Just bought this lovely S1 Exige

[TomE]

Hi, new on here but some of you may recognise my ID from SELOC or TLF. I've owned an Elan and S2 Elise before, currently have an Evora S and a Lotus Sport 110 bike.

I picked this beauty up earlier in the week and popped out today to take a few pictures in the sun.  Previous owners have looked after it well and it's been set up really nicely by Guglielmi Motorsport.  As well as looking stunning it is fantastic to drive.

It's got the VHPD 190 engine, Nitron dampers and Eibach springs, short shifter and superlight flywheel.  It had a respray about 7 years ago and a suspension refresh including powder coating the wishbones.

I've got a stack of invoices and MOTs and the names of 4 of the 5 previous owners.  It looks like two were on SELOC but are now inactive and one was on here but also now inactive.  If you used to own this lovely car or have info or pictures from its earlier life then get in touch.  It appears to have been on at least two different personal registrations as well as the current (original) plate - I think they were K15 DEX and P20 JMR if anyone has spotted these on other cars more recently.

A big thank you to Guy Munday and Giles Cooper with help looking for and buying this.  It's a keeper!

[gonein60seconds]

Congrats on the S1, fantastic! And welcome to Exige’s keep the pics and updates coming.

In case you haven’t seen there a exige owners meet at Caffeine and machine at the beginning of August. There are a couple of threads with all the details. Be great to have another S1 along

[Rob999]

Hi Tom, welcome and looks like a nice purchase.

Initial impressions good? As mentioned above if you’re about on the 1st August it would be great to see you and the S1

[winthattt]

I saw that on PH, looks really nice. I had an Elise with the reg x575 uay, I now have an Exige which like yours, only has Nitrons changed and verniers on the cams, everything else is standard. They work well that way.

[ortope]

Very nice indeed!


P.s.:
First thing to check, IMHO, would be the engine timing.
On untouched VHPD the setting normally is horribly wrong...

[Sub Boy]

Congratulations!
That’s a great looking example……very jealous!

[TomE]

Thanks everyone. Sadly 1 Aug C&M clashes with our family holiday so I won't be able to make that. A shame, as it would be great to meet people. I'll keep an eye out for other events.

I've done about 200 miles since picking it up on Monday. A bit of dual carriageway and motorway but mostly fast A/B roads and twisty cross-country stuff. The handling is really well set up, it's very sure-footed even on some of the crappy road surfaces round here.

The brakes are OK but could probably be better. It may just need the pads swapped out for something more suited to fast road use. I need to check what's there currently, as they seem less responsive when cold and better with a bit of temperature in them or driven a bit harder. They're obviously very different to the Evora!

Engine setup feels OK so far, it's starting reliably first time and idling well when cold and when warmed up. I'm getting used to how it behaves across the rev range. Sometimes it is a bit sluggish at the low end, which may be me being in the wrong gear and I just need to re-calibrate my brain.

So far the two niggles are the AC not working (I'm cooking in this heat!) and a misted up headlight due to water getting behind the headlight cover when I washed it and there being no exit hole.

It's going in for a B service and a good look over by Back On Track in a couple of weeks, so I'm keeping a list of things to investigate or fettle. I'm on garden leave between jobs at the moment so will be taking the chance to do more miles in the coming weeks.

I also found out today that Andrew (nineteen80one photography) had done a photoshoot with this car a few years ago when it was for sale at Lotus Silverstone.  Some stunning pictures here:
https://www.nineteen80one.com/blue-is-t ... -exige-s1/ 

[winthattt]

If you ever get the aircon to work you can tell the rest of us how you did it! The system is really simple and I can get really cold pipes going into the heater box, the air hardly changes temp!

Take off the headlight cover and leave a small gap at the bottom in the goop that holds it on as a drain. Make sure that’s the only gap and little water will ever get in. Good bathroom sealant holds them on(goop).

[thommo]

Welcome to exiges.com. Lovely colour, I was always lusting after one in that shade.
Just wondered if you check out the chassis number against the list which is on this site somewhere, it might help with its history.

[TomE]

Thanks @thommo. I've tried searching on the chassis number and the three registrations I know it's been on. No luck with those. I've found one of the previous owners on here but looks like he's been inactive since he sold the car in 2018. He'd had it for 13 years and I have all his receipts and MOTs amongst the paperwork I was given.

I've got 3 receipts from before that and 4 after, plus the dealer stamps in the service record. That's given me a few avenues to explore.