Has Your New Elise Just Been Delivered? Post Your New Elise Pictures Here!

[Vince]

Originally Posted by shay2nak

Hi Vince,
What are the width of the Team Dynamics wheels? 7" front & 8" rear? They look great! Excellent choice of color for your Elise, BTW.
Thanks,
Ara

Hi Shay2nak,

The sizes of the Rims are: 7.0x17 and 9.0x18 and those of the tires are: 205/40/17 (front) & 245/35/18 (back).
(Sorry actually 7" & 8" didn't mean anything ..)
By the way I changed the original Yokohamas with Good-Year F1 tires, which in my opinion are certainly better adapted to our humid and cold climate.
Thanks for appreciating the rims & the car's color. I recall it was one of the most difficult and time consuming decision I had to take. I wasn't sure about the color result until I finally saw her for the first time. The choice&color of the alloys was similarly difficult and again it was only once they were mounted that I was sure I had done the right choice.

Regards
Vince

[shay2nak]

Originally Posted by Vince

Hi Shay2nak,

The sizes of the Rims are: 7.0x17 and 9.0x18 and those of the tires are: 205/40/17 (front) & 245/35/18 (back).
(Sorry actually 7" & 8" didn't mean anything ..)

Thanks, Vince.
Sorry, I meant 7" front rim width and 8" for the rears. wow, 9" for the rears? You are the second person to fit 9" back there. I think I'll do the same now, if I can find RAC monolites in 16x8 and 17x9. I'll try 225/45/16 and 255/40/17 Yoko AO48s.
Ara

[FallenOne]

Wow 9" in the back is wide! Don't you have traction problems when it's raining?

[Vampyre]

After 7 months of looking I finally got my Elise!

2006 Chili Red
I bought On Friday 8/31/07 it had 743 miles on the car, just about brand new. all the stuff is still in plastic bags.

Very Well Optioned

Chili Red Lifestyle paint
Touring package
Limited Slip Differential
Traction Control
Forged Wheels 6J
Hard Top
Rag Top

[viacondotti]

Congrats. The car is undending fun.

[Vince]

Originally Posted by FallenOne

Wow 9" in the back is wide! Don't you have traction problems when it's raining?

Hi FallenOne

well I guess I will certainly have to be very carefull with the traction
specialy on roundabouts and more generally during winter.
Even thought I have Traction Control, I have read that it is very inefficient in delicate situations.

The idea to have larger wheels/rims was to avoid understeer.
(and to give the car a bit of a different look.)
Now I will have to watch for oversteering ...

But I reckon Good Year's F1 should probably do a better job in rain with
9" rims then the Yokohamas with my original smaller rims&wheels

If the weather gets too tough I'll walk and leave the car at home.

Vince

[lotusfan2]

Here's my brand new Canyon Red 2006 Elise. Well, brand new for me. 4600 miles on it when I got her. Love this color!

[Vampyre]

What options did you get?

[titleist1]

Welcome to the Canyon Red group lotusfan2. Adam.

[Rob T]

I really love Canyon Red. Seems to be a rather underrated color around here imo.

[lotusfan2]

Options: Touring pack, starshield, no hardtop. Still looking for one. I asked the Lotus dealer here in Denver and they quoted $4200 !!! Ok, one more picture.

[Muaz]

Hi, This post of mine is very knowledgable and may enhance the information of the viewers , however I would like some specific information for myself. If someone can help me then please send me a private message. Best Regards,

[Wheelspin]

Here's my 2006 nightfall blue Elise, which I bought in January 2007. Sorry I didn't post anything about my car earlier, but I'm going to make up for that with a long post and lots of photos.

The car was a leftover 2006 that I bought from Lotus of South Bay. It has the touring pack, premium pack, and starshield options. I paid about ten percent under the sticker price.

My wife and I live in southern California. We use the Elise mainly for longer trips around the state. Since January we've put about 5600 miles on it. Our purpose in buying the car was to travel and have fun, not to store it like a trophy. We have visited Buttonwillow, but I doubt whether I'll do any track time.

So far we've been to Yosemite, the eastern Sierra, gold country, Mendocino, and the Monterey Historics. We avoid superhighways and almost always take roads that are well suited to the car -- like hwys. 1, 49, 58, and 395. We rarely use the car for daily transportation.

I find the car quite comfortable for full days of performance-oriented driving. The seats and ride are reasonably good and the air conditioner copes pretty well with 100+ temperatures. On longer trips you have to be very selective about packing luggage, and it's a good idea to make frequent stops. Choosing parking spaces carefully is always a must. In traffic, a mild but permanent sense of paranoia really helps.

The car has some small quirks that (so far) I consider part of the charm of owning a British sports car. On long trips in very hot weather you get a squeaking sound out of the front suspension after a couple hundred miles. I've read about this elsewhere on this site, and know it's an annoyance not a true problem. Also on long trips in hot weather, there's a small amount of heat transfer through the aluminum chassis, but never enough to cause any discomfort. So far, we haven't had a single "real" problem, mechanical or otherwise.

I wish the car had cruise control -- it's a great and reliable means of maintaining speed just below the point where you stand out to the highway patrol. Other than that, everything else about the Elise is just about right for me -- size, weight, number of cylinders, horsepower, engine configuration, and price. The reliability of the Toyota drive train is a big plus for me.

By the way, my wife loves the car and was in favor of buying it. She's a U.S. executive for a major Japanese car company. I can't say which one, but recently this company overtook G.M. as best-selling make.

I plan to keep the Elise until I can't climb in and out of it anymore, then I'll give it to my daughter!

(See the next post (1521) for photos).

[Wheelspin]

Here are the photos:

(See the previous post (1520) for description).

[ukloti]

Thought I would say hello from accross the pond in 'good ol blighty' & see what you guys get up to with your Lotus's.
Here's a shot of my baby.

[viacondotti]

Beautiful. Nice wheels too. Hey, can you get tickets for the Zep concert?

[chapster5]

Originally Posted by ukloti

Thought I would say hello from accross the pond in 'good ol blighty' & see what you guys get up to with your Lotus's.
Here's a shot of my baby.

LOVE THE RED ESPECIALLY THE ROOF

[Notorious L.R.G.]

Originally Posted by chapster5

LOVE THE RED ESPECIALLY THE ROOF

I too, love that coloured roof! But, why does it fit like a series 1 roof? I thought that was part of the styling improvements of the series 2 Elise, the flush mounted soft top, that is.


And what, those wheels illegal for U.S. roads? Some of the Lotus variations just do not make sense.

[lc_09]

Ok, so I've had my Elise now for 18 days.

Today I finally got a chance to go out and take some pictures. The colors in the pictures actually came out a bit too washed out, so I punched them up a bit in Photoshop. (maybe too much... looked good on my notebook screen. Not sure how it would look on a quality monitor)

I have been lurking on this forum for over a year. I had been considering a used Elise or a new 350z roadster or a new Saturn Sky Redline. These cars are all very different, but the common element is that they are all fun to drive. Another common element is that these cars are also in the mid 30s as far as price goes.

After lurking for a while on forums for all three, and test driving all three. There was no comparison, the Elise was flat out the most fun to drive.

I was not really looking for a daily driver type car, so the comfort features of the other cars didn't sway me. Cup holders and heated seats are not a big deal. I will be upgrading the stereo system in the Elise, and maybe the mirrors. But beyond that, I feel the car couldn't be more perfect.

A big thank you to all the forum member that have contributed their wisdom and enthusiasm to this forum. Also, a big thanks to Abe (bmw1) for your help with my Elise decision.

When my weekends become less hectic (around mid-october) I hope to meet many of you in person at some of the various meets around Southern California.

[mikecronis]

A few more of my 2006 with newly-found hardtop.