S1 Exige - Anyone know this car?

[tonyg]

Supersport R ??

[AJT]

Ginetta G40R??
http://www.ginetta.com/g40r

[dlogan]

Ginetta G40R??
http://www.ginetta.com/g40r

Yup.

[pete]

Ginetta G40R??
http://www.ginetta.com/g40r

Yup.

Oh FANTASTIC. Let us know how you get on with it. Very excited for you. Cost? Colour? Where is it?

[Mike Scib]

Love it! Look forward to seeing it.

[Dominic]

Love it! Look forward to seeing it.

[j2 lot]

+1

[dlogan]

Ok, so this is really old and I am resurrecting, however, thought I would share what happened with the G40R.

In short, I hated it.

Now i am not averse to marginal build quality, (Two TVRs, Two Lotus, Two Caterham in the last 10 yrs), however, I just couldnt find the Ginetta in any way acceptable.

I waited a long time for the car to be ready (Hexham) as it was being "prepped like new" (10k miles, 1 yr old) and was getting the latest upgrades. All good.

I then find out that they had resprayed it due to "stress cracking" on the body. Not a good start. now I had mixed feelings over the car.
So i arrive after a great drive down early on a Saturday morning in the 911, and it looks quite good, striking, purposeful, heaps of front camber, very aggressive, all good.
Walk straight past it to say hello to Tony, such a nice guy. Starts by apologising as he has wasted my time, he says its such a poor paintjob that he wont sell it to me as is, but he wanted me to drive it so didnt cancel, which i was happy enough with.
However, i started having a look, and thought, hmm, its not that bad, then i look more closely. It was a joke. Paint runs, pitting in the paint, bonded screens which now have paint over the bonding. Just really sh*t.

Looking closer forgetting the paint, the rubbers and seals are comedy, much more racecar than perhaps i thought, the rubbers where the mirror mount on the door were all dried up and bowing out,( hard to explain). Inside, seats badly worn on bolsters. Car isnt a year old yet (registered 30th aug 2012. Why would you do that?) yet it looked very very well worn. Not a bad place to sit mind.

Pedal box feels nice, floor mounted and almost single seater like as opposed to a TVR floor mounted set up for example.

So i go for a drive on my own. Clutch has no movement at all its like a switch! Get the hang quite quickly but brakes are like pressing on a block of wood and feels like pads are made of same. Again, i am sure good on track but not really that nice when cold. When hot they squealled but thats not a big deal.
Box felt ok but the gear lever twists in your hand (not just a loose nob) which was unnerving.
But the diff whine, rattles, clunks, etc were just too much, i couldnt deal with it, and the smell, i actually thought it was on fire at one point,
Icing on the cake? It felt slow. Engine had no zing and no charsimatic induction nor exhaust. Very flat and really lacking in torque.

So in summary, Imagine an S1 Elise thats been really badly built, with no refinement thrown in. 2nd gear at 20mph and the vibration through the seat was nausea inducing.

I know some here will say "sounds amazing, just what I want, etc etc" however as I said, I have driven track focussed Caterhams on road and they are superb. this thing was just not nice at all on the road. It may well come alive on track but its just not enough for me anymore.

Anyway, it never happened, I walked away, and was really down about it. However I reflected that since I was racing again the fun car wasnt really needed.

[Gareth]

Soooo, what you gonna buy instead.....?

[Stu160]

See, you cant beat a "k" for driving fun

Stu

[GregR]

See, you cant beat a "k" for driving fun

Stu

Cant agree more, best elise engine thise side of a s/c toyota.

Dave, 996.2 GT3? more depreciation free motoring there...