Has it been tracked?

[Tootler]

What percentage of Elise owners use them on track days? What I'm getting at is how do I know if a car I'm looking to buy has been tracked or not. How do I know the owner is not telling me porky pies, or a previous owner did track the thing? What should I be looking for, how can I check?

[bogie]

dunno - its hard to tell...definately a higher % than normal car owners. I wouldnt worry about it too much as long as the car is well maintained

depending where you are I would get any Elise inspected at a specialise before parting with the dosh. Ive seen a few buyers/sellers meet up at Sinclaires (www.sinclairebodyshop.co.uk) beforehand, pay £80 (split between them) for an inspection report and then decide on the sale...

[DanH]

Being tracked isn't a problem if its been maintained. Only worry imho is if its been stacked. Frankly the kind of person to track a car is likely to be a lot more mechanically aware than someone who just uses it to pose in and is probably happy to rev the nuts of it cold to impress people pulling out his drive...

[fergusd]

Out of all the elises I maintain (a fair old number on and off over the last year) the ones that suffer from all the usual elise gripes are the ones that do 1K miles per year, are never driven in the wet and never see a track . . . conversely those that are driven all year round, highigh miles and on the track regularly require only expected consumables, ie. brakes and tyres.

If I was in the market, knowing what I know now, I would not touch an untra low milage immaculate example . . . just asking for trouble . . .

Fd

[Davislove]

fergusd said:

Out of all the elises I maintain (a fair old number on and off over the last year) the ones that suffer from all the usual elise gripes are the ones that do 1K miles per year, are never driven in the wet and never see a track . . . conversely those that are driven all year round, highigh miles and on the track regularly require only expected consumables, ie. brakes and tyres. If I was in the market, knowing what I know now, I would not touch an untra low milage immaculate example . . . just asking for trouble . . . Fd

interesting experience

[fergusd]

Davislove said:

interesting experience

Uh huh, don't get me wrong, there are some lemons out there that have been thrashed to death, spot them a mile away, but that's unusual, and by no means is a low milage, pampered, car NOT a lemon . . .

This whole area is interesting, because the vast majority of people who end up detesting their cars (and some do!) do very low milages, suffer more problems than high milers, pay far more to dealers for maintainance when it comes around (don't want to let non dealers maintain their 1000 mile/year pride), and ultimately their cost per mile must be 10x what a high milage car is . . . and very often they simply do not enjoy the car . . .

As an example, my car is used, abused, tracked (10+? track days last year ?), mercilessly thrashed round the highlands, full of camping and climbing gear, all year round, since I bought it 3.5 years ago, has done neary 60K miles as a second car and has never let me down, not once, the list of comsumables is long and distinguished, but given the usage I think reasonable, many of these parts are track focussed too, so not bought for longevity . . . I know many people with the same story . . .

Fd
www.ziplockk.com
www.lotusecosse.com
www.elise-faq.info
www.scottish-elises.org.uk

[fergusd]

As a broad example of running costs for a 100% reliable elise under medium use :-

4x Headlamps (2 in 1 day)
2 x Driving Lamps (2 in the same day as above)
1 x Windscreen (chipped at 40mph by gravel on road)
1 x Front Clam (small bump with a towbar - insurance job)
1 x Set Dampers at 20K (Nitrons since then, no rebuilds or problems)
6 x Brake disks (Geary's 2 parts)
9? x Axle sets of Pads (various EBC's, RS4-2's RS14's)
5 x full sets of road tyres (roughly, OEM pirelli, Bridgestone S02 x2, Yoko Advans x2)
2 x full sets of track tyres (maxsports)
1 x Wiper Switch
1 x Window Rebond (Drivers)
1 x Exhaust (now stainless)
2 x Downpipes (1 broken 'landing' at speed - doesn't really count !)
2 x Front wheel bearings
1 x handbrake cable
2 x track rod ends
1 x coolant temp sender (ECU)
(good god, does this ever end ?)
3 x wheels (2 on road pothole, 1 on track)
~204 x tanks of fuel (35mpg ave even with the PTP165 !)
. . .
. . .
No labour apart from my own as my car is home serviced from it's first birthday . . .

Fd

[steff]

DanH said:

Being tracked isn't a problem if its been maintained. Only worry imho is if its been stacked. Frankly the kind of person to track a car is likely to be a lot more mechanically aware than someone who just uses it to pose in and is probably happy to rev the nuts of it cold to impress people pulling out his drive...

Hit the nail on the head there!!


A mate of a mate bought a low mileage standard 2nd hand Elise and proceeded to thrash the life out of the thing at every opertunity, warm up times what are they? In the end he crashed it into a roundabout, did a quick bodged repair and flogged it. He'd probably had it for just over a year and it was knackered, some dealer probably polished it up and sold it on as well looked after 2 owner car, never tracked....

>> Edited by steff on Wednesday 14th April 11:41

[Nightmare]

also have a friedn who bought a low mileage elise...just to hack around in...managed to run it very enarly out of oil, didnt bother getting it serviced...but will sell it fine cos it still looks mint and has relatively low miles. tenner says it has greater potential for falling apart in future.

My S2 - had for very nearly 3 years now....done 18K miles (lowish but have several cars), tracked it a lot, total consumables required in this time :

1 set tyres (replaced earlier than really needed cos one got ripped open by rock on road), 1 set brake pads, 1 battery (the standard one is crap and the replcement was only 35 quid) washer fluid, lots of Zymol polish...and that's it. It's astonishing when you thik about it....

Night