Well I thought I had found a “well used” Elise to turn into a track car, went to look today and basically the chassis was ruined, twice a Cat C no matter how cheap was not going to be ok 
Anyway, I’m back on the look out for a cheap S1\S2 Elise don’t mind if it is Cat as long as the chassis hasn’t been a banana like the one I saw today, also don’t mind a half completed project of any kind, help me out so I might be able to make anglesey not in an MX5!
Twice a Cat C, that needs scrapping!
How cheap do you need it to be? Have you contacted WillB etc?
That sounds rather shonky.
You’re a few months too late, but my old Elise (111R) could have been a good candidate - needed a new engine but the new owner persisted with it and it’s pretty much perfect again now so I doubt he’d let it go for “part done project” prices!
I’ll keep an eye out, I know Jon Seal has sold the odd clam damaged car before to people looking for a project so although it’s predictable advice, maybe worth dropping him a note to see if there’s anything in the pipeline.
Yes, it might be a good plan to get in touch with both Will and Jon.
I’d not be bothered if it was clam damage or mechanical failure or super high mileage, just needs to be a straight or very well repaired tub if there has been damage to it, at the end of the day this will be a track car to replace my Clio, which whilst it is brilliant (and in the wet just about the fast car out there), it is a little lame and rather predictable. I’ll probably keep it as it isn’t worth a huge amount anyway…
This is the car I went to look at, sadly it need a new chassis and it has been cat c twice!
1. I bought this cheap Lotus Elise for just £7500!! but is it a heap? - YouTube
I can’t believe that car is still doing the rounds…
Jon Seal picked up a good friend’s S1 at the weekend. No smacks, DVA engine rebuild about 6 years ago and it’s been stood in a garage for the past 5.
The owner of that Elise just sent me a private message on SELOC titled “buggered Elise”.
He wanted to have a chat about the cars history, as he wants to know how it got so “buggered”.**
**For clarification, I have never owned it
There’s a massive thread on SELOC from a few years ago, might be able to still dig out the link. If I remember right somebody bought it as a cat car with “no chassis damaged” and later found the sill to have been rewelded, then filled and painted to look like anodized aluminium… and the rollhoop wasn’t even bolted back in 
no matter how bad you think this car might be, it is worse! to try and straighten the chassis they used a porta power or similar and dented the inside of the chassis!
would it be wrong of me to put up the 2 photos I managed to take before I walked away?
https://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=476193
Looks like the new owner has posted up on SELOC, sounds like he’s open to any info that people have so he may appreciate the pictures there.
The guy who originally got stung by it on SELOC sold it on as “spares/repairs” and was fully transparent about the history. Either it’s been re-repaired since then (sounds not based on your appraisal) or someone has just kept it long enough for the noise to die down, then has snuck it back onto the market again as a full car. Shame
here they are
What I didn’t take a picture of was the section that had been crudely cut out of the rear firewall in front of the tank and then pop riveted back in with a little seam sealer.
What a great project, you could build an almost new car with a new chassis and put whatever engine you wanted for that money.
I would love to do something like that
The big issue is trying to find a chassis, sadly
surely thats an instant MOT/Insurance fail, i.e strutural damage within 20-30cm of a saftey mounting point or whatever it is on an MOT
is that the side sill pulled away from the rear sheer panel ?
My suspicion would be yes, but I doubt an MOT tester would be able to spot it.
Yes I think it was where they tried to porta power the tub straight again and then basically destroyed it, this should only ever have gone to be stripped in my opinion
