Newbie

[Chris SI]

Good evening everyone,

I thought I would start by introducing myself, as my user name suggests I’m Chris and an owner of an 1999 S1 Elise. It is my first lotus and I’ve only owned the car for a few weeks. I have moved from owning classic Mini’s for the last 7 years or so. I love the Lotus but it seems to lag behind the performance and handling of my old works Mini Cooper S. So there may be a few questions coming about setting the car up and extracting a little more enthusiasm from the engine. I’m currently reading through the parts and service manuals to learn more about the car. I have also started the fatal list of jobs to do...Let the tinkering begin.

Regards, Chris.

[Dave C]

Hi & Welcome

What colour is the S1, get a pic up if you can

Lots of knowledge around so I would say ask the questions once you have them.

Facebook page may get you quicker answers these days:-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NORLOG/

[Nathan]

Hi Chris, I also made the same move from classic minis to Lotus and I think you’ll find it quite common across Lotus owners. The immediacy of the steering, lack of weight and ability to carry ridiculous speeds into corners makes the driving experience similar in many ways. I came from a highly tuned 1380 hillclimb Mini and also found the basic kseries performance a bit lacklustre so chose to go down the Toyota route for mine, but there are so many tuning options to liven up the Rover powered cars at a sensible budget that you’re positively spoilt for choice when compared to getting big power from an A-series.
Where Elises do differ a lot is sensitivity to set-up... not only does the geometry have a big impact on the way they drive but tyre brand, age and even a few psi difference can significantly alter the way the cars feel.
Plenty of expertise on here as Dave says and some good local specialists too, so I’m sure you’ll soon get the car driving exactly how you want it.
Enough about Elises though, let’s see some classic Mini pics!

[Chris SI]

Good afternoon,

Thank you very much for your replies.  Thankfully I have kept my geo setup equipment from when I raced my mini's.  So I have corner weighing scales and toe, camber and castor gauges.  Next on my list is to check to geometry and condition of the suspension bushes and ball joints.  I think this is where many of my handling problems are.

The car came with Yokohama S-Drive tyres, 195/50R15 & 205/45R16. I'm unsure on the tyre pressures, it is likely that these could be wrong as the previous owner was not technically mind at all. Hopefully a suspension refresh, a good road setup, the right tyres and pressures should make the world of difference. Any advice on a fast road setup (not likely to do many track days at all) would be gratefully appreciated.

Regards, Chris.

[Chris SI]

Dave,

Mine is New Aluminium with a hard and soft top. Will upload a profile photo.

Regards, Chris.

[Rob P]

Welcome to Norlog Chris, I'm another one who started with Classic mini's and now have Lotus Elise S1 and Lotus Elan S4, still have the classic Cooper which is in resto mode
If you are on Facebook there is also a Norlog group on there which gets a bit more use than this forum presently from what I can see
Might be worthwhile alos popping up your location on your profile
Hope you enjoy the Lotus experience