Elise V Chimaera ?

[Corin Denton]

I've got a 95 400 Chimaera and have always wondered what the Elise is like , has anybody driven the both of them , how do they compare ?

[Don]

I've driven them both..and own a Chimaera 450. They are utterly unlike.

Elise: Basic, basic, basic interior. Limpet handling. Standard Elise is a bit underpowered if you like grunt. I'd have one as a track/Sunday car. Totally impractical for a touring holiday.

Chimaera: Luxurious interior. Huge grunt. Handling good enough for me! Largest sports car boot I've ever seen - 2 week touring hols eminently practical. Wife uses it every day to commute 80 miles round trip.

[Don]

They are both cool cars BTW!

[raceboy]

I normally drive a Chimaera, but had a go in an Elise S2 at the weekend, a lot more impressive than I was expecting, but a bit on the small side inside, not much room for 2 slightly over average indviduals
and the Chimaera is a lot more practicle, (didn't think I would ever say that!)

[wezo]

Two great things no-one ever mentions about the Elise is 35 to 40 mpg and servicing at 200 quid a pop. Also, TVRs can be quite scary in the wet. I agree practicalilty can be a bit of an issue, but not in the same league as a Caterfield type thing.

Probably get flamed for this, but I was looking at a second hand Grif vs s2 Elise and I went for the Elise - what swung it in the end (more than anything else) was the old build quality issues, Elises are now a lot better built than TVrs (Flame suit on).

[currymonster]

I would totally be put off an elise by the fact that they look camper than a row of pink tents.

[smeagol]

quote:
Two great things no-one ever mentions about the Elise is 35 to 40 mpg and servicing at 200 quid a pop.

I would't expect its going to be as good as that fuel economy wise unless you don't drive it as intended these are the official figures (huge pinch of salt me thinks) If you use the acceleration and speed you'll get about 30mpg.

Also £200 service I find hard to believe. My m100 Elan cost at least double that for a standard service and when I moved to a more expensive garage (that did a better job) the price was 3 times that (ie £600).

I like Lotuses and having just sold mine 'cos of expense I can tell you that a Lotus is not cheap to run. It may be cheaper than a TVR but its still expensive.

[sjp]

you can get cracking mpg out of an elise, mine is a S1 (99) i rearly get above 3rd gear, i am normally tearing around and i easily get > 35mpg, it IS normaly more like 40.


Service wise on paper its fairly cheap, but i have found lotus garages to be a bit of a rip off...

Reliablity, could be better, could certainly be worse (far better than my old(er) Jag)...

[smeagol]

I think you deluding yourself. I've been in an Elise and had an Exige for a day. (both are supposedly got good fuel economy) I believe they have 8 gallon tanks. Certainly when I filled up they cost that much. That means for 40mpg you have to do 320 miles. When was the last time you did that on one tank of fuel? and remember 1 long journey is the most fuel efficient. I suspect thye economy is good it is after all an 1.8 but 40mpg come on.

>> Edited by smeagol on Monday 25th March 15:11

[adeewuff]

On a recent trip up to Norfolk I easily got over 40mpg. I think this was mainly due to the piss pouring rain keeping me under 70 mph all the way up, but I did save petrol (Although admittedly it did take me far longer than I planned!).

My average is about 30 mpg, and that includes the odd burst of throttle to get me up to speed. On the track I averaged about 16 mpg, better than an Impreza on the motorway!


>> Edited by adeewuff on Monday 25th March 16:54

[sjp]

maybe i am taking a silly approach...

1) note how many miles i have done
2) i fill the car upto max every week
3) divide the amount of petrol used, by the distance i have covered

i normally end up with > 40mpg


serriously, the refil light comes on at 11/12 liters, max is around 34/36 liters, so to get 40mpg, you only have to do 200ish miles on a tank...

[manhoos]

TVR is big, very quick in a straight line and has many more creature comforts. Fuel and servicing will cost 3 times the amount of the little Elise! Lastly it is more unreliable.

Lotus is smaller, less practical, not quite as quick (depends which one you buy), has much better handling and is much quicker over the twisty bits. It also costs a lot less to run and is more reliable.

I'd choose an Elise - and I did!

[David1]

It's horse's for corses,
for handling and grip it has to be the Elise,
for out-right grunt it has to be the TVR,
+the chimera has an exhaust note to die for, infact it's worth having one for just that. I've had an Elise and currently have an Exige, which is fantastic, but I do miss open top motoring, to this end I had a test drive in a Chimera at the weekend, would I have one? Ohh Yes! will I get of the Exige? Guess I'd better get saving cos there's room on my drive for rwo.

Dave

[David1]

It's horse's for corses,
for handling and grip it has to be the Elise,
for out-right grunt it has to be the TVR,
+the chimera has an exhaust note to die for, infact it's worth having one for just that. I've had an Elise and currently have an Exige, which is fantastic, but I do miss open top motoring, to this end I had a test drive in a Chimera at the weekend, would I have one? Ohh Yes! will I get rid of the Exige? No way. Guess I'd better get saving cos there's room on my drive for rwo.

Dave

[smeagol]

quote:
serriously, the refil light comes on at 11/12 liters, max is around 34/36 liters, so to get 40mpg, you only have to do 200ish miles on a tank...

I'm sorry SJC you've just proved my point (maths lesson time) I looked it up you have an 8 Gallon tank.

8 gallons is 36 litres (as you say) that means 200 miles divided by 8 is 25mpg

I'll say again to get 40mpg that means 320 miles on one tank.

35mpg = 280, 30mpg = 240

If you count the difference in fuel ie 36 - 11 for the refill (this is giving the benefit of the doubt ie you refil as soon as the light comes on.) that gives 5.5 gallons

200miles divided by 5.5 = 36.4mpg

to get 40mpg on 5.5 gallons is 220 miles

I actually believe the light comes on when you have 1 to 2 gallons left ie just below a quarter. (11 litres would be just below a third of a tank)

to get 40mpg on 6 gallons is 240 miles
to get 40mpg on 7 gallons is 280 miles

I suspect the realistic range of an Elise is 250 on a full tank of fuel making mpg of 31.25.

Here endith the lesson

>> Edited by smeagol on Tuesday 26th March 23:35

[sjp]

I said 200 ISH miles!
===

i fill up BEFORE the refil light comes on, because lotus have a nasty habit of getting the gauge wrong... and i HAVE an elise and the led DOES says refil at 11L


Out of interest, i filled up last night (30.56L) and i had covered 239 miles giving me a mpg of 35.5 mpg.

Before you say anything i KNOW that this is not 40mpg , but I covered most of these miles on saturday when i was flying around leek-buxton-ashbourne-matlock and back (i was bored

Plus my original quote was "i easily get > 35mpg, it IS normaly more like 40." and it is more than 35

My elise is my only car, and on a normal week (commuting and poping down town) hitting 40mpg is quite easy, when i fill up next week, i will say what mpg i have managed.

[Mr Fix it]

Elise has good handling, but p*** poor breaks and acceration. It also has no boot, so the pink camping trips are out....This is also quite easy to loose in the wet (normally only mentioned about the TVR)

TVR loads of power in straight line and round corners. In the dry you have to really try hard to loose the back end, so for us non racing drivers its hard to gain/notice too much difference in cornering speed. It does have a huge boot for a sports car. Can fit in a full tesco trolley load of food into the back!!

Conclusion, both are good but for different reasons i.e. Blur vs Oasis......

Dave

[koen]

I had an Elise for 3 years, and now a TVR Chimaera
400 HC. The Elise is a fantastic fun car. Great handling, good acceleration (till 75-80 mph), and a very cheap car to drive. It is NOT practical (small boot, difficult to get in and out) and not comfortable
(noisy, seats are becoming uncomfortable after 150 miles). It is also underpowered, certainly on the motorway : you can't follow a Golf TDI PD...

The Chimaera is a more practical car. Easy to use everyday, comfortable, good seats. It has enough power
to be faster than 99.9% of the cars on the road, and makes a noise to die for.
It doesn't give the same confidence on twisty roads or
on the track as the Elise, but I think that the Chimaera will clock faster times around a track, just because of the higher top speeds and accelerations.
It is also a more expensive car to run and maintain, but I am still very happy with the Chimaera.
I prefer it above the Elise : it is a more upgrown car.

Cheers,

Koen.

[phil r]

I had a 93 Chimaera 400 for 18 months and swapped for an Elise which I have run for 4 years. Ii is my only car and I get average of 38 mpg and 12mpg on trackdays. I get between 250 and 300 miles to a tank during normal motoring BTW. My Elise is a BBR super 140 which feels faster than standard and is supposed to improve mpg. The cars are completely different animals. The Chimeara gives you a very 'special' feeling just sitting behind the wheel - you do feel like a king of the road. The Elise is a race car for the road. Both have a hige grin factor and I have to admit I miss the grunt and noise from the TVR. The SS exhaust on the Elise is pretty rorty though and I still gun the engine under bridges and tunnels!
Careful packing in the Elise sees my better half and I ok for a week away we just won't be attending any functions which require ball gowns and DJ'S, not that I do anyway! The servicing costs for the Elise are way below the Chimaera eg TVR no faults £500 Lotus no faults £250. Both cars never let me down with the Lotus giving the odd trim niggle (and the dreaded soft clutch pipe).

[Pharoah]

Right - I am constantly having this argument with my mate whom has a R plate 4.5l Chimera, I have a T plate standard Elise.

On the fuel consumption side the Elise is very good and I wouldn't be surprised if you could get 40mpg as the car is so light. It is certainly better than the 306 that I had before but I cant be arsed to measure it. The TVR is a nightmare for fuel consumption.

On the practicality side, I would say the TVR is more practical as its more comfy and the boot is huge. The Elise is a pain to get in and out of.

Cost - well the TVR has just had a service and has covered 49k and the bill was £3000 - Luckily most of it was covered by the extended warranty but I would be worried when that runs out. My Elise has only covered 7k so it may be unfair to compare but I haven't had any problems or had to spend any money on it yet.

Exhaust note - yes the TVR does sound beautiful and the Elise does sound like a sewing machine - untill you put the sports exhaust and cat bypass pipe on which is what I have done and it now sounds like a proper sports car.

Finally speed and handling - the TVR is frightenly quick in a straight line but come to the corners and the Elise has the edge. I have raced my Elise against the Chimera from a standing start and 0-60 there is very little in it due to the lightweight Elise versus the grunt of the V8 TVR. Above 60 and the Chimera is gone though.

Conclusion - They are both different animals and I looked at both. I bought the Elise in the end as I felt it would cost less, it would be newer, handle better and be less hassle. My friend wouldn't buy an Elise and loves his TVR, but he likes blasting down the motorway, sitting in comfort and has sheds loads of cash to spend on his car. You pays your money and takes your choice .