dinkus

Oooh now that is sexy :norty: I know that zarman did a similar thing with Porsche needles on his. If you can get a kit and part numbers for the needles, that'd be good. My copy of ETOS is dead at the moment, but if I get it fixed, I can look up the 1988 Audi Turbo part numbers :)

MetalNerd? Studs could be useful if the locating screws have died on your brake disks, but that's a lotta money!

Whoa scary stuff! Glad to hear you're ok and hope you can work out what caused the brakes to die :?

Heh sorry, don't deal with the 2-pot short engines :lol: But if you've got no cat then the VAG exhaust isn't gonna cost £700 and neither is an after market stainless one.

Well you don't need an aftermarket system - the genuine VAG exhaust is only £400, provided you only need from the cat back. A stainless one will sound and look a bit sexier :norty: but cost about the same. Personal preference would be a Magnex for around £350, but there's a huge discussion on that here

I thought the VAG exhaust is around £400 from the cat-back. If you need the cat replacing as well, then that aint cheap and I can see how that'd add another couple of hundred quid to the price. Then add labour on and it'll be £700. But I doubt you'll need a new cat, so he is probably having a giraffe.

Yeah, the brakes are only 1-pots and not particularly large, but as they've got so little weight to stop, do still work extremely well. I think the S2's roof is far better than the S1 was, but not entirely sure if it's perfect. I'm no real expert tho, I'd have a peruse of the SELOC forums for more detailed info. Definitely would be a second car though - use the C as the grand tourer and the Elise/Exige as a weekend toy and/or track weapon :)

Looks nice, but I still maintain that you are a lesbian Phil :lol:

Ah cool, didn't realise you could whip the top out of the S2 Exige! Even less reason to get an Elise then! :lol: I prefer the more evil look of the S2 over the S1, not to mention the more powerful Toyota engine, but wouldn't complain at either :)

Your arthritis giving you jip again Jim? :lol: But yeah, you will never be able to get out of an Elise gracefully. Getting in quickly can be mastered if you get the hang of the Dukes of Hazzard style entry technique that's needed :lol:

from VW now it is...........back in the late 90's IIRC it was pretty close to £800 :lol: Madness!

My boss at the last place I worked used to own an S2 Elise, so have heard quite a bit about them without actually owning one myself. If you're getting an Exige - get an A/C one because they get like a sauna inside without it (hence why they fitted it to an otherwise minimalist car). I know what you mean with the top-down Elise action in the summer, but they leak like a biatch in the rain and putting the roof on/off is a faff. As far as running costs, the everyday stuff is pretty reasonable - it's only a 1.8 (Toyota engines may be 2.0, not sure) and weigh bugger-all, so cheap as chips on fuel. The engine servicing costs are what you'd expect for a mass-market, unstressed small engine (i.e. also bugger all). Having said that - if you can stretch to one of the newer Toyota engined ones, do it because the K-series engines have a habit of popping head gaskets (usually due to people thrapping them from cold, but if you're buying second hand you' don't know). Plus the T engine has more go :norty: Even driving like a loon, you still get good mileage out of the tyres, because again, it weighs so little. However, in rather the same fashion as a Corrado - any interior/bodywork bits are expensive - they're made in small numbers and have a Lotus badge on them. Brakes and drivetrain bits can also be expensive, but not horrifically so and they don't tend to break much (from what I've heard). I think the biggest Lotus owners' club is the South East one - SELOC and have a very good forum. Most of the owners are alright, but be aware that quite a few owners are twats too :lol:

Cat-back is only £400, but the cat itself is pretty big bucks.

I fell in love with the Elise the first time I drove an S2 - they really are sublime to drive, if a little basic inside. It had the aforementioned engine/exhaust tweaks, although I think it was standard suspension. Then I drove a Toyota powered S2 Exige at Silverstone the other week - it was just a driver experience day, but it re-ignited the love and much better with more grunt from the Toyo engine. They look like sex even when they're parked up too, let alone when they're moving. If only I had £25k kicking about, I'd grab myself a year-old one. Once you've bought one, the depreciation is pretty reasonable and the running costs for most things are minimal too.

What you trying to say Dom???? :x Metals that will take chrome plating are not the right grade for a roll cage, so are likely to break in the event that you get into a situation when you need a roll cage. Not only that, but if the cage isn't welded into the chassis, then it will also come loose in the above situation and more than likely skewer or bash whoever happens to be inside the car at the time. On top of that, having big tubes or metalwork right by your head that's not foam wrapped, or you're not wearing a crash helmet is pretty dangerous too. All it would take is someone to drive into you and you crack your head against the roll cage and seriously injur yourself or at least knock yourself out. I guess you could argue that you don't intend on crashing, but then why bother having the cage anyway? But yeah, they look cool :) Anyway, it's OT in here - start a thread if you want to see people's views on it tho.

You're a lunatic Paul and it's great :lol: It's nice to see someone doing things properly rather than idiots with their chrome-plated 'show cage' that's held in with 4 self tappers :roll: Your C's gonna be even more of a beast when it's done than it was before you started 8)

I'm not sure what the numbers are, but you should be able to find them if you do a search. I do know that they arent cheap if you want to buy them new (not even sure if you can actually get them new now) tho :(

If you're after responsiveness, I think you'd probably get a better result from an uprated ARB from the likes of Eibach rather than poly bushes which will just make things a bit more crashy.

People were talking about this like yesterday... have a search and ye shall find.

If you want to put all the info on how to fit the gauge pods into a single post then I'll put it into the knowledge base wiki :)

Yeah, as duke_st says. I'd get in touch with Colour Tech to see if they do anything with independant claims companies that will give you an equivalent courtesy car, chase the claim for you and not cost you a penny.

But I can do you a similarly bargainous deal on some parcel shelf straps...

Oh so we're picking favourites now eh? :lol:

Feel free to accumulate it all into one forum post and I'll shove it in the wiki for you :)

That guy used to advertise on here, but always seemed a bit of a geezer. No idea what the cars he sold were like tho.