Anyone know ‘G2 TRR’ silver S2 111s on autotrader?

[Did]

So after a gap of more than 20 years I’m considering buying my second Elise! I owned an original S1 for a few years from 1999 and to this day consider it one of the best cars I ever had, hence I’m in the market again. I want an early lightweight K series but S2 this time and this one has popped up on the trader. It’s 100 miles away from me so before I embark on a total mission only to find a complete shed at the other end I thought I would reach out to folk on here to see if anyone recognised it and had any insight. I know that’s a private plate so it may not ring any bells (although the plate will be sold with the car apparently so may have been on a while) but zooming in on one of the photos I noticed an MLOC sticker in the rear window on the drivers side. 
The link to the ad is below. Thanks in advance for any help. 
Finally, whether I buy this or another one I live in the Peak District and I can see the club is pretty active up here so it will be good to get out and meet some of you when I’ve eventually got a car. 
Cheers

Damion

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202001316793646

[Elisemadray]

Hi Damion,

sorry I don't know the car so cant help you there but when you get your new Lotus it will be great to see you on one of our Peak runs not mention our main event of the year

'Lotus in the Peak'

cheers

Ray

 

[The Cakes]

Looks to be a fair price and good history with the car, especially the last spend. 👍🏻

[Jonathan E]

Looks good for the money, service only at dealer or lotus independent needs to be looked at as doesn’t say full service history so could be as little as two services. Plate included worth xxx is a load of tosh, I’ll give you tuppence and a jammy dodger for it. 
It looks a nice car at a good price, check the suspension has been done👍
Good luck

[Did]

Thanks everyone for the advice and the welcome. The owner has already said that the suspension is getting ready for a refresh so I need to budget that in. What do you reckon? £1500 for a refresh kit and some decent dampers?
Cheers
Damion


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[Jonathan E]

Do you intend to do the refresh yourself? You’ll be adding at least £1500 to the cost of the car and at 15.5k there are cars out there with less miles and possibly better history. A totally mint early 02 111s with low miles and full history will be commanding just North of 18k, I know, I sold mine late last year. 
Hth

[Did]

Do you intend to do the refresh yourself? You’ll be adding at least £1500 to the cost of the car and at 15.5k there are cars out there with less miles and possibly better history. A totally mint early 02 111s with low miles and full history will be commanding just North of 18k, I know, I sold mine late last year. 
Hth

I’m fairly handy with the spanners so would plan on doing the refresh myself. I have pulling and pushing gear for the ball joints and the bushes so I’m reckoning I should be ok. I’m just hoping I don’t get into new wishbones or that looks like £400 a corner.


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[Jonathan E]

£1500 diy I’d say. Check the wishbones are straight👍

[DeanB]

A suspension refresh need not cost as much as £1500 if you are doing it yourself, it all depends on what you are buying new.

The bushes and ball joints for the wishbones plus track rod ends, arb drop links and toe link bars are about £500 plus vat from eliseparts. Mine cost £100 to be media blasted and the por 15 paint i used was twenty quid i think.  Doing all of that will make the car ride and handle much nicer and won't cost £1500. It will also protect the wishbones from rust and give you chance to make sure the chassis is clean and has some corrosion protection where it needs it.

If you want new dampers then I think you will be comfortably over £1500 but if it was me and I wanted the car for road use only I would keep the original dampers and only replace them if they are leaking. They might not look pretty but it's daft to spend another £800 or so just to make it look mint under the arches.

Make sure you have a good look at the chassis, especially the front wishbone mounting points as if they are badly corroded it can't be repaired. Also check the floor under the carpets/mats for corrosion under the rubber layer they applied at the factory - it traps moisture. Just in case you didn't already know these things 😁👍

Good luck with your search!

Dean

[DeanB]

I have just had a look at the advert, and it looks good value if it is in good order.

I would always have a specialist look at an elise if i were buying one now, and take the undertrays and wheels off for a really good look. As it happens that car is in Luton and there is a really good Lotus specialist just near there called Matthew Bentley racing. They have just sold me some Nitrons and an anti roll bar as it happens, and they had about 5 elise and exiges in, plus a couple of vx220s, when i called in. Sean there is a top bloke.

[Jonathan E]

If I was doing a refresh on a 17 year old Elise with 72k on it I’d definitely be changing the dampers, £1500 is optimistic so the car in the o/p would need to be very good to command 14k, and at that age the fact that the suspension has never been touched would get me thinking about other things that may have been overlooked. 
If you do go and look at it follow the advice above, also check the interior fan works on all 3 settings and runs from hot to cold and windscreen to footwell, (heaters and heater packs are a weak point) and quite costly to fix.

 

 

[Did]

Thanks both for your advice. I’m really on the fence with this car as it’s an early K series which is exactly what I want and on the face of it reasonably priced. However, it’s high mileage, and a long way from me to go and find it suffers from some fairly terminal issues. I’m not too fussed about coughing to a suspension refresh if the price ends up being right. In fact I’d probably quite enjoy rebushing it all and feeling a big difference. What I don’t want though is at the end of all the remedial work to end up with a car that I have the same money in as a mint one with half the mileage.
I’ve gone back to the owner today with a few more questions and in the meantime I’ll keep my eyes peeled for something closer.


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[Jonathan E]

Here what your up against where unscrupulous sellers are concerned:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5575033836&toolid=10001&campid=5337202664&customid=&icep_item=114143130514&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229508&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg
 

Will B, a highly respected dealer has flagged this up on seloc as needing around 3k spending on it. Looks great from the pictures and description🙄

[Did]

Ouch. Good job I’m not keen on red!


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[Did]

Thanks everyone for your advice with this car. I’ve ended my interest in it now as I couldn’t make the numbers work compared to the more expensive cars that have lots of history and had all the work done. I’m sure it will make a great car for someone though at the right price.
The search continues....


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