Is This Worth The Money?

[kieranexige]

It's a beautiful Car Mark.

 

I'm not sure how you will get on making a cheeky offer on the car. As we all know it belonged to and was built by the late Wayne Claydon so the Family may not want to accept low offers. I guess it's worth a ask.

 

I think by the time I looked at the jubu gears and final drive it was 2k plus fitting rebuild in which case a clutch and flywheel would make sense. Or is that just my man maths again.

[M@r]{]

Thanks for all the opinions guys, it does help.

 

As for the price I pay, it's not about trying to get a bargain, I'm happy to pay what it's worth, I just don't feel it's worth 35k. Of course it would cost more to build, but as we all know, you don't get what you put in to modify. Don't get me wrong, it's a stunning car that is a credit to Wayne. And I'd be more than happy to cherish it and use it like I'm sure he'd want someone too. I think the danger they may have waiting out for the 35k is someone might come along with the view to break it

[Simon Mac]

 I think the danger they may have waiting out for the 35k is someone might come along with the view to break it

 

Not just me thinking that then

 

Best of luck with your decision, it seems you are being pretty considered in your approach, so I'm sure which ever way you go it will be the right choice!

[Steve J]

Test driving cars like these are dangerous.

You start applying man maths to justify why just buying it there and then makes sense.

Good luck, it's certainly going to be a beast.

[M@r]{]

Pro's:

* it will decimate all

* it's an awesome machine

* it looks the danglies

* nothing else left to spend on it?

 

Concerns:

* turbo lag? Not great for track?

* hard to value, risk?

* how high will it Rev? My old Audi Elise revved out at 6k, small power band, frequent changes?

* I can't put my private plate on it

 

To be honest the two biggest concerns can be answered by a test drive, but that simple action is proving to be more difficult than you'd think, ie I can get contact / commitment from them on a date! That itself is a concern as it seems they don't really want to sell? The concerns that don't get addressed by a drive can be solved by a big dose of what the hell.

 

Anyway one more call today and if that fails I'm putting this idea to bed and turning my attention back to my S2

[Simon Mac]

I'd add potential fragility to the cons list my self.

 

500bhp out of a 1.9 is asking a lot. No doubt it's very well built, but that has some downsides. If it goes wrong the repair bill will not be funny.  

 

I don't know what happened to the car 500 miles ago, but a lot of work was done on it upgrading stuff then. I'd be nervous this was done at the same time as repairing a mechanical failure. Certainly something to ask about.

[MilesH]

Thanks for all the opinions guys, it does help.

 

As for the price I pay, it's not about trying to get a bargain, I'm happy to pay what it's worth, I just don't feel it's worth 35k. Of course it would cost more to build, but as we all know, you don't get what you put in to modify. Don't get me wrong, it's a stunning car that is a credit to Wayne. And I'd be more than happy to cherish it and use it like I'm sure he'd want someone too. I think the danger they may have waiting out for the 35k is someone might come along with the view to break it

 

I think that with Lotus's there are people out there at the moment that are prepared to pay that sort of money for cars like these. Not sure if you remember the 350+bhp Maidstone Honda S1 Elise that was up for £40k (ish) a couple of months ago. Like the S1 Audi Exige it had thousands spent on it, and it found a buyer within a couple of months who is enjoying it now......although it still needed tweaking to make it 100%.

 

From my experience Honda's and Audi's need constant maintenance if you are going to use them for what they are made for, so a 3-400bhp one is going to be as much a project as it is a driving car.

 

(all in my opinion and feel free to ignore )