Newbie considering a track orientated Elise

[Mark10]

Happy New Year everyone!

I am new to the site and am thinking about buying a Elise to use as a track car. It would need to be road legal as I would plan to drive to and from track days.

However before I start searching properly I need to make sure I can fit in one Ok! Being 6ft4 and 15 stone (2018 fitness regime started today to get back down to under 14 stone!) it might be a bit of a squeeze.

I live in Meriden, just to the West of Coventry and if there are any local owners who would not mind me having a quick sit in their car I would be most appreciative.

Given my budget of around 12K - 14K I think I will be looking for a K Series variant. One has just popped up for sale on PistonHeads but unfortunately it is currently located in The Netherlands!

Look forward to hopefully meeting some of you during 2018.

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[duncx]

Welcome Mark.

6'3" here and the Elise is one of the most comfortable cars I've ever driven - having said that I'm below 12st so no idea regarding your additional bulk (all muscle I'm sure lol)

You should be able to get a reasonable  S1 or a decent early S2, but for a track weapon at that budget I would also maybe consider a VX220, you might get lucky at this time of year and find a turbo or maybe even after market SC car.

[MilesH]

I'm 6ft 3 and have no problem with a few simple changes and I have a friend who owns an S1 Elise also and is 6ft 5 and again is ok with the same tweaks (steering wheel spacer and make sure the seat base has limited padding - S1 standard seats are the best.)

Feel free to pop over sometime and I can show you a few other options to make you fit better (spacer in the steering rack, modifying the runners etc) and I have a few different seats which you can try in my car to show you the difference

 

[Mark10]

Thanks for the replies. VX220 is also a consideration if the right one comes up.

Thanls for the offer Miles. Where are you based?

[MilesH]

I'm just south of Cirencester which google says is about an hour 20 mins from you. Worth the drive if you want to know if you fit ok

 

 

[scatty]

I'm 6ft 4 and fit ok.

well, I fold myself in and out. 

[lukevx]

1 hour ago, scatty said:

I'm 6ft 4 and fit ok.

well, I fold myself in and out. 

You cant see what you look like when your driving it though scatty 

[quantum2000]

1 hour ago, scatty said:

I'm 6ft 4 and fit ok.

well, I fold myself in and out. 

[Alex B]

On 01/01/2018 at 20:02, Mark10 said:

Happy New Year everyone!

I am new to the site and am thinking about buying a Elise to use as a track car. It would need to be road legal as I would plan to drive to and from track days.

However before I start searching properly I need to make sure I can fit in one Ok! Being 6ft4 and 15 stone (2018 fitness regime started today to get back down to under 14 stone!) it might be a bit of a squeeze.

I live in Meriden, just to the West of Coventry and if there are any local owners who would not mind me having a quick sit in their car I would be most appreciative.

Given my budget of around 12K - 14K I think I will be looking for a K Series variant. One has just popped up for sale on PistonHeads but unfortunately it is currently located in The Netherlands!

Look forward to hopefully meeting some of you during 2018.

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m up at Donington Park Monday 8th Jan if you fancy some passenger laps all be it fairly slow n steady laps.

[scatty]

Don’t do it !!! He nearly killed me last time I had a pax at Cadwell.

 

and now he’s got more power...

[Mark10]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I have now had the chance to sit in a S1, S2 and VX220 and have narrowed my search down to a S1. My head was touching the roofs of the S2 and VX220 and my eye line was right at the top of the screen. Where as there was a lot more room in the S1 and the vision out of the front screen was much better.

Alex B thanks for the offer of a passenger ride but unfortunately I won't be able to make it to Donington on Monday. Judging by Scatty's last comment might be best though!

Now I just have to track down the right S1 to use on track at the right price, which I think will be easier said than done.

Mark

[MilesH]

Bare in mind the S1 and S2 cabin space and distance from the floor to the top of the windscreen is identical in the S1 and S2 so with the same seats the S1 and S2 would be the same.

 

[Mark10]

29 minutes ago, MilesH said:

Bare in mind the S1 and S2 cabin space and distance from the floor to the top of the windscreen is identical in the S1 and S2 so with the same seats the S1 and S2 would be the same.

 

That is interesting Miles....... there was way way more headroom and cabin space in the S1 (standard seats) than the S2 which had Corbeau seats fitted. Both seats were as far back as the could go. There also  seemed to be noticeably more legroom around the steering wheel in the S1 as well?!

 

There must be a difference in height between the floor and roof though? With the S1 having more room?

[danwebster]

4 minutes ago, Mark10 said:

That is interesting Miles....... there was way way more headroom and cabin space in the S1 (standard seats) than the S2 which had Corbeau seats fitted. Both seats were as far back as the could go. There also  seemed to be noticeably more legroom around the steering wheel in the S1 as well?!

 

There must be a difference in height between the floor and roof though? With the S1 having more room?

The original S1 seats had no padding under your bum, so sit you pretty low. Later seats had more and depending on exactly which ones they were, some of the corbeau's have a lot of padding and sit you considerably higher. 

[Mark10]

3 minutes ago, danwebster said:

The original S1 seats had no padding under your bum, so sit you pretty low. Later seats had more and depending on exactly which ones they were, some of the corbeau's have a lot of padding and sit you considerably higher. 

Thanks for the further info Dan.

I guess I need to try and find a S2 fitted with thinner seats and try it for size before ruling them out.

Do you know if the roof heights (soft tops) from the floor are the same on the S1 and S2?