Beschreibung
To those of you who know and love Lotus, the seriously quick, agile and eager Elise 111S will need no introduction.
As the respected editor in chief of acclaimed Octane magazine wrote recently,
" I reckon you need to spend at least £50, 000 to get even a sniff of a car that offers a driving experience to rival the Elise's, so for £12, 000 - £15000 it's really nothing short of a steal".
Let's face it, these boys at Octane know their stuff.
Almost twenty years old it may be, but to some the Series 2 cars look like a pocket supercar and the great news is that they cost less to buy than a pair of carbon side trims for a new McLaren!
For comfortably less than the price of something really quite ordinary, you could be driving and enjoying the overall Drivers Choice winner of Autocar Magazine’s '2019 Icon of Icons Award', a car capable of out-driving many sports performance cars several times its price.
With lightweight Lotus innovation at its core, every single fibre of its being is about the drive with very few more focused road cars out there – perhaps the famous pared back Caterham or Lotus 7, but by their standards the Elise is positively opulent.
My delightful low mileage 2003 111S is surprisingly being offered for sale to make way financially for a once in a lifetime Lotus opportunity that I’ve been waiting almost forty years for!
Finished in bright ‘New Aluminium’ silver paint in outstanding condition with a contrasting black leather and carpeted interior, the car presents itself really well on its striking gunmetal eight spoke ‘spider’ alloys – the best wheels by far in my opinion.
Almost stock, save for a superb sounding Larini sports exhaust system, the car sits on almost new Yokohams A007’s at the front on 16 inch rims with excellent purpose designed Bridgestone Potenzas on 17 inch rims at the rear providing that purposeful stance.
The car has a full MOT and an exemplary MOT history with just about the only issue having been the wheels fitted to the wrong sides for rotational recommendation – a quick swap and the MOT was secured.
The previous owner had the car from 2016 and usefully provided a full professional buying service check report survey from a specialist who wholeheartedly recommended this particular car. This report is available to serious prospective purchasers for further peace of mind.
The low 48000 mile history is covered by a well stamped service book from Main Agents and specialists, backed up with many detailed invoices, mainly from the supplying dealer, Ribble Valley Motor Cars and it reads like this:
8048 miles – A service
14316 miles – A service
17623 miles – B service
21101 miles – A service
23418 miles – C service
25611 miles – A service
30299 miles – C service
38942 miles – A service
43579 miles – B service
It even has the original supplying dealer purchase invoice and details of a black and silver nose badge fitment in keeping with the colour scheme.
Interestingly, the more powerful 156bhp VVC 1. 8 litre 16v motor is ‘cleaner’ than the entry level model and as such is relatively inexpensive to tax for the road. My recent six month summer tax bill was only £110 with the annual charge currently just £200 – a full sixty pounds a year less than the ‘slower’ model - I was quite surprised.
The interior is lovely, really lovely with a fitted fire extinguisher and delightfully tactile aluminium wiper and indicator stalks – just another little detail but a really worthwhile improvement over the usual plastic Vauxhall items seen on most cars.
Obviously the wide sill trims have the usual wear but historically they’ve been covered and that has helped protect them to some degree.
I looked at a number of cars before finding this little gem and it stood head and shoulders above the rest in the way it looks so well cared for and how tight and together the drive is.
The short roof soft top is in superb condition with recent replacement support spars and it easily rolls into its bespoke storage bag and tucks away in the carpeted luggage area. I’ve bought an additional rain deflector for if you get caught out in heavy rain to prevent any potential water ingress but the seals are good and the window and door fit are lovely. There is also a semi tailored waterproof cover available with the car.
Crucially the heater works well on ALL fan speeds and so the car needs nothing other than driving and enjoying – it really does respond beautifully, it's quick and it’s a lovely shape to wash and polish.
I'm also pleased to confirm that it has an unblemished HPI record.
Please call after office hours on the details below to discuss or ask about any details I may have missed or request further photographs as I took around one hundred the other evening. They're readily available via Whatsapp – thank you.
