Driving class, suspension, inc tires, engine related mods depending if tracking, AX or purely for fun? Have to meet class rules for racing. Get more camber front and rear, a great set of shocks then align to Inokinetics specs. Then once you're learning all the suspension upgrades and getting to know the car better get REV400, CAI and Exhaust headers,decat and can and you'll be amazed at the major transformation the car just underwent. Since the BOE tune takes 4-6 weeks I would try to get a second ECU to have tuned that will give you more time with car plus have a ECU for testing if needed. Then I would send out headers to get White Lightning treatment it took as long as the tune both arrived same time for installation. Lastly loose weight on the car. Higher the better along with lost from ends of the car and unsprung suspension wheels and tires.

 

Start at the tires and work your way up. Horsepower is always last.

 

Tires, shocks, bushings, and steering arms (to gain negative camber) are my favorites as well as a proper alignment.

 

Just drive the car.

 

Agree with all of these comments and will add a replacement all aluminum radiator, oil line recall and basic maintenance items (transmission fluid change and brake/clutch fluid change first depending on the history of the car.

 

What everyone else has said here….and the rear toe links if they haven’t been done! Safety first.

 

Cup holder.

 

Best mod you can do is to your odometer .
If your car is mid 2007 or newer your shifter will break at some point if you drive enough.
I'm of the school that these cars should be driven. The car will tell you what needs attention.
This site is chock full of great advice.

 

What changes were done to the shifter for 2007+? I have a new to me 2007 and the shifter is noticeably sloppier than my previous 2005's was. But I don't know if my 05's shifter was upgraded or modded at all.

 

Glad you are getting the car serviced - include a proper alignment. If the car is serviced and the nuts and bolts are tight, then consider changing things that can cause a breakdown. Have your shop check your transmission cables and your wishbone bushes. If the car has a stock radiator, that might be something to consider upgrading as they can fail.

if you plan to track or run your car aggressively, this chart would be our advice.

Adding more power comes at a significant cost and frankly makes the car less reliable. Decide what is more important reliability or bleeding edge performance. There are moderate solutions for each performance category that still allow the car to remain reliable.

If I could change only one thing on a stock car I would install our sonicFURY. I'm a big fan of a proper sport muffler as the sound from the stock muffler is not exciting to my ears...

 

it’s a deep dark black hole. Just do the maintenance and leave it stock. But if you can’t help yourself and have deep pockets……here are some ideas.

My latest Elise project

I've owned a number of Lotus' over years. One Elise, two Exige S, three Elan's (S1, S2, S4) and a Twin Cam Europa. I went full circle and bought another Elise. (Photo's below). Why? It's kind of a long story but the short version is I was a track rat for nine years, decided to give up my...

www.lotustalk.com

 

To get valuable feedback, you will need to give us a bit more information about how you intent to use the car. If you are just going to C&C or if you intent to do some serious track time, the mods would be completely different.

 

These cars are set up nicely straight from the factory. It can be tricky if you go down the mod path as you want to keep it reliable and not potentially cause more harm than good down the line. For me, depending on the car's age and condition, I would get the control arm bushings refreshed and give it an alignment. Some nice coilovers would make for a good investment if you're not satisfied with what came with the car, and then anything that you can do to improve reliability of known weak points. (e.g. giving it an all-aluminum radiator).

However, to @shinoo's point, uncorking the engine with a nice exhaust is always a must-do, at least for me. I chose the Lotus Stage 3 exhaust for mine (LOTAC05450) that was developed specifically for supercharged cars. Lighter by ~15 lbs., looks good, sounds wonderful, and allows your engine to breathe better - which is never a bad thing!

 

My understanding is that in mid-2007 they upgraded the shifter to improve the feel, which included adding the blue ball. There is a bolt that goes through the shifter and that bolt is a tad too big, so the shifter shaft tends to break. There are tons of threads on this. With a 2007 you may or may not have the blue ball in your car.
In terms of shifter feel, stiffer front and rear motor mounts are probably the first thing to improve, followed by cables, then reinforcers and changing the shifter to one of the aftermarket ones.

 

The shifter on my 2008 was sloppy and I tried the standard reinforcers and cables, and it helped a bit, but I finally went with Inokinetic's Shiftr 2.0 and it was a revelation, the shifter feels is a highpoint now. Also, +1 on the Sonic Fury exhaust, the sound is intoxicating.