Elite with Excel SE heart and lungs

[lotusforsale.com]

<p>THis is a totally restored car with a big difference. The car maintains its 1970s looks with the Elite body, wheels and interior which have all been refurbished to a very high standard. Bonus of a Lotus excel SE 1989 running gear chassis, suspension, engine, gear box, diff and so on. The car is now totally reliable and very rare beast indeed!!! The quality of the car and Finnish you will not find anywhere else. There are only a handful done to this specification and none to the level of this car. Look at the rest and come and buy the best.</p>

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[Kimbers]

I think it's crazy. A totally sorted Elte will set you back £4500 to £8000 and a totally sorted Excel will cost you £4-5k. Where does £15k come from?????

[Herc]

That's the Finnish for you!

 

[Only joking.  My spelling is terrible too]

 

Herc

[andydclements]

If you had the work done I don't doubt it would cost £15k. The engine of a £4k-£5k Excel would be serviceable but if doing this sort of work you'd want it refurbished, so allow another £1.5k - £2k by the time it has bearing surfaces ground, new shells, liners, pistons etc.

If you start off with a very sorted Elite you're OK but it's the aesthetics where the money goes on turning a very good Elite into a very good Elite, paint and interior trim.

You then have to have parts of the Excel body grafted into the Elite body shell, have parts of the Elite body altered to clear the Excel running gear. There's a lot of work, so if you want tone like that, £15k is probably lower than the cost of having it done.

[mat grant]

Hi,

 

I can understand where you are coming from, it will be a really nice car, but for £15k you could buy a really nice elite S2 and a really nice excel SE, and still have lots of change - maybe £4k for an elite and £6k for an excel(?) That still leaves £5k left over.

 

I am undertaking this chassis mod to my car, except it's an eclat, but I am doing a lot of it myself to keep the cost down and hence it is taking ages! But if I was going to spend £15k it would be tough to buy this elite instead of say an Aston DB7 which you can just about get for £15. I even saw a Ferrari 348 go for less than £15k a while ago....... There are a lot of cars you can buy for £15k.

 

Mine is being done in two stages - 1 get it running and on the road, 2 decide whether it is good enough to spend a lot on a full respray and new interior etc. The amount i spend on that will depend on how good a car it is. I didn't want to blow loads on a full exterior and interior refurb and then find I don't like the end product! I am going to get a basic spray with me doing the prep work though. My current projected spend to complete the car is quite a bit under £5k , a full cosmetic refurb could easily take it to £10k. Even spending £5k I wouldn't expect to get my money back as a car, probably would make more for spares.

 

I didn't do mine with it making money in mind, rather the opposite, to make it good enough to keep and use for my particular requirements. And immediately it makes it virtually worthless to all the people who (perfectly reasonably) want originality. I am comfortable with that.

 

Mat.

Edited November 18, 2013 by mat grant

[Kimbers]

I've been offered 2 "Ground up" rebuilds, both Excels recently and they are no more than 5k. Both have had professional paint jobs as well! I can understand why it costs them £15k but the market is at £5k (£8k max) for a top notch model of either.

[Herc]

I could imagine spending over £10K on a Series 1 Elite,  but it would need to be something highly original, not rebuilt, and not something rebuilt to an 'improved' spec.  

 

Alas I've never seen a really good, original. low mileage,  RHD, manual Elite for sale.  

 

Herc

[andydclements]

I don't think this car is aimed at the person that wants an original Elite, it will be aimed at the person that wants the looks of an Elite but mechanicals that are more akin to more modern things where you drive and ignore. That may be a much more restricted market, but that';s who would purchase such a car.

If you purchased a pair of perfect ground-up restored cars (Elite and Excel), you'd still end up having a partial paint job, possibly a full one if you were a perfectionist.

[Herc]

Buddsy, Andy,

 

I don't disagree -  but I suspect those people messing about are doing so because they don't have £15K to spend.

 

Herc

[basalte]

Spoke to a chap Sunday at the NEC who was showing his Elite S2 body put onto Excel engine running gear ....looked most impressive, clean and well-executed, I didn`t ask how much !

[Loose Cannon]

You should have said you were coming Dan, I was on that stand.

 

That car's fuel injected engine bay is a delight to behold for all us owners chugging away on carbs. It's a Lotusbits conversion and superb.

[basalte]

Aaargh, just read your post about your Eclat Mark - sorry not to have said hello, if yours was the white Eclat 2.2, I am jealous !

[eliteman]

£15k is just being silly! You are talking Esprit money here. The market for Elites is slim and modified ones, slimmer. I have had a good few of them now over the last 20 years and they are never easy to sell. 5-7k for a top end everyday car.