Hi all,
Late 2015 I received my first company car, which gave me the opportunity to look for a nice project car which I didn't need as a daily driver. I've considered lot's of cars (Clio RS197, Megane RS225, 350Z, Z4, Cooper S) but at that stage I was attracted by the Opel Speedster (Vauxhall VX220) because of it's low weight, enough power and simple technique. Never have I thought of a Lotus, as they were above my budget. After driving several Speedsters I wasn't convinced as I didn't find them aggressive enough. In my opinion the 2.2 engine is not the right engine for this car. Unfortunately the 2.0 Turbo versions where way more expensive at that time (double the price of the 2.2) so that wasn't an option either.
Luckily after some months (12/2015), while still searching for a Speedster, suddenly a Lotus Elise popped up for sale which was just within my budget and located not further than 10 km from my home. It was a RHD 2002 Elise S2 135 (tuned to approx. 160bhp) which didn't had MOT and it wasn't in mint condition. It was a bit of a gamble but I knew the price was right so I bought the car instantly (as I was in love off course ) after a friend of mine (which is a mechanic) did some checks.
Within the months after that I first converted the Elise to LHD. In the next months/years I started to upgrade the looks by a total interior upgrade, new offset wheels and an Exige front clam conversion (and lots more).
2002 Elise S2 when I bought it:
2002 Elise S2 when I sold it:
Although I really liked the car, after 4 years I thought it was time for a new project, preferably something faster . I dreamed of a V6, but I couldn't sell my Elise fast enough to have the funds required for a V6. To solve my "I want something faster itch" I bought a 2005 Exige S2 supercharged with 240 bhp in January 2020. This car also had a history, which didn't make it a mint example, but ideal as a project to upgrade again! So now I had 2 Loti (is that the plural of Lotus? ) in my garage, but luckily in May I found a buyer for the Elise. While owning Exige S2 I've upgraded a lot but, despite being a very fast and agile car, I couldn't stop hankering for a V6. So I made the decision to sell that car already after 10 months to make one of my dreams come true: owning a V6 😎
2005 Exige S2 when I bought it:
2005 Exige S2 when I sold it:
Beginning of December I found my V6 on the internet and due to all Covid-19 restrictions, I couldn't go look for the car as it was located in Belgium and they were in lockdown. Mid December Belgium loosened their restrictions, which made it possible to check out the car which I off course directly did. As hoped the Exige was in very good condition and coming from it's 1st owner. After covering just 28.000km the previous owner was having too much issues getting in and out and replaced it with a Porsche.
As everything seemed perfect I directly bought the car and drove the 174km back home in my dream car!!! It drives even better than I had hoped for, so much more refined compared to my previous cars! 🤗
Obviously I've told the wife this one is already near perfect so I don't have to work much on it. But knowing myself and looking back at my automotive history, this Exige doesn't stay standard