Lotus Elise 240 Final Edition

Chris tii

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Chris tii
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You can get plate holders from Elise Parts, basically a couple of brackets that boot under the nose.

But that looks great.

I had a look before. I think they only have them for the S1 Elise. I’ll message them as it would be nice for it to sit a bit closer to the bumper.
 

Todd

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Great choice Chris! As cool as the Morgan was, i can see this being a lot more fun.

Amazing the difference a plate makes too! (y)
 

svensktoppen

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I had a look before. I think they only have them for the S1 Elise. I’ll message them as it would be nice for it to sit a bit closer to the bumper.
They're basically just two angle brackets, should fit all cars I would have thought? Worth asking though in case there is some issue on newer cars. Might be different dimensions on the bumper or something I suppose.
 

Enda

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Got my reg on the car. I wasn’t a fan of the big plastic surround so I drilled out its brackets and just stuck a 3/4 plate onto the brackets themselves.
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Currently staying a couple nights in Malahide and I obviously had move the car so it’s parked outside the hotel room’s window.

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Did you drive down yesterday around lunch time? I met a yellow Elise between Newry and Dundalk around 1/1.30 and was wondering if it was from here!
 

Chris tii

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Did you drive down yesterday around lunch time? I met a yellow Elise between Newry and Dundalk around 1/1.30 and was wondering if it was from here!
Yeah, that would have been me. 👍
 

FM155

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Got my reg on the car. I wasn’t a fan of the big plastic surround so I drilled out its brackets and just stuck a 3/4 plate onto the brackets themselves.
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Currently staying a couple nights in Malahide and I obviously had move the car so it’s parked outside the hotel room’s window.

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Nice spot there, we stayed there twice in the last year, great for dawn walks on the beach. Howth cliff walk is worth a rattle too, lovely views across towards Kiliney and Dun Laoire. That car brightens up the car park, really love Elise's, perfect touring tool. :grinning:
 

RevT

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Yeah, that would have been me. 👍

Was it you or your other half driving it on the M1 passing the Applegreen? Could have swore I saw a yellow one on the other side of the motorway with a woman driving it.
 

Chris tii

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Was it you or your other half driving it on the M1 passing the Applegreen? Could have swore I saw a yellow one on the other side of the motorway with a woman driving it.

No, she’s too scared to drive it, the missus would have been in the passenger seat though.
Congratulations Chris! Health to drive and look forward to seeing you it in your new Elise soon!
Thanks.
 

mike150

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Snap.......almost.

It's the best second car I've ever had.

My 2019 is solar yellow, the biggest mod I made was the AIM dash as the standard one always annoyed me.

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Chris tii

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Time for a quick update. I've been enjoying the Elise so much! It drives so well.

I took it to Anglesey as the Golf wasn't ready in time. I was a bit nervous about taking something so expensive but I'm glad I did. Even though I really only pushed it 7 or 8 tenths, it was epic. The grip, steering and handling in general is like nothing I've ever driven before.

Next trip is happening in October. I'm taking it to Hethel for an event. Its a half track day, half factory/museum tour. Followed by a fancy dinner with some Lotus representatives. 3 Lotus are going from NI; me, @RP420 and @blindside. If any other Lotus owners are interested then give RP420 a shout. I'm really looking forward to it, the 16 hour round trip from Cairnryan to Hethel, not so much.

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svensktoppen

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It's on track you really find out what these cars are all about 😎

You'll enjoy Hethel. The track is small but it really is like going home, lol. The museum is fantastic and pretty much everything in there drives and gets raced regularly. It's handier to get to from Liverpool. The A1 has to be the worst road in the UK, and that's saying something. M6 right up there too 🙁

If coming down from the north then get a run of the A684 across the Dales from Kendal and over Masham. One of the best driving roads in the country. It doesn't add all that much to the journey time in practice but breaks up the drive a bit. Avoid on a weekend though.
 

FM155

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If you are heading from Cairnryan, leave the A75 at Newton Stewart and take the A712 across the Galloway Hills to New Galloway and then rejoin the A75 at Crocketford, just west of Dumfries. It's around 12 miles shorter than the A75 for that section but it'll take roughly the same time, because the road is narrower and twistier, but completely beautiful.

Whether you go Cairnryan or Liverpool, another scenic route I used to take was to head off the M6 at Knutsford and head to Macclesfield and then over the Cat & Fiddle up to Buxton and down through the Peak District to Ashbourne and Derby.

Plenty of good routes that avoid the dreaded A/M14 too, my preferred route to Norfolk from the Derby Area was Kegworth, then pick up the A6006 to Melton Mowbray, then the A606 down across the top of Rutland Water to Stamford, all of which is lovely to drive through. I used to head to Market Deeping and Downham Market to avoid Peterborough and Kings Lynn. From Dowham, I was heading via Thetford Forest to Diss but you could plot an Easterly route to Hethel using the back roads and the villages that are dotted everywhere there.

All of them take a little longer, not much, but it is a road trip after all...
 

EF Ian

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Time for a quick update. I've been enjoying the Elise so much! It drives so well.
You see, for me, this is what cars (not necessarily daily's) are all about. And a car that makes you feel this should be held onto for as long as possible.



It's on track you really find out what these cars are all about 😎
You see, this makes me want to get the Civic on track, because you'd be going insanely fast on the roads if you got anywhere near its limits in the corners, thing drives like a go kart on rails.
 

Burt2000

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Agree with that totally, mine is around 190-200bhp not big power by todays standards although it weighs half what a normal hot hatch does these days so it isn’t exactly slow, but you could be taking blind bends at motorway speeds and in all honesty when it would eventually let go it will would probably do so in spectacular fashion and put you over a hedge or sideways into an oncoming tractor or a pack of cyclists.

I think you can only exploit the full capabilities of cars like that on the track. I like to be able to see what’s around the bend! I intend to do a few track days next year. Probably too late in the season for me now and I want to have it all prepared over winter and new tyres in the spring.
 

mike150

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I love my Elise because it's light, not overly powerful, not that fast and has no power steering.

The older I've got the more i realise I'm disinterested in really fast cars and more interested in how cars make you feel. I've had lots of fast cars and they just can't be enjoyed on the road because they only come into their best when they're doing jail time speeds.

The Elise isn't like that, it struggles at 3 figure speeds and feels great at normal speeds.

Such a bugger to get in and out of though!!!! That's only going to get worse with birthdays 😆
 
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EF Ian

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I love my Elise because it's light, not overly powerful, not that fast and has no power steering.

The older I've got the more i realise I'm disinterested in really fast cars and more interested in how cars make you feel. I've had lots of fast cars and they just can't be enjoyed on the road because they only come into their best when they're doing jail time speeds.

The Elise isn't like that, it struggles at 3 figure speeds and feels great at normal speeds.
With you 100%.

A car where you can have fun without crazy speeds is far more rewarding on the road, some cars these days can be well into 3 figure speeds in no time and its completely impractical on the road.

I think my bike is like this also, plenty of torque and good for lower speeds but you'd struggle to stay above 100mph for long, where as sports bikes just want to live at 3 figure speeds.
 

TheDaniel

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I love my Elise because it's light, not overly powerful, not that fast and has no power steering.

The older I've got the more i realise I'm disinterested in really fast cars and more interested in how cars make you feel. I've had lots of fast cars and they just can't be enjoyed on the road because they only come into their best when they're doing jail time speeds.

The Elise isn't like that, it struggles at 3 figure speeds and feels great at normal speeds.

Such a bugger to get in and out of though!!!! That's only going to get worse with birthdays 😆

I'm with you. Lots of people think I'm nuts lol .. I've had so many Go-Kart cars, as I call them, with a similar ethos as the Lotus. Just as you described.

It's nice to be able to use all the power. The most fun I've had was in nimble cars. The wee Swift Sports where brilliant fun and still to this day my favourite car I owned was my MX5🤷🏻‍♂️ 160bhp with a few handling mods and I've never had as much fun in any car in my life.

To me the Elise is the ultimate version of that. I've always said that I would love one, after being in a couple and getting to drive one, I completely love them.. but truthfully I really struggled getting in and out. It was an event😂 the guy who let me drive it was a seasoned pro, just jumped in and out of it like it was a Nissan Qashqai 😂 I almost died and the roof wasn't even on! Lol
 

Chris tii

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Last weekend was the Bell and Covill Lotus event at Hethel. What an amazing weekend! It was one of the best car related trips I've ever done.
2 other cars came over for the trip. @RP420 in his Exige 420 Final Edition, and @blindside in his Evora GT 430. The trip started at the 7.30am ferry and we finally arrived at 8pm. It was a long drive but totally worth it.
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The trip included 2 nights at Dunston Hall.

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We started the Saturday with a track day session around the Lotus test track in our cars. We had 3 pro-drivers on hand to jump into our cars to give us any advice on the track. The track at Hethel is amazing, its very much a test track. So it has a bit of everything. Including 5 fast curves in a row which was my favourite, they were very challenging but when you got them right, it was so rewarding . One of the pro-drivers described them as the Catholic sisters, if you piss off the first one then they all will hate you. 😂

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After the first session, we headed over to the factory where we got a tour from Scott Walker who worked for Bell and Colvill for many years and now is the Lotus retail manger. I couldn't take any photos of the inside of the factory but safe to say, it was very interesting and amazing to see how the Emira is built.
Outside the factory there must of been 500 or so Emiras ready to be shipped. Many in some new colours I'm yet to see on the road. My favourite was the colour thats close to Nardo Grey. Though I think I might of been the only one. 😂

There was also lots of cars ready to shipped to China. You can tell the Chinese cars because they have different badges. The Lotus name is copyrighted in China so they are called Lotus NYO, which means new Lotus.

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After Lunch we got to back out on track for another session. After that we walked over to Classic Team Lotus. This is where they restore and maintain all the Lotus F1 and racing cars. It included the first ever Lotus. We got a private tour and learnt about the history of Lotus and Colin Chapman. It was great to see some amazing cars, we were free to walk amongst and touch all the cars.

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Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for a well deserved pint and a 3 course dinner with everyone and some Lotus representatives including one of the guys who helped design my car!



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