The relationship between time and distance is simple and immutable, except on the edge of theoretical physics. However, it creates significant confusion for older sports cars. This week’s pill is a well-used and clearly well-enjoyed Series 2 Lotus Elise that managed to travel 160,000 miles. That number makes him one of the longest legged of his kind, which is reflected in the fact that he is also one of the cheapest.
Most potential buyers won’t even try to see past that mileage. It’s as shocking in this part of the market as it would be two or even three times what it would be for something more mundane. Even two decades after the introduction of the Series 2 Elise, it’s uncommon to find one in the classifieds with a six-figure mileage. However, since it was first registered in November 2002 – the same month that Piers Brosnan’s preppy James Bond retired with Die Another Day – the annual average is anything but shocking. 8,700 miles a year is hardly an exaggeration.
While our pill is far from perfect, its very existence offers a stylish rebuttal of the stereotypes that Lotus has followed in general, and the Elise with K series in particular. Lotus owners have asked questions about breakdowns, breakdowns, and the severity of common problems since license plates got stuck on the first street-legal Seven in 1957.
And the Rover K-Series is an engine notorious for its well-documented tendency to blow head gaskets, a problem that parts of the internet assure you that you fall under the “when” rather than the “if”. The dealer who sells our pill promises an extensive service history, but does not provide any further details, so it is entirely possible that they contain details on at least one top-end conversion.
Regardless of its grenade engine, this Elise is a car that clearly has packed a lot of adventure into its existence. A praiseworthy honest set of images shows the body’s many blemishes in unfiltered detail. Or at least some of them. According to the photographic evidence, this includes a cracked paintwork on the front edge of the hood, a stone chip rash on the front, and a crack around the left inlet of the bumper. There is more paint breakage around the tail shell, paint has peeled off in various places, and one of the taillights is discolored and possibly cracked. The large ‘LOTUS’ lettering that should be between the taillights and the smaller Elise sticker is also missing. It strongly suggests that it either had a new paint job or a new body.
The inside also shows plenty of signs of use – the driver’s seat bears the marks of many lower parts. Or maybe just one floor, many times. The car is hardtoped in the pictures, but the ad says it comes with the fabric clip-in-canvas alternative too. It doesn’t and doesn’t have to hide anything – as it sells for £ 12,750.
If you show up with tired eyes after a five year siesta, that last number doesn’t seem like much of a noteworthy one. Early and grubby Series 2 Elises Rover engines were actually that cheap in the past, though I can’t remember falling noticeably below that. But in recent years the clan’s prices have steadily risen as interest has increased, especially in the later Toyota engines. There are owners who will tell you that the lighter K-series, with its more powerful mid-range, is actually the better engine. Granted, not many – but they are out there.
The Series 2 Elise Story is definitely one of the brighter spots in Lotus history. When the Russell Carr design team started working on a larger Elise in the late 1990s to meet more stringent crash test standards and support a return to the U.S., it was hard to imagine the resulting car would last that long . The project’s lead stylist was a young Belgian named Steve Crijns, who – aside from the difficulty of pronouncing his last name – should be better known for the gaudiness of the job, which was done with minimal resources.
The original Elise had looked great when it was first launched. But the Series 2 immediately made its predecessor look a little plain and not very detailed. The redesigned car held up well too – it had to take into account Lotus’s often tense financial situation. Despite several facelifts, the largest Series 3 brand, much of the original survived from Crijns to the Elise Sport Final Edition, which launched in February of this year.
But while Elises got fatter and muscular as the 21st century went on, the early Series 2 was almost as no-frills and minimalist as the original. Even with the 122 hp of the base engine, it was able to achieve an impressively quick performance thanks to the combination of an empty weight of less than 800 kg and a well-chosen gear ratio. The Boggo Elise could storm from 0 to 100 km / h in less than six seconds, faster through the benchmark than many more powerful machines. Acceleration slowed down with increasing speed, but the chassis offered ample grip and an instinctively adjustable front-rear handling balance that made it easy for any Elise to ride at a high percentage of its capacity. There was no easier entry into mid-engine physics.
The processing quality was definitely better than that of the earlier Elise – GM had arranged various improvements at Hethel for the parallel production of the Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220. But as the Series 2 got older, problems began to arise. Aside from the unique properties of the K-Series, the Elise’s mostly aluminum structure was largely immune to traditional rust, but not to galvanic corrosion where different metals meet. Steel subframes and wishbones have also been prone to grottos, and the fiberglass body is easy to damage and difficult to repair, especially when it comes to anything that removes the front or rear clamshell.
Any appraiser in the shop looking for a quote to get our pill back to A1 condition would likely check that the printer is filled with paper before sending it a quote. This would require a considerable amount of money, which would almost certainly bring the total cost over the cost of a much more cosmetically tidy example. But there is probably no reason to do this; Given that it is in reasonable mechanical condition, it could make an excellent case for buying this model for track use or just the kind of everyday street parking that modern sports cars are rarely exposed to. Or a performance-enhancing conversion. It’s certainly hard to imagine how it could ever be worth much less, and if Elise’s prices ever go insane, this could be the equivalent of one of those dingy, long-parked 964 911s that are now creating bidding lawns as they reappear.
Our pill’s MOT history is pretty much as you’d expect given its visible condition: plaid enough to play chess on. The last ticket was a clean pass in June, but it failed last year due to non-working brake lights and a worn wishbone ball joint. In 2019 there was a plethora of warnings about tires, brake lines and connections; the fact that these did not come back suggests that they were taken care of. Interestingly, the online data goes back to the car’s first MOT in November 2005; One failed because of a blown headlight bulb and a cracked wiper blade. Some things never change.
Elise’s retirement showed how special the whole dynasty was. It is no exaggeration to say that this was the car that Lotus saved. Now someone has to save this one.
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