I'm thinking about possibly selling the JCW in the spring, in order to buy an 07-08 Exige S or an 08-09 Elise (that I would later supercharge). I drove a 300whp supercharged Elise a few months ago and fell in love. I've always wanted one and now that I can actually afford one it seems like a good time to go for it. Driving that car with the supercharger screaming right behind my head really put it over the top.

I'm just looking for pros and cons between the JCW and the Lotus, which one is more fun, reliability, things I should be looking for, etc. I only know one guy in Buffalo that owns one, but I have seen a couple roaming around town. One thing that sucks is I would definitely need a second car for a daily driver/winter car, which would hopefully be an older R53.

In the meantime, if anyone thinks they might be interested in my car in about 5 months (see signature for everything about the car), let me know!



Drew

 

"Slinger" used to own on. He found it to be a bit 'twitchy' on the track. Not nearly as forgiving as his MINI...

 

Well if that's a bucket list item for ya, what else can I say but go for it and I'm a bit jealous.

Not comparable to the JCW of course - a whole different kettle of fish.

But do me a favor, and either autocross it or at least HPDE. Too much car to just drive on public roads I should think.

Nice JCW by the way - that really looks great.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

There was a guy at our autocross events that drove one. I gather they're a little cramped on the inside, because even though he was a small guy, he couldn't make it all the way around the course without accidentally hitting the horn or the windshield wiper stalk!

I was actually looking at either a year-old Boxster or a year-old Elise for my next car, but I fell in love with my wife's 2006 'S' convertible and kept "stealing" it from her, which is how we ended up with *two* 2006 'S' convertibles!

 

Definitely at home on the track. I see a lot of them at HPDE days. Definitely a 'snug' cabin, and no capacity behind for track stuff. Most of them get trailered in. I love being able to tote four tires and my track tools in the boot.

 

Dude, that JCW is sweet! I read both threads (the one about the car and I'm currently reading the one about the angel eyes mod). I love it. How many miles are on the car and, it wasn't clear from reading the threads, do you still have the Challenge wheels?

 

I too love the lotus Exige. I dont know if I will ever get to own one but I always see an Orange one on base and it looks awesome. he parked behind my MCS the one day and it would have been a cool pic but I didnt have my camera at the time. For a winter car you should go classic mini with the V tec swap then you would have the best of both worlds!

 

I thought Randy Webb (RandyBMC) did, but he hasn't been around for a couple years.

 

I've wanted an exige for a while now, too. I hope to have one eventually but we'll see.

Anyway, Ryephile sold his MINI for a white exige and brought it to MOTD a couple years ago. I don't think he's on here much anymore, but you might send him a message here, or maybe search that name on LotusTalk or something.

 

I was going to buy one instead of build my MINI up, but after finding out how tempermental their engines are I decided to stick with the MINI.

 

Definitely twitchy, but when you can take on ramps at 80+ that you can only take at 55 in the MINI, it's worth it.

I think I'm too young to call it a bucketlist item already I would probably autox it once a month or so. I only got a chance to autox the JCW once and I loved it.

They're pretty cramped I'm only 5'-8" and 140 lbs and I had a hard time getting in and out. It's not exactly a car I can take a girl on a date with!

Thanks! There are about 25k miles on it now, there will probably be close to 30k when I sell it. I don't have the challenge wheels anymore (sad story ) but if the buyer really wanted a set I'm sure I could locate one before the sale. I'm going to get a set of silver RP-F1's for it in a few months, about 9-10 lbs lighter than the challenge wheels. Either way it's not a car I want to sell, I have way too much time, effort, and love into this thing. But, if the right Lotus comes up, I just might have to take the chance.

I've also thought about keeping the JCW and buying a project car, which would most likely be a classic with a future VTEC swap

I've been on LotusTalk more than NAM lately... I'll keep an eye out, thanks! It seems like a lot of Lotus guys over there have JCW's as their DD's, maybe I can make a sweet trade
I haven't heard of many problems with the engines, besides some of the oil lines failing, which was all taken care of by Lotus. One of my favorite parts of the car is that it uses a CHEAP Toyota engine. If I need a new one, there are several junkyards in Buffalo

 

The NA engine works pretty well, but the SC engines dont take too kindly to mods without a lot of fine tuning. There are people out there that replace their engines yearly out of nessesity.

 

Interesting, I've never heard of that. The one I drove was just a base Elise with a bolt on Katana S/C, plus a million other mods to bring it to 297whp. It had 60k on the clock and was supercharged since 10k. Not a single drivetrain problem besides the clutch.

 

Pros: The Exige is a badass car. Exotic, nimble, fast, bonafide race car for the streets once a supercharger is thrown on! A beast!

Cons: $55-60,000+ , New York streets, replacing tires!

I love the Elise and Exige. My dream cars. I say, go for it if the wallet allows! You only live once!

 

The ones I'm looking at are around $40-45k. A lot less if I end up with an Elise (then about $4k for a supercharger kit), but the Exige has a way better look to it IMO.

Who knows, maybe it will be a "bucket-list" item after all, since the world is supposed to end next year anyways

 

New idea that just popped into my head... Since I really don't want to sell the JCW, I could probably buy an older Elise with a little higher mileage for around $20k or so and affor to keep the JCW at the same time. Hmmm big decisions!

 

I asked an Exige owner I met what he liked most about it, thinking he

would say handling, etc. No he told me the best thing was watching a

woman in a skirt trying to get it one. Sounded like a perfect answer!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N250T2YP6AY

 

check out 'www.carnutsgarage.com'

 

I looked at it. Looks like its just a guy with a bunch of minis/british cars that used to have an Elise?

 

He still owns an Elan.

 

My brother owns an '06 Exige (supercharged). He loves it but unfortunately he's had to put it up for sale. The economy is a *****.





He's actually looking to replace it with a MINI...

 

I think I saw it on LotusTalk, I love that color combo! Too bad it's such a crappy time of year up here, I'd consider a trade. His car does have pretty high mileage though, if I had one here I would probably only be able to put about 4-5k (if that) on the clock each year.

 

Yeah his are nearly all highway miles (since he bought it at least). I think he's only tracked it twice.

 

That's because he's piloting airlners out of Dubai!

Jim