Yellow GT3 at SGT - comments?
Discussion
Hi
I have been a long standing Elise owner (have had two and a 340r) - am now looking to get a GT3.
I owned an S4s for about 6 months - which was great - but very unreliable and cost me a fortune - so felt burned for a while.
Anyway I am going to look at a 1997 GT3 at SGT this week. Its done 23k miles apprently, has new style interior, bucket seats, 18 inch wheels and v8 body - oh and its yellow.
The spec sounds perfect for me - and its going for £22995.00. Want to pay a few K less than that. Anybody know anything about the car? Apparently it was traded for a new Esprit.
One of the reasons for buying it will be to develop some new Esprit products - I run Race Speed which is a company that does Elise parts and brakes for Esprit, TVR, Porsche etc....
cheers!
Owen
I have been a long standing Elise owner (have had two and a 340r) - am now looking to get a GT3.
I owned an S4s for about 6 months - which was great - but very unreliable and cost me a fortune - so felt burned for a while.
Anyway I am going to look at a 1997 GT3 at SGT this week. Its done 23k miles apprently, has new style interior, bucket seats, 18 inch wheels and v8 body - oh and its yellow.
The spec sounds perfect for me - and its going for £22995.00. Want to pay a few K less than that. Anybody know anything about the car? Apparently it was traded for a new Esprit.
One of the reasons for buying it will be to develop some new Esprit products - I run Race Speed which is a company that does Elise parts and brakes for Esprit, TVR, Porsche etc....
cheers!
Owen
hi owen
i ran a 98 gt3 a few years ago, before trading it for a 98 v8-gt. The gt3 is a fantastic car and gets many of the mods that were introduced with the launch of the v8, ie interior, wiperlinkage etc.
I had relatively few issues with mine (compared to the v8). However tweaked your elises are, it won't compare to how quick the gt3 will be at higher speeds 90+ my experience of fast elises is they are great at lower speeds and on tight twisties, but i the road allows faster speeds and has fast sweepers, the gt3 will be in a different league - remember 160mph+ in standard trim. Lots of knowledge around too to modify these: chargecooler upgrades, ecu upgrades, bov etc etc. look at andywhittaker.com
SGT - i have no experience of them personally, but i have an esprit owning friend who does NOT have good things to say about them, so beware. The price seems high too for a 97 car i think, when compared with autotrader prices. I got 21k in part ex for mine (98R 36k miles) in march 2001 against the v8 at a lotus dealer.
It would be great to have another company offering esprit aftermarket items. Do you offer anything for the esprit already? Is there a web site?
Suggest you join up on the esprit yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UKLotusEsprit/
400 members, mostly uk based, approx 500 esprit related messages posted per month.
Feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers
Rob
98 V8-GT (ex GT3 owner).
i ran a 98 gt3 a few years ago, before trading it for a 98 v8-gt. The gt3 is a fantastic car and gets many of the mods that were introduced with the launch of the v8, ie interior, wiperlinkage etc.
I had relatively few issues with mine (compared to the v8). However tweaked your elises are, it won't compare to how quick the gt3 will be at higher speeds 90+ my experience of fast elises is they are great at lower speeds and on tight twisties, but i the road allows faster speeds and has fast sweepers, the gt3 will be in a different league - remember 160mph+ in standard trim. Lots of knowledge around too to modify these: chargecooler upgrades, ecu upgrades, bov etc etc. look at andywhittaker.com
SGT - i have no experience of them personally, but i have an esprit owning friend who does NOT have good things to say about them, so beware. The price seems high too for a 97 car i think, when compared with autotrader prices. I got 21k in part ex for mine (98R 36k miles) in march 2001 against the v8 at a lotus dealer.
It would be great to have another company offering esprit aftermarket items. Do you offer anything for the esprit already? Is there a web site?
Suggest you join up on the esprit yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UKLotusEsprit/
400 members, mostly uk based, approx 500 esprit related messages posted per month.
Feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers
Rob
98 V8-GT (ex GT3 owner).
Hi Rob
cheers for that - have joined the group - spent several hours reading old posts on there.
Yes have a website - www.race-speed.com and www.brake-speed.com (should be banners for both of them here). I do some bits for the Elise that are also for the Esprit - spares only though. But will be looking at performance upgrades.
One of the first things I will be doing is getting several new ECU's with maps working with goodies like traction control built in.
I owned an S4s for a while so have good memories of the high speed capabilities! Will be using it just on the road though - so probably wont get to play above a ton too often. I have a single seater for racing and track days.
Anyway hopefully I can be a usefull addition to the group once I get a car sorted.
BTW think you are right on the price - wasnt intending to pay much more than 20k for it.
cheers!
Owen
cheers for that - have joined the group - spent several hours reading old posts on there.
Yes have a website - www.race-speed.com and www.brake-speed.com (should be banners for both of them here). I do some bits for the Elise that are also for the Esprit - spares only though. But will be looking at performance upgrades.
One of the first things I will be doing is getting several new ECU's with maps working with goodies like traction control built in.
I owned an S4s for a while so have good memories of the high speed capabilities! Will be using it just on the road though - so probably wont get to play above a ton too often. I have a single seater for racing and track days.
Anyway hopefully I can be a usefull addition to the group once I get a car sorted.
BTW think you are right on the price - wasnt intending to pay much more than 20k for it.
cheers!
Owen
Owen
£23K sounds a bit pricey, even for a dealer car to me. I'd say no more than £20K looking at current ads.
Adrian Mugridge
97 GT3 - Shiney Orange
www.adrianmugridge.co.uk
£23K sounds a bit pricey, even for a dealer car to me. I'd say no more than £20K looking at current ads.
Adrian Mugridge
97 GT3 - Shiney Orange
www.adrianmugridge.co.uk
Owen - its this one right?
The rear spoiler (S4s, early v8 style) is the type that is mounted to the body of the car, not to the tailgate, so you have to lift your bags over it to put stuff in the boot. As you probably know the GT3 didn't come with a spoiler - so this will have been added.
The 99- V8 wheels look good. My car had the regular GT3 wheels. The tyres on this car will be v8 spec, so wider 235's at the front instead of 215's. This will mean your less prone to understeer, but IMO you lose a small amount of finesse with the bigger boots on. With the 18" rears (285's) in stead of 245's you'll find it harder to unstick the rear.
Yes thats the one! Going to go and drive it in a couple of hours time. Assuming all is ok may buy it - but dont want to pay more than about £20.5k as I have found a private one VERY similar spec/miles and they are asking £19,500 - so could get it for £19k no problem. But the warrenty is def worth £1.5k to me - that and the fact I have a car to part-ex.
Anybody want to buy a Pug 206 GTi - x-reg, (2 years old) 18k miles, black with all extras. Before anybody laughs it was a temp car I bought after selling my last Elise :-)
Great car for a wife or hairdresser friend ;->
cheers!
Owen
Anybody want to buy a Pug 206 GTi - x-reg, (2 years old) 18k miles, black with all extras. Before anybody laughs it was a temp car I bought after selling my last Elise :-)
Great car for a wife or hairdresser friend ;->
cheers!
Owen
Hi, I've got a silver 97 GT3 and live in the Suffolk/Cambs area.
Brilliant car, but build quality often lets it down, just the subtle finishing touches.
I've got a twin race pipe on there now which sounds the nuts without being too loud, and have increased the sound system. Now trying to change the steering wheel. The 2002 V8 rear light cluster is next, then the brakes, then the ECU, then the............
Yours (skint)
Nick
Brilliant car, but build quality often lets it down, just the subtle finishing touches.
I've got a twin race pipe on there now which sounds the nuts without being too loud, and have increased the sound system. Now trying to change the steering wheel. The 2002 V8 rear light cluster is next, then the brakes, then the ECU, then the............
Yours (skint)
Nick
Gassing Station | Esprit | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff