Is This Worth The Money?

[M@r]{]

Very tempted by this Exige / Elise. It's obviously a very well specced car that would cost more to build, however it is still just an S1 Elise? If it didn't have the Exige body panels etc, ie an Elise with a monster engine, would it still command this money?

 

Thoughts / opinions?

 

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/lotus/exige-s1/lotus-s1-audi-powered/5553282?v=b

[Steve J]

Yes. If it was a genuine Exige it would be worth even more.

 

You still can't take the roof off it though

[Rob999]

As its Wayne's old car from Pro Alloy I think the price is heavily based on the provenance of the previous owner.

 

It's one hell of a car, it'll never be an Exige but if that's not important than go for it.

 

I think around the 30k mark would be the price in my head to buy it.

[DeanB]

It looks like a hell of a car to me. Imo s1 Exiges these days ought to be kept more or less standard (at least retaining the VHPD motor) because they are a classic. I know others disagree though. If you fancy a rootin' tootin' 500 bhp monster in Exige clothes then a re-bodied Elise is absolutely the way to do it because it's cheaper and not sacrilegious.

£35k is a lot but I would guess the seller expects to sell it for a bit less. To build one to that spec would cost a lot more.

If I were building a car that fast I would put a cage in it though, and also bigger rear tyres to get the power down. I am always surprised when people build 400+ bhp cars and leave standard width tyres on.

[M@r]{]

Well I've got the approval from the missus, spoke to them over email a few times and hoping to arrange a viewing over the next few days. Finance might be tricky as the value could be in question, but I should be able to put down a decent enough deposit so hopefully that won't be an issue.

 

Be interested to know what tyres it has on the rear and what the traction is like

 

As for the roof not coming off, I'm not too worried, I've got the other car for those roof down drives.

[DeanB]

I think that car is very you Mark. Right up your street.

I like the datalogger too - I could spend a happy while looking at track day data trying to work out how to go faster.

[KurtB]

Deans right, Exiges are getting a bit precious. The car in your link Mark looks great. Buy it!

[scatty]

Yes yes and yes.....

 

Seen loads of pics and vids of this on Instagram....

 

I love it...its a tricky one to price up. But I reckon that's a good buy at £30k.... If you really love it then it's a good buy at £35k...

 

***bagsy a ride please.....

[Simon Mac]

At the end of the day it's worth what you are prepared to pay for it.

 

My take, FWIW, is you could get a Honda  or  Audi'd Elise in it's original clothes for 1/2 th the price. Personally I'd be far less precious about using something like that on track, especially if it meant I didn't need to finance it.

i.e.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/lotus/elise-s1/lotus-audi-elise/5598047?v=b

 

At the other end of the spectrum, you could have this : (guaranteed future classic)

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/lotus/exige-s1/lotus-exige-s1-178bhp-a-standard-car/5180132?v=b

 

 

I fully understand the car has provenance, as it's effectively ProAlloy's rolling advert, and a LOT of money has gone into it... but if you or I put those bits on the car we'd not see a penny back for them. This would make me nervous when I came to sell it, because as at that point I'm not ProAlloy.

 

I'm not trying to put you off, I'm sure it's an absolute beast, just trying to bring some balance. It will always be a difficult car to put a value on.

[The Cakes]

At the end of the day it's worth what you are prepared to pay for it.

 

My take, FWIW, is you could get a Honda or Audi'd Elise in it's original clothes for 1/2 th the price. Personally I'd be far less precious about using something like that on track, especially if it meant I didn't need to finance it.

i.e.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/lotus/elise-s1/lotus-audi-elise/5598047?v=b

 

At the other end of the spectrum, you could have this : (guaranteed future classic)

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/lotus/exige-s1/lotus-exige-s1-178bhp-a-standard-car/5180132?v=b

 

 

I fully understand the car has provenance, as it's effectively ProAlloy's rolling advert, and a LOT of money has gone into it... but if you or I put those bits on the car we'd not see a penny back for them. This would make me nervous when I came to sell it, because as at that point I'm not ProAlloy.

 

I'm not trying to put you off, I'm sure it's an absolute beast, just trying to bring some balance. It will always be a difficult car to put a value on.

This man speaks sense! Tough sell second time round.

[Daveb99]

I'm far from an expert on this, and do appreciate that it has every ProAlloy part under the sun fitted to it, amongst other top upgrades, but I have to agree with others here that it's going to be hard to sell on without potentially losing a big chunk of money.

 

To provide further balance - remember it's a 1998 S1 which would probably fetch about £10k or so in standard fettle or with minimal mods. So, are the upgrades worth £25k? You could buy an original S1 Exige for a little more than that, with proper provenance and cast iron residuals.

 

Really depends what you want I guess, if it's the ultimate track beast you need, then it looks good, albeit at a price. If you want the look of an S1 Exige without losing a load of money, hold out for the real thing.

 

There have been times when I've doubted whether I've done the right thing with buying my Sport 160. I set out to buy a standard S1, and gradually modify it, adding more power (DVA etc) and sensibly getting it well sorted. I made a quick decision when the S160 popped up, after speaking to a few people (Scott Walker was one) and it has been the right decision. It's plenty quick enough - my next step would be driver training I think - and looking at other adverts over the last few years, the value has risen about 20% since I bought it two years ago. I think you'd have the same experience with a tidy original S1 Exige. Same applies to the 340R and other limited run specials.

[Simon Mac]

Dave the 160 is such a sweet spot car. Limited edition, with a lovely balance of torque / power /reliability / "lotusness"

 

I think you made a great choice.

 

This is the hardest part of choosing. Some of the special editions have been made redundant over time. First "limited edition" supercharged Exige is a good example. Why anyone would want one over a late 240pp to drive I don't get. The limited card only gets you so far.

 

Would be great to have a sticky on variants vs collective wisdom on desirability.

[M@r]{]

You lot are putting doubt in my mind now ????

 

Although the concerns you are raising are exactly the same as the ones I'm having. I wouldn't pay 35k, 30k is what I'd be willing to. The way I justify that is this, I want to break the 300bhp in my S2 Exige. With the need for uprated gears that's going to cost well over 5k? Where I could sell mine for what? 24-25k,if I could buy this for 30k then not only have I broken the 300bhp mark, I would've almost hit the 500bhp mark!

 

I want a track car, that's what the car would be for me. You don't get much more track that that. So perfect tool for the job. That being said I don't want to lose a shed load of money if I come to sell. I can't see it ever being worth less than 25k, not with that spec. So if I got it for 30k that's a 5k hit at most.

[scatty]

Make a cheeky offer of £28k and go from there...

 

Like you said earlier, it's worth £25k+ all day long no matter who has owned it...

 

If you are prepared to pay £30k for it, then others will be too... It's very niche and selling on would be the only concern.

 

You know what lotus owners are like. They hate losing a penny when it comes to selling... Would I be bothered on a £5k hit down the line. Not really if I'd had a shed load of fun in it...

[MilesH]

Mark, if you like the power delivery and driveability of the audi/Turbo engine in a Lotus then for the build cost this is a decent price for a very well spec'd car. With all the looks of (in my opinion) the best looking Lotus.

 

A friend has just finished a very basic spec 260-270bhp Audi Elise (not Exige) build and that has cost him nearly £20k. That car has all the right bits and the looks to match.

 

But it's a small market to sell it on and I'd go in with my eyes open to it being a long term keeper.

 

p.s. the last Audi Motorsport Elise/Exige I saw sell was a Cat D circa 300bhp audi build and that went for about £25k from memory.