Thought I would document my journey with my Exige S2 that I bought back in 2019.
Bought the car from Will Blackham, and honestly, the first drive back was equal parts delight and absolute terror (pulling onto the M25 and seeing almost straight under a lorry trailer was surprising!).
Got the car back to Norfolk and stopped to take my first photos of it!
Now the reason I bought this car was because I spent part of my childhood growing up just behind Hethel, and I remember when the flyer was released by Lotus for the S2 Exige, as I got my mum to stop by the Lotus reception on the way home from school (in those days you could get to the reception easily) and we picked up one of the posters. I had that poster on my wall until I left for Uni, and always said that I would have one.
Funnily enough, my parents actually kept the poster when I moved out, and when they moved recently, they found it in a box of my things in the loft. Today it sits framed in my office.
Anyway, back on topic, the car had a good clean and I thought the appropriate thing was to take the car back to where it all began for it (I only live a few miles away).
First couple of mods were the flag on the endplates from Divine Handcraft and also the black filler surround with black bolts as I couldn’t stand the silver one.
Soon after that Covid hit, so any excuse to take the car out was needed (amazing how much shopping you can fit in it with no passenger!).
It wasn’t too long after that when I felt the need to start making the car my own, so the modifying began.
Bought a second hand Reverie carbon centre console and fitted this, which I was very happy with, and bought a set of carbon doorcards from EliseParts which were absolutely terrible quality, and despite contacting them and sending them back, there was no acknowledgement that the carbon was poor quality and they came back with even more filler on them, so today they’re sat in a box.
Anyway, decided to pain the window surrounds and backing behind the interior door handles, and changed the bolts to black ones to tidy up the doorcars, and was much happier with them.
I also bought a set of the GRP rear lights, and after some initial issues with one of the units, got them fitted and working (GRP were very good to deal with and sent out a replacement for the faulty unit very quickly!).
I then did my first trackday at Snetterton (only just down the road), and had a huge amount of fun.
I did however realise that the standard seats were nowhere near supportive enough for track driving, so bit the bullet and bought a set of Tillett B5 seats, which I had customised to suit the car.
After that I bought a bit more carbon and changed the sill covers and A pillar panels.
At some point I also bought the carbon parts for the rear holder that is between the seats, and the GF Williams mirrors, which in my opinion look so much better than the standard items.
Then swapped the Y spoke wheels (well they’re in the garage) for a set of the forget lightweight wheels and went back to Hethel for another photo.
Next up, did another trackday and found the car faster (most probably the far newer R888R tyres) and enjoyable as the seats really held me in place.
Coming almost up to date, I bought and fitted one of the HPE gearshift mechanisms last winter, and have been very happy with that as the shift is now much more precise.
I took it down to the Classic Team Lotus garden party and had been invited to park it on the lawn, which was quite cool.
Unfortunately the car barely covered any miles last year as it was parked in my work car park and someone coming in for an interview bumped into it.
After getting the other party to take full liability for it, I got it repaired via my preferred garage and got it back, after the whole front clam had been resprayed and had new PPF. Had it for just a few weeks before it was SORN’d, so got one last photo.
While it’s been off the road this winter my project has been to fit the gear surround for the exposed linkage. Managed to pick up most of the bits from someone local who had thought of doing the same thing on his V6 after fitting the HPE shifter, but decided he didn’t want to do it as it wasn’t a straightforward thing. I can confirm it definitely isn’t a straightforward thing and many hours were spent on Deroure to source all the necessary bits, and then many more hours, fitting, taking it off, trimming it, fitting it, fettling it a bit more, and now it is fitted, and I’m very happy with how it looks!
I have purchased the new style hazard button and the bezel for it, but have discovered that fitting that button is not as simple as I’d hoped, so I will need to design and make a small interface PCB which I will do during the summer. For the moment the old hazard switch is fitted after opening up the hole, and bonding it in place.
I also updated the AC control panel for a newer style (black one), with newer buttons which I think makes the interior look a little more modern.
Think that’s everything, and will keep this updated as I do more.
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