Engine - it ran well, it has a couple of rattles (we tracked it down to an exhaust bracket and a heat shield) and various build issues including the ECU needing to be fixed in position (it was loose in the boot!) and the wiring neatened up/finished. stuff like the speedo didn’t work yet.
gearbox - pretty vague - it went in gear fine but it was a bit of a mystery which gear you’d get. it seemed to default more to the 5/6 line than 3/4.
suspension - mechanically decent, but he was going to refurb wishbones etc.
wheels - standard, refurbed with new toyo tyres
Bodywork - very stonechipped front end and a few signs of osmosis and wear elsewhere. One window / door was pretty badly misaligned. Cool colour though!
interior - ok but tired
overall, i enjoyed it - but with this example, the main issue was the massive amount of bad vibration/rattles which kind of dominated the drive. plus, worryingly - with 200bhp it didn’t feel particularly fast when giving it all the vtec - it did feel pretty urgent at lower revs though.
This one currently felt like the sort of car you find at an experience day - a little tatty but mechanically just about working! Nice chap though, it was good to have a decent chat about it all and i have no doubt given the winter he’ll have it nicely finished.
the other thing it made me think about, ironically, was all of the things i am looking for from an elise. The size of the steering wheel, the unassisted steering, how “between” my knees it is (i struggled a bit with my hands knocking my legs when steering), how firm the brake pedal is, how close the pedals are together, etc all are SO different to what i’m used to from M cars.
i want to try a really good “standard” example next - something like a 111s perhaps, to see if all the noise of the half finished one was over ruling the rest of the experience. Or maybe even an S2/3
for something a little less raw?!This is why i test drive cars!
it's why I prefer the Evora for a bit of extra comfort in my old age.
