I have a friend who is looking at buying a used Exige to use as a track car. Not sure how old, but he is trying to find something relatively cheap to play around with. I don't know enough about Lotus to help him. Can you guys give me some general info on reliability and cost of maintenance, repair, etc? Thanks!

 

El ronin knows. He is the lotus.

 

I knew I was going to get a Ronin referral. I almost told my friend not to buy a Lotus just because of him.

 

They are great little cars. Just very raw. It's noisy and rattles, so don't expect sports car like comfort.

That said they are very reliable. Had my S for 5 years now and never had an issue. They do have fuel starvation issues if the tank is lower than half on long left or right turns, due to a tank design fault. Can't remember which way turn. This could lead to lean conditions and your engine dying. There is a 700$ fox by BOE fabrications which is a medium difficulty install.

Hope that helps.

 

That's what I needed. Thanks Mike! Rep when not on my phone.

 

No problem! Happy to help

 

Had an Elise for a few years. Pretty much echo what Mike had to say.

Upsides: Great car, fun as hell to drive, quick but not fast, extremely reliable, pretty rare

Downsides: Hard to get in and out of, it's a rattle-trap, radio sucks, etc.

Not probably a car you want to drive everyday, but as a 2nd or 3rd car, I'd love one.

 

I've only driven one once at laguna seca, but man, I had to perform oragami and yoga just to get myself into the car. But is was a good track car. Very nimble.

 

They're fairly reliable so far as the driveline goes, though there are a few issues to be aware of:

- If you're seriously tracking it on sticky tires, you can run into fuel starve and oil starve issues. Fix 'em with a fuel surge tank and either a baffled oil pan (moroso) and/or an accusump.

- The stock engine mounts are very soft and can lead to exhaust cracks on track driven cars, there are many cheap solutions to the problem out there using poly inserts or replacement mounts.

- Early cars not equipped with a rear toe link reinforcement bar should be so equipped.

- A number of people have experienced camshaft problems with the 2ZZ which can result in broken VVT rockers. It's not a bad idea to upgrade them to an aftermarket setup (e.g. piper)

- Some people have experienced issues with the oil cooler lines separating. I've never seen it happen personally, and mine are in great shape, but if you're the paranoid sort it's worth at least inspecting them prior to a purchase.

Other than that, they're pretty reliable. Most of the bangs and rattles people report are due to a lack of service-- e.g. the windows like to rattle in the doors, but only when they are not occasionally tightened in their mounts.

The only other thing to note is that the body clamshells are fairly fragile, so if he's going to race at a track without much runoff area, it would be wise to take it easy. The upshot is that when (not if) he damages the clams, you can simply have them repaired and strengthened by any decent fiberglass shop.

 

Left hand sweepers. It's only really a problem on forced induction cars.