham would allow you to experience the huge difference. yes some drivers hoon about in Elises, but fundamentally underneath the car is a sports racer, where a neat driving style suits its mid engined layout. The caterham is good old fashioned front engine rear wheel drive,with all the hoonage that goes with that. Choose your weapon!

If I was in the lucky position to spend £20,000 on this type of car right now, I would spend less! it would for me be a substantially lightened VX220 turbo, with lighter, smaller wheels and a thin GRP Replica Exige bodywork, to get some proper supercar performance with a featherlight car, with a nice strong standard engine.
But that's just me!!!

Edited by Flatinfourth on Wednesday 5th March 06:41

[ch427]

Ive only been a passenger in a seven type car and it is a very raw experience but thats what they are all about.At least with the lotus you can take the roof off and wind up the windows!
As suggested you probably need to test drive one and see how you like it.

[SCEL1SE]

Flatinfourth said:

These are two very different cars with very different driving styles, time out in a quick Caterham would allow you to experience the huge difference. yes some drivers hoon about in Elises, but fundamentally underneath the car is a sports racer, where a neat driving style suits its mid engined layout. The caterham is good old fashioned front engine rear wheel drive,with all the hoonage that goes with that. Choose your weapon!

If I was in the lucky position to spend £20,000 on this type of car right now, I would spend less! it would for me be a substantially lightened VX220 turbo, with lighter, smaller wheels and a thin GRP Replica Exige bodywork, to get some proper supercar performance with a featherlight car, with a nice strong standard engine.
But that's just me!!!

Edited by Flatinfourth on Wednesday 5th March 06:41

Funnily enough, vx220 turbo did cross my mind, but never thought about the Exige bodywork?

[Flatinfourth]

SCEL1SE said:

Flatinfourth said:

These are two very different cars with very different driving styles, time out in a quick Caterham would allow you to experience the huge difference. yes some drivers hoon about in Elises, but fundamentally underneath the car is a sports racer, where a neat driving style suits its mid engined layout. The caterham is good old fashioned front engine rear wheel drive,with all the hoonage that goes with that. Choose your weapon!

If I was in the lucky position to spend £20,000 on this type of car right now, I would spend less! it would for me be a substantially lightened VX220 turbo, with lighter, smaller wheels and a thin GRP Replica Exige bodywork, to get some proper supercar performance with a featherlight car, with a nice strong standard engine.
But that's just me!!!

Edited by Flatinfourth on Wednesday 5th March 06:41

Funnily enough, vx220 turbo did cross my mind, but never thought about the Exige bodywork?

Having had the clams off for accident repair, and my background in building and repairing specialist cars and historic racing, i see an Elise or VX220 as a gorgeous, strong road legal and safe sports racer chassis, that really ought to be reassembled without all that excessive weight, especially the VX Turbo! the VX220 turbo doesn't necessarily have the best weight balance (I have to remove the rear wheels and load the radiator area to pick one up on my scissor lift!), but the engine is a strong platform for modification. so if a minimalist traditionally laid up replica GRP body is added, the potential for a VERY quick car emerges from not too much expenditure!

Edited by Flatinfourth on Thursday 6th March 08:18

Edited by Flatinfourth on Thursday 6th March 08:20

[blueg33]

For a fun car I would buy this

Click Me

Its different, its quick, it has amazing handling and in terms of comfort etc is probably part way between a caterham and an Elise

[grumpy]

That is a very nice looking car, I like that a lot. A bit pricey at £25,250 though.

[kambites]

Out of that list, I'd go for the Caterham. The Elise is just too sensible to be a "toy" car for me.

Maybe a Noble?

[TheDeadPrussian]

If it’s for the road then a Lotus, if it’s for mostly track use then the Caterham – much cheaper and easier to fix if you have an ‘off’.

[SCEL1SE]

TheDeadPrussian said:

If it’s for the road then a Lotus, if it’s for mostly track use then the Caterham – much cheaper and easier to fix if you have an ‘off’.

That was another reason for getting shot of the Elise. Hooning round KH in a close on 30k car, and having a few very very close ones, led me to thinking, this is too expensive a car to bin. 20k is too much too, to bin on track, but it wouldn't break my heart as much.
That is a nice looking machine, but not for me. Has to be one of the two I mentioned.
When I read that post this morning about the VX, I went and done a bit of reading. You can get some serious power out of them, for fair outlay. The biggest complaint I seen was regarding it's weight for track work.
Put it this way, I wouldn't rule one out.

Cheers guys so far for the info, it's helping and much appreciated.

[Flatinfourth]

SCEL1SE said:

TheDeadPrussian said:

If it’s for the road then a Lotus, if it’s for mostly track use then the Caterham – much cheaper and easier to fix if you have an ‘off’.

That was another reason for getting shot of the Elise. Hooning round KH in a close on 30k car, and having a few very very close ones, led me to thinking, this is too expensive a car to bin. 20k is too much too, to bin on track, but it wouldn't break my heart as much.
That is a nice looking machine, but not for me. Has to be one of the two I mentioned.
When I read that post this morning about the VX, I went and done a bit of reading. You can get some serious power out of them, for fair outlay. The biggest complaint I seen was regarding it's weight for track work.
Put it this way, I wouldn't rule one out.

Cheers guys so far for the info, it's helping and much appreciated.

Don't forget you can bin a LOT of that weight if building a road legal trackday car, the VX body is built strong, and the rims are monstrous things, there for styling only.

[blueg33]

grumpy said:

That is a very nice looking car, I like that a lot. A bit pricey at £25,250 though.

It was £21k when I posted the link!

[grumpy]

blueg33 said:

It was £21k when I posted the link!

Plus VAT.

[Rakoosh]

I agree with what minimalist says below! This depends on your planned usage but reading your posts sounds like it would make a lot of sense.

I saw a caterham yesterday and was a little bit envious of the driver. Days like yesterday are perfect for them (well perfect for an Elise too !).

minimalist said:

Since you already had an Elise, why not scratch the Caterham itch. if you buy well you shouldn't lose much/anything and if it's not for you, it's an easy switch back to Lotus.