New Elise Owner - What don't I know?

[Jonathan E]

You will become obsessed with the stack temperature.

and the coolant level.

People will nod knowingly and say “Ah lots of trouble usually serious” which basically means they know very little about Elise’s.

When sitting in traffic in the rain people will hoot and point to tell you your engine is steaming.

Ladies will assume your missing something in the trouser department.

Young boys will shout “nice car mate”.

You will become adept at spotting potholes from 500 yards away.

You’ll park in the loneliest spot you can possibly find in a carpark.

You’ll return to your lonely parking spot to find a 4x4, van, truck or people carrier parked so closely to you that you’ll need to take the roof off to get in.

You’ll smile from ear to ear every time you get to drive the car.

You’ll get to know some really great people that you probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for your little plastic car.

Sign up for Lotus in the Peaks, and buy a Mloc Calendar from the shop on here....Some great pictures, but March is the best😉

I could go on!

Welcome to Lotus ownership and Mloc.

 

[MattyB]

It won't be your first or your last....budget accordingly

[DeanB]

On 07/01/2019 at 14:23, 99 Elise said:

I haven't canceled my order yet...

 

That looks mint!

Well done  🙂

[fast5freddy]

Beautiful car - looks like a typical time warp car from Matty.

If its got the original Pirelli P-Zeros or old tyres (check the date stamp) I would change them immediately for fresh rubber - like Yokohama AD08R.

Find a specialist to maintain it and I would avoid modifying it - these are special cars and need driving.

[dandylion]

And....The headlights are to die for!  They are seriously terrible.

[99 Elise]

12 hours ago, dandylion said:

The headlights are

Any S1 owners got advice on improving the headlights? I read some stuff about HIDs but apparently that's a no-go since MOT rules changed.

[Steve J]

Get some decent rally bulbs. The lights are fine then but obviously not quite as bright as some of the latest cars.

[Phil S1]

12 hours ago, 99 Elise said:

Any S1 owners got advice on improving the headlights? I read some stuff about HIDs but apparently that's a no-go since MOT rules changed.

Do you have driving lights set in the grill? If not then that would make a good improvement

[99 Elise]

20 hours ago, Phil S1 said:

Do you have driving lights set in the grill?

Yep, I have driving lights

[SamG40]

Nice looking example. They look like MMC's too which is always good. I'd have to get that outside wheel weight off, hate the things on nice wheels.

[99 Elise]

4 hours ago, SamG40 said:

They look like MMC's too which is always good

MMCs?

[Jonathan E]

MMC, Metal Matrix Composite. Original fit on early Elise’s the lightest and best, suffer from very little wear. Brilliant in the dry but suffer from initial bite problems if very wet, and you must use specific pads. I don’t think MMC pads are available anymore but I think Eliseparts do a version which also help with the wet bite issues. I had a very early Elise with MMC’s and Nick Whale fitted splash guards to the discs which also helped, if my memory serves me correctly Lotus started to fit splash guards to all cars after a certain chassis number, mine was chassis 21?? and didn’t have them from the factory.. Quite a few cars were fitted with them but they were expensive and Lotus finally moved to heavier traditional discs. Back in the day there was a fashion for swapping the MMC’s out, which I never understood but I think they are considered to be pretty much the best discs/pads available for the Elise and these days are very sort after by track day warriors and those who want a totally original car.

Its been a while since I had my car so hopefully the above is still correct.

[Daveb99]

4 hours ago, Jonathan E said:

MMC, Metal Matrix Composite. Original fit on early Elise’s the lightest and best, suffer from very little wear. Brilliant in the dry but suffer from initial bite problems if very wet, and you must use specific pads. I don’t think MMC pads are available anymore but I think Eliseparts do a version which also help with the wet bite issues. I had a very early Elise with MMC’s and Nick Whale fitted splash guards to the discs which also helped, if my memory serves me correctly Lotus started to fit splash guards to all cars after a certain chassis number, mine was chassis 21?? and didn’t have them from the factory.. Quite a few cars were fitted with them but they were expensive and Lotus finally moved to heavier traditional discs. Back in the day there was a fashion for swapping the MMC’s out, which I never understood but I think they are considered to be pretty much the best discs/pads available for the Elise and these days are very sort after by track day warriors and those who want a totally original car.

Its been a while since I had my car so hopefully the above is still correct.

Sounds correct to me Jonathan, I too had an MMC-equipped Elise back in the day, my first, and I recall how horrified I was when approaching a roundabout for the first time in the wet and trying to brake.   I got used to it soon after, basically you had to 'double dip' on the brakes, far from ideal!

Would have been nice if the supplying dealer had warned me first, but no...

[kieranexige]

20 minutes ago, Daveb99 said:

Sounds correct to me Jonathan, I too had an MMC-equipped Elise back in the day, my first, and I recall how horrified I was when approaching a roundabout for the first time in the wet and trying to brake.   I got used to it soon after, basically you had to 'double dip' on the brakes, far from ideal!

Would have been nice if the supplying dealer had warned me first, but no...

Hahaha sounds like coming from my Exige to my elise... What assistance. 

[99 Elise]

4 hours ago, Jonathan E said:

MMC, Metal Matrix Composite

OK, done some reading around those. This is a 1999 Elise, so I think that's after they stopped fitting the MMCs and the discs hold a magnet, which suggests they're not the aluminium-ceramic of MMCs?

I think they're the cast iron OEM discs.