S1 135 to a Europa... New car thinking about thread...

Victor Meldrew · Post by **Victor Meldrew** » Mon Aug 05, 2013 1:33 pm

Ok, looking like my budget probably wont stretch to an Evora. I'm considering a Lotus Europa. Seen them in the flesh a few times at runs etc but never driven one.

Opinions please from owners, people who have had both... ?

j2 lot · Post by **j2 lot** » Mon Aug 05, 2013 1:50 pm

Slightly more civilised than an Elise, I love the flexibility of the engine and instantly accessible power.
Revised suspension to lower ride height makes a huge difference.
Servicing and running costs similar to any other Elise derivative.
The 225 upgrade is a definate improvement and helps to reduce/ remove a flat spot at around 3k revs.
Prices were on the rise but seem to have dropped back a bit again, available from high teens to £25k+ depending on mileage.
SE spec makes them a nicer place to be but an actual SE (&there were only 18 made) is higher VED band so best bet is an S with SE mods.

Victor Meldrew · Post by **Victor Meldrew** » Mon Aug 05, 2013 3:03 pm

Never driven one yet and already thinking about mods... The Hoffmans Nitrons that went on my Elise made such a huge difference to handling with no loss of comfort.

I take it the revised suspension is a well known mod for a Europa?

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Mon Aug 05, 2013 3:26 pm

I had the S....sounded amazing with sports exhuast.
Thought it looked great too. Major problem for me was it wasn't that easy to tune and suffered terribly on track with heat soak. Brakes sh*t on track too due to ABS.
Quick road car though.

j2 lot · Post by **j2 lot** » Mon Aug 05, 2013 4:29 pm

Victor Meldrew wrote:I take it the revised suspension is a well known mod for a Europa?

I would guess that about 1/2 of those in existence have Nitrons, after the 225 ecu it is probably the most effective inprovement you can make.

Victor Meldrew · Post by **Victor Meldrew** » Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:07 am

Thanks for the feedback. Not planning on doing track days, thinking more along the lines of a taking one to Europe to visit Stelvio and similar. My days of modifying the sh*t out of cars are over...

The Nitrons I can understand. Sport exhaust to add to the fun a little but thats all.. Needs to be a car that the missus is happy to drive as well.

Rosssco · Post by **Rosssco** » Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:13 am

Gareth wrote:I had the S....sounded amazing with sports exhuast.
Thought it looked great too. Major problem for me was it wasn't that easy to tune and suffered terribly on track with heat soak. Brakes sh*t on track too due to ABS.
Quick road car though.

Similar problems to stockish VXT's suffer from with the standard intercooler struggling under higher temps / loads on track.

The ABS unit must be the same crap unit is VX220's also. Its a straight plug in swap for a Toyota-engined 4-channel ABS unit, which many have done, and brings them up to Elise / Exige performance (all being equal). Or just fit a cut off switch.

Victor Meldrew · Post by **Victor Meldrew** » Tue Aug 06, 2013 10:36 am

Ok, nice to know. stock ABS configuration I would expect to be fine for a road car though?

j2 lot · Post by **j2 lot** » Tue Aug 06, 2013 11:54 am

Victor Meldrew wrote:Ok, nice to know. stock ABS configuration I would expect to be fine for a road car though?

I have never had any issue but people talk about 'ice mode' where retardation is severely reduced because ABS has kicked in after detecting 'early' lock-up

GBOBM · Post by **GBOBM** » Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:54 pm

There's a guy over on VX220.org.uk selling his at the moment:

http://www.vx220.org.uk/forums/topic/12 ... ght-black/

Victor Meldrew · Post by **Victor Meldrew** » Tue Aug 06, 2013 7:18 pm

GBOBM wrote:There's a guy over on VX220.org.uk selling his at the moment:

http://www.vx220.org.uk/forums/topic/12 ... ght-black/

Spotted that one.. will probably be away before I get a chance to change.. either got to sell my 135 first or part ex it. Still waiting to get it back, its now sprayed, just needs to be put through its MOT and its back on the road.

Andy G · Post by **Andy G** » Wed Aug 07, 2013 8:13 pm

Save a bit more for the budget and an early Evora would surely be the way to go?

j2 lot · Post by **j2 lot** » Wed Aug 07, 2013 8:17 pm

Andy G wrote:Save a bit more for the budget and an early Evora would surely be the way to go?

Potentially £10k to save though. Europas from £15k Evora £30k unless its big mileage /cat D.

Andy G · Post by **Andy G** » Wed Aug 07, 2013 9:24 pm

Worth a word with mmc I'd have thought to see if they know of any Evoras or x mgt cars coming up

Victor Meldrew · Post by **Victor Meldrew** » Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:57 am

Evora would be preffered option but just recently bought her a Passat estate so car fund heavily depleted....

Scottish Elises