OK, I admit it… I’m a fraud… My Exige is not really an Exige.
Although it is indistinguishable in every meaningful way from a genuine S2 Exige S, digits 4 and 13 on the VIN number say ‘Elise with a 1ZZ’. To make it more ‘unique’ the V5 says ‘Elise 111R Touring’. So it really is a bit of a mongrel and hence affectionately known as the Franklenlige.
I can’t see the VIN number while I am driving it so, for me, those few digits don’t matter at all - but I do hope that you forgive me for being a bit of an interloper on this forum 
The story of the car goes back to Lotus themselves, where, according to my limited research, it was originally built as a test mule for their proposed Elise SC project. I think this might be why the chassis number indicates a 1ZZ engine, yet the V5 says 111R which would have been supplied with a 2ZZ. My guess is that they initially tried to use the Toyota TRD SC that was available for some 1ZZ variants at the time, but then went down the 2ZZ route before registering it for the road as a 111R with ‘prototype’ on the V5 and no type approval or emissions details on there. This is a small bonus as the MOT is potentially a little more lenient by being the ‘BET’ test and the VED is also in the lower PLG class.
After being thoroughly abused by Lotus the car was allegedly in a pretty sorry state with a not unexpectedly tired engine and shoddy bodywork - but an unmolested and undamaged chassis (you can see where this is going right?).
The next part of the story is a little vague, but suffice it to say that the person I bought the car from managed to buy the chassis off Lotus and had a mint low miles Exige S with a damaged chassis ready to be transplanted. He was someone in the trade (not JS) who had plenty of spares, contacts, mechanics etc at hand and told me that he simply built it for himself rather than as something to flip for a profit.
Sure enough, he kept the car for over 7 years but as he didn’t really use it that much he decided to put it up for sale.
At that time I was looking for a 111R Elise as my budget could never stretch to an Exige despite drooling over them for years. So when this came up I immediately thought “hang on… what’s wrong with it”. Of course a quick reg check revealed that although it was HPI clear, it clearly was not an Exige - and to be fair, the seller never tried to hide that. But it was on sale at considerably less than any other supercharged S2 and did have expensive extras like Sports seats and the AP Racing big brake kit - so I figured I’d take a look.
It looked nice on the pics, with, as mentioned, some desirable extras.
Coming from a motorbike then kit car background, I did not have a great deal of knowledge when it came to what to look for when buying a Lotus other than what I could glean from t’interweb. But I was lucky enough to have a mate “in the know” who had owned and tracked Elises and VX’s and so, deposit paid, we both went along to look at the car and took her out for a test drive. His first comment was “wow, this is the first Elige/VX I have been in that doesn’t rattle - WTF!” and he gave it the thumbs up until on the way back it had a very slight misfire.
I was there ready to take it home on a trailer and itching to do so, but he said no… I know these cars, this could be any number of things and you could just end up chasing it and hating the car. Walk away and come back when it is running as it should.
So after a chat with the seller, who was brilliant to deal with, I drove the van back home with an empty trailer and a promise to return once the issue was sorted.
Next day he called to say that all it needed was a fresh set of plugs and the misfire was gone, so we arranged for me to travel down by train and collect the car - the deal was done!
I think I managed to put more miles on the car in my first week of ownership than he did in the last 7 years and I just love the car - despite it being resurrected from the grave!
Watch this space for the next episode where I suffer from the early stages of that all too common disease, upgraditus.
