Arregueti

Lotus Lorraine in Nancy (Groupe Theobald). They seem to be the largest in France now after Marcassus lost the dealership. They still have 9 Exige FEs for sale, according to their website. But almost all the Elises are gone.

Yes. That dealer alone had 10 240 and 4 Cup FE!

That seems very little. A french dealer alone had around 10! Is that RHD only?

It did not work for Rover indeed, but you could say that they saved Land Rover by spinning it off and RR is not doing bad either. BMW Is still “family owned” somehow. Not exactly a romantic endeavor these days but is the closer you get in today’s automotive industry. They do provide engines to Morgan, too. I would rather have them owning a specialized sports car manufacturer as McLaren rather than Geely, tbh. Just daydreaming.

I can’t help but think that BMW would be a better fit, more so if it is all about engines. There is already quite some background after all. Unfortunately, BMW seems to be heading elsewhere and are probably not interested in making sports cars anymore.

Many thanks @elise 147 That is very useful, and the sort of feedback I was looking for.

Thanks for your input, Lee @CocoPops. I think I can live without the newer bumper (although I do prefer it) and I am not sure if the wing adds or detracts from the purity of the Elise. The doubt arises on the gear mechanism and the reliability of the Komotec kit. It does not seem to be as popular on the Elise as it is on the V6s. Just wonder if the sole reason is cost and the nature of the Elise compared to the bigger Exige/Evora. The older car does have the additional driving lights and comes with a body colored hard top. I would have to pay 2000 Euros for a non-painted hard top for the Cup, in case I wanted to track it... It all adds up, I guess. The car will most likely see the light of day in weekends in small roads around here so it wouldn't be a show stopper either way but it is nice to have them. I need to check which tires does the older car wear in the front. Since when do Elises use 195 in the front? Does 195 in the front make such a difference? Can I upgrade to 195 in the standard wheels (not forged) for a 2013 car?

I am (again and hopefully for the last time) considering a couple of Elises to finally add one Elise to the garage. This is being a very long search and some very nice cars escaped between my fingers, but hopefully I will finally end up owning an Elise before the summer... time will tell. I considered starting a new thread, but realized that this one has already covered some of my doubts, so I will take advantage and hopefully it will help others in the future by adding more info in one single thread. One of the cars considered is a pre-MY 17.5 S3 that has a Komotec 265 kit. Does anyone have any experience with these kits on the Toyota 2ZR engine? Any reliability issues? It also has komotec brakes and a komotec exhaust. Is it much more noisy than stock? The second one is a post MY 17.5 250 cup that has seen some track use. Does anyone have direct experience of running a Komotec 265 against a 250 cup? As I see it now, it would mostly be used as a road car, so I am not after the ultimate tenth of a second or grip/performance difference and would want something "livable" in terms of noise. I guess I would not realize any potential difference in performance and my favourite so far (price, equipment, proximity, etc.) would be the simple(r) pre-My 17.5 but would I miss not having the wing and updated gear change that much? Is the stock car a safer bet? Any experience, tips, advise will be strongly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi, I experienced a similar failure a few years back in my MY12 Evora S. It was the “fork” /gear selector to be blamed. The whole piece was reengineered by Lotus a few years back and the replacement part should be more solid. Here is a link to my thread about this failure in my car My thread You will find some similar situations searching around the forum. I cannot help with the actual work, as I did not repair the car myself, unfortunately. The biggest cost was labour. The cost of the actual part to be replaced was less than 200 euros if memory serves me well. Hope this helps.

Sad news and definitely the end of an era for Lotus. It is shocking to see how much things have now changed since the early days of the couple in the 1950s. May she rest in peace.

Is this an option for real? Not sure if there is irony in this. Only in the UK, I assume.

Does look great. And shiny! Enjoy making it dirty.

From what I saw, it seems that German prices will carry a healthy 10% mark up (or safety net as per the post above) on top of current exchange rate differences… 76000 gbp turns into 96,000 euros (88,000 euros being the direct conversion). From memory, it looks similar to pre-Brexit price differences on the previous range and hard to justify, IMO. It will certainly prevent me from buying new from Lotus, just as it did in the past.

Indeed. They were probably just trying to show where the front is and that it will be mid-engined. It would have been nice, though. 🙂 Maybe it is the laser equipped James Bond edition

Is that a centered steering wheel, à la Mclaren F1?