billybunters - from a bmw z4 to a mx5 se

[93_Clubman]

Congrats! When you do get to drive or passenger your thoughts versus OEM & modded SE will be interesting.

[smy0003]

Yes, congrats!
Also keen to hear how it stacks up to a dann powered SE.
If you're daughter pulls out I can always drive it up to you...

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

[billybunter]

well the daughter has picked up the car and her first impressions were -its cute and about the same size as her Honda delsol ! she only went for a couple of blocks on the test run and told the previous owner that was enough plus there were a few hard braking exercises thrown it to show her how good its stops too

atm her impressions are it creates plenty of attention from the lookers perfect that's why I bought it and power wise even with the factory supercharger but no intercooler on the elise she doesn't think it equal the performance of the SE when it was picked up and test dríven by " THE NEWCASTLE STIG!"

road condition between katoomba and Lithgow are pretty bad with new work being carried out over a 30 klm stretch with jagged drop off between old and new work. so I've sent her across via the bell line of road to lithgow to do the run home.

if she is right about the performance of this factory supercharge elise and my SE is quicker - the SE is a pretty quick car off the mark. I've never tried so I don't really know. but it will go down on the forum as the only 300 HP SE that went up for sale and at one stage dropped to $16K and never sold ..........BUT my thoughts now $20K wouldn't buy it now! I always said it was a good car.

time will tell on the lotus but the SE has a proven track record ///well in northern territory anyway.

[Lokiel]

:
time will tell on the lotus but the SE has a proven track record ///well in northern territory anyway.

Next challenge, taking the Lotus on the NT trip - you should be an expert now in how to pack light, now you'll have to try going ultra-light

[billybunter]

well the car arrived home just near dark and with a little help from the wife I grabbed my walking stick and hobbled over to the car opened the door and dropped down into that friggin hard seat....ouch but 30 years back when I got married for the second time I knew one day I might require some-one to drive me around instead - with this car and that day could be closer than I think

I only went out about 20 klm in total so i'd rate the ride much firmer than the SE on 15" rims and equal to a mgf so its firm. steering being manual is pretty good really. I remember when I first put the frog arm on my SE and the steering went heavy immediately. I drove it 30 klm came back with sore shoulders and advertised them on the forum and pulled them off the car immediately....not the case here. manual steering has good road feel.

it appears pretty quick in 2nd and 3rd gear but I couldn't hear the supercharger whine at all. actually wasn't really any more noise than the mx5 so I think I will have to go a cai as this is still a factory stock with a few options. it's too hard yet to call if this would keep with the SE or not and i'd have to drive both cars one after the other. I did that with the motorbikes and then it was easy to pick it outright.

overall its in pretty nice condition and appears well looked after. time will tell. the only downside of the trip - I am always forced to stop to take photos or I go by myself

[KevGoat]

What a combination ... a 300+whp SE and a supercharged Lotus.

So jealous!!!!

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[billybunter]

thanks kevgoat

unfortunately this deal also cost me my favourite motorbike which I am still coming to terms with as I now have none so it will take a while to get that under control and replaced

[Lokiel]

I half-expected your daughter to take "the long way home", not wanting to give the car up so quickly, and the earliest you'd see it was next week.

I suspect that you may get pulled over a bit just because the cops want to check out the car (MUST stop looking at it).

[billybunter]

I read your bit about a nt trip so decided to have a look in the boot i'd be out of luck carting anything on a long trip like I did in the mazda - there's no room or not much at all

[billybunter]

a day on the grass

today I decided to removed the roof of the lotus and take the wife for a 60 klm run out near molong to collect some seeding grasses for the birds. in a day or two I will run the se along the same road as a comparison.

first off I found it much easier to get in and out of the car as you could plan ahead where you were going to put you feet to make entry and exit much easier. compared to doing the same move with the roof on I can see now why the previous owner who was 1.8 metres in height rarely drove with the soft top attached.

ride wise it was about the same FIRM but i'd say no worse that the red bmw z4 I had a few years ago which ran on 18"rims with run flat tyres. no doubt this car rides harder than the factory SC model as its fitted with the optional sports pack which included lightweight alloy wheels - traction control - probax seats - engine and gearbox oil coolers - bilstein shocks and heavier springs. plus the optional lsd. apart from that its factory standard in the exhaust and induction system and pretty quiet.

performance wise it really gets off the mark very quick and is extremely smooth all through the power band. i'd say smoother to drive that the SE and that se is smooth. plus I can drive it in 4th gear or I could today down to 30/40 kph and touch the throttle and off it would go. very good and I got to say it again very good gearbox and clutch so overall I think it does what it is suppose to do perform and handle and is a nice overall package. I also found it very quick through the roundabouts too.

at this stage what don't I like about it well...............it's too quiet. really quiet. the exhaust note well there is none and same too with the induction side. never even heard the supercharger whine once and that was even at a couple of hits at 6000 in 3rd gear too.

meanwhile I have spoken to simply sports cars about a cai for the factory supercharged car and the guy assured me not only will I pick up good mid range power I will get the required induction noise plus the supercharger whine to go with it

I think I will go that way shortly. but I am not interested in spending big money on exhaust systems and other stuff as I have plans to go back to a motorbike next year and not get tied up with car mods. but saying that I know I have the performance on tap so i'd like the sound effects to go with it

what I do like ...the way it delivers the power so smoothly. I also like looking out the drivers side exterior mirror I have to say I have had in excess of a 100 plus cars and this is the best shot by far than any car I have ever owned in my life. the view is unreal with the body lines/curves etc. not a flat panel to be seen

apart from the drive i got a couple of bags of seeding grass and I bet that car never did that before either. if it had been here in the yard a few years earlier it would be going out to do a termite collecting run too but I no longer have those type of finches.

once home I decided to go and sit in the se for comparison. I complained those seats were just too hard on both those northern territory runs. actually opted for the taxi style beaded seat cover which worked well. well once back in the se I must admit those seats were pretty bloody good almost like sitting in a luxury car. plus I could feel the spring in them too. I should cut the tops off and drag them over to the green car

later I will put together my side of why I bought this lotus and if you ever decide to buy one it will be worth reading. this wasn't just a wild last minute idea before I bought my se 6 years ago I was about to buy one then and it fell through when the owner couldn't meet up with me on the day. so I might not know how to fix them but I can tell you what not to buy. a couple of years later it happened again with a car in Bathurst too. so it may interest someone

[Okibi]

Apparently the Lotus ProBax seats are better.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/2737588/The-Lotus-position.html

[IanR]

nice sir, mine has an induction kit with the pod inside the side scoops and a high flow muffler and it is LOUD, perfectly loud. Get onto it! call simply sports cars in artarmon and place you order.

[StanTheMan]

[billybunter]

thanks for the advise and glad you like it had a look inside the engine bay and it appears a very tight fit to get the old filter box out. not only that I read up a bit on it and the wheel has to come off and the wheel liner and you go from underneath to get the snorkel part of the standard filter box then unbolt the filter.

appears a bit of work to get it out in such a tight spot. that's the cai I was looking at too

[Lokiel]

LOL - the MX5's engine bay looks "Kingswood-sized" compared to the Lotus.

I'm guessing to do any real work in the engine bay will require more work to extract all the bits just to get at what you want than the actual mod itself - unfortunately you'll have to spend the same amount of time putting it all back again