1981 LOTUS ELITE S2 S2.2

[ebay]

£700.00 (1 Bid)

End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 20:44:29 GMT

Bid now | Add to watch list

View the full article

[esprit s2]

Looks like a very nice car. Says the interior is a bit shabby, would have liked to see some pictures of it.

[Trevsked]

I think it may well be the car Internets posted about.

http://www.thelotusf...elite-for-sale/

Trevor.

[GavinT]

Yep same car, has the round sticker thingy on the rear hatch lower right corner.

[esprit s2]

Well spotted.

[eclat22]

Non original mirrors and possibly near side door droop, could mean rusted door beams, but looks like a good starting point for ownership compared to a lot that come up for sale

Edited February 1, 2012 by eclat22

[Loose Cannon]

It has been discussed before, cropped up on Gumtree for £1500, then at a dealer for £2500.

http://www.thelotusf...e-22-automatic/

Pictures are still live on the old Ebay advert, seems to have lost it's power steering somewhere along the line. Are the mirrors non-original? You have good eyesight!

[eliteman]

Yes well spotted guys! Looks like the owner has blanked out the plates to try and hide the fact this car has been round the e-bay and gumtree block a few times. Shame it prob just needs some love. I had an auto once before and it just didnt feel right, the sports car looks with a very heavy sluggish box just doesnt work! The good thing is i have also found in the past the auto Elites havent been hammered round the streets as much as their manual brothers! I still think this is a decent car for the right money, £1800? What do you think?

[Trevsked]

It is of course the right Elite to have but for me the auto kills it. I wouldn't want it for more than £1200.

Trevor.

[Dunc]

its less than a mile from my house.

I quite like autos....but not sure I have room for it.

[mat grant]

I think you'd find it a let down compared to your v8 manual eclat....

Mat.

[Dunc]

It's not always about going fast....

(god I'm getting old....)

[mat grant]

I've never driven an auto elite or eclat, but I have to say I don't like the idea of an automatic Lotus, it's not what they're about for me.

Btw my 1979 Eclat has the same mirrors as the silver elite, I'm sure I've seen that type on a few photos of new cars around that era... Except mine have been refinished red to match the bodywork.

Cheers, Mat.

[eclat22]

If you look at the high res pictures you will see that the mirror base does not match the mounting shape moulded in the door skin, the s1 cars did not have the raised moulding in the door skin that the s2 has and had different mirrors, they are close but not correct.

Regards Dan

[esprit s2]

I would have had a bid on this if was a manual car.

[USAndretti42]

Sold for £1,750 after 20 bids.

[eliteman]

Sounds okay, now lets get that Auto box out....

[esprit s2]

You bought it Liam?

[Loose Cannon]

That's a healthy price for a project, that dark blue one that sold recently for exactly the same amount looked an easier deal. Considering the cost of restoration I'm always surprised how much people are willing to pay for projects rather than top-drawer cars

[eliteman]

No Paul, i was tempted though! We have a baby on the way and i have considered letting my s1 Elite EHT322W go, which has featured on the forum a few times now. When I first purchased this car it was also an Auto! I bought it from a retired pilot who ownwed it 20 odd years, so the auto was good for him. It was a complete Engine, box, chassis, pedal box, etc, etc but it was worth it in the end. The power steering and air con was also taken out after some advice from Lotusbits which made the car a lot lighter! Now she is very light and quick. With prams, car seats, baby play pens on the way, I may need to bid EHT farewell. Maybe......

[esprit s2]

How easy is it to take the aircon off the car Liam? Did you do it yourself or get Lotus Bits to do it for you?

[eliteman]

Hi Paul, Lotusbits have done all the work on the car, Mike knows these cars like the back of his hand and advised my to throw the power steering and air con unit in the bin. The car now feels a lot more secure on the road without the power steering and i feel handles a lot better. Mike's prices are decent and you know the car will come back as it should. Good luck with it mate.

[esprit s2]

I was thinking about getting them do a few things on the car but it's too expensive to get the car too them in the first place!

[Elite7]

i owned an elite S2 and eclat S2 without PAS, whereas all my S1 cars had power steering fitted.

i hated to drive with the S2 cars as the steering felt so heavy compared to my S1 cars...also i never felt that the PAS cars are unprecise on the road, nor on the track.

[Dunc]

I went to see this car on Saturday as it had fallen through on the ebay sale, but it has now found a new owner (not me).

The car was a viable project, but needed a good amount of work. It was very accurately described in the ebay ad. The paint was pretty decent, it had obviously been repainted with only slight microblistering on the bonnet and pod which would be pretty easy to have redone. The interior was a bit of a shambles, and really needed the seat faces recovering. The rear didn't look too bad and may have been saveable with gliptone, but with the fronts being shot, doing them all is a better option and means they all look the same age. The dashboard was beyond economical salvage, and would have needed changing. It needed a full carpet set, but thats easy enough.

In fact, with a retrim of the seat faces and full set of carpets it could have had the basis of a very decent car. Tyres were good and werent old, the wheels had been sprayed silver, so would have needed tidying, and the exhaust rubbers were shot. The owner also mentioned a caliper that needed freeing off.

What wasn't so great on the car was some pretty amatuerish looking wiring, with a power feed to the cabin taken from the hot side of the starter solenoid rather than through the fusebox. There may have been an inline fuse under the dash, but it needed a bit of a rewire. Not hard to do however - (the previous owner of my car did a lovely job).

All in all the car was cosmetically challenged, but could have been a nice one with a set of carpets, a retrim and a bit of time with the pliers and and sockets.

Sounds like it is going to a good home where it will be restored.

D