Hi all,
Little bit late than never, but I’ve owned various Lotus’ this past decade.
This came to the end last year when I had to sell my stunning 2019 red exige 350 sport due to having to grow up and buy a house.
I thought selling at the time for what I had bought it for was a great deal for me (shows you how much I know) that the same car has recently sold for £6k than I sold it for prices have increased that much this past 12 months).
Anyway I knew selling it meant I wouldn’t be having another lotus for a while but I also knew it was the right thing to do, Sod’s law due to a couple of factors we didn’t end up buying a house!
Several months past where I tried to kid myself I didn’t need one! BUT constant moaning like a miserable teenager, boring my partner to death with constant talk of lotus’ to her annoyance, and the several hours a day spent on pistonheads instead of working, looking after the kids and spending anytime with my missus…meant she reluctantly agreed that if one came up at the right price I could buy one before the house purchase. As long as I stopped being a miserable arse (as she calls it).
Knowing that prices were increasing, the race was on to find my next lotus.
I knew I couldn’t afford a V6 exige, due to the missus saying I wasn’t allowed to spend the house deposit on one (bit unfair I thought) having had S2 variant Elise’s I knew I wanted the more aggressive look of the S2 exige, even though I knew there was nothing different between them.
I also knew I needed to stretch my budget to get a supercharged variant, even though the NA are fantastic even a standard 220 would feel gutless and slow compared to the torquey V6.
I constantly, on an hourly basis…that’s a lie a 5 mins basis! checked all the usual advert sites and finally viewed a few late last year.
As usual in the UK I looked at the best low mileage 220 and 240 variants, but on inspection these examples rattled more than a bag of nails and just didn’t feel overly fast.
I was very disappointed and wondered whether my lotus ownership was over and I may need to go for a Caterham for the price for it to feel fast.
That was until I told the missus who didn’t sit on the fence by telling me that she would leave me if I bought a metal coffin…even better I thought!…for a split second.
Just as I was about to give up I found an advert for a 2006 exige S which had been converted to the Hangar111 320S kit. this caught my eye so I continued to read the advert, fully refurbished nut and bolt, HPI clear, full suspension refurbishment and a full respray in Porsche riviera blue, sounded great and the pics looked brilliant.
The downside was the mileage at 75K, which was higher than I and most lotus owners would prefer.
As it was local I decided to go a view it, it looked amazing better than the photos, a full history of filed and documented. Every upgrade and even down to every small bit and bolts bought, this gave me a lot of confidence.
The drive too was a surprise, hardly any squeaks or rattles, fastidious previous owner who had rebuilt it had done a good job.
Only downside was that the paint job, it wasn’t perfect as it had some crazing on a small sec room of the rear.
Not being mechanically minded (to give you an idea I used marigolds and a kitchen spatula to remove the battery on my V6 so not to get electrocuted to the amusement of a few lotus friends) I was concerned by the modifications and weather I needed to get my hands dirty keeping it in top top condition.
I also knew that even though it had been well looked after and a lot of money spent on her, she was more of a road biased car with no baffled sump, uprated brakes, catch cans and various other bits.
I knew money would need to be spent on certain areas to keep her in top condition…luckily I’m in a group of some fantastic mates who own lotus’ another reason I love owning a lotus is this community, I’ve made some amazing good friends, with a few active on here.
A big thank you espeically needs to go to Kyle A.K.A Fonzey who has been of great help and advice on some issues and questions that have arisen.
A deal was done for a vary reasonable price in todays market, and the first thing that I knew I wanted to do in my ownership was book her into seriously Lotus for them to provide a full nut and bolt investigation as well as a full service including:-
Spark plugs
Brake fluid
Gearbox oil
Engine oil
Coolant
Brakes
This was done for 2 reasons, firstly so that I knew in my ownership she was in top condition and everything was healthy.
Secondly even though I had own lotus’ for nearly a decade I had never tracked a car hence why the mileage wasn’t a concern.
All came back that I had in fact found a gem and that mileage aside she was one of the best examples they’d seen in this condition with even suspension had been refreshed.
on its first run, and after run 4 it was producing 189bhp with the charge cooler running too hot.
