I hope it's an owner's support sub:

I'm a proud (and broke) UK owner of an Elise S2 111S for the last 5 years. It has been a love-hate-love-hate (repeat a few more times) ownership. I come from owning many Italian cars (Alfa Romeos, Lancias and a Maserati 3200) so nothing should surprise me on the reliability front, right?

65k miles on the clock when I got it with a slightly leaking crank seal, some tatty bodywork but otherwise 'ok' condition. Went on the first track day, after a week, and the handling was..... Not being impressive for a car sold on it's characteristics, and the head gasket went. Trundled home, removed head, sent to DVA for fettling (pretty, polish, angled valves, different exhaust camshaft, retimed cams).

I refitted the head, replaced the crank seal and installed a lightweight flywheel and new clutch and a used shorter ratio (standard ratio, as the 111SVVC had a long box) gearbox. I investigated the suspension also..Buttons were seized solid. Seized hard on the front and soft on the rear. Well that explained the handling, so they went off to Nitron for a rebuild and upgrade to the new valving and higher spring rates.

All back together, ready for the next track day at Donington, 100 miles down, and the day went successful until the very last lap and bang, no compression. Towed home, was busy with work and test of life so let a specialist look at it - camshaft carrier bolt come loose, wedged under cam live, top and bottom end interference, bent valves, damaged head, sheared camshaft, broken pistons and liners.

So rebuilt with new liners, Omega forged pistons, head repaired, run in ok, but it liked a drink of oil. 3 track days later and it was drinking a litre of oil per 100 miles on the road. Si I pulled the head again, no sign of valve stem seal but replaced all anyway, then pulled the liners and got them rehoned with new rings.

After this last rebuild and a few more track days, it does not touch a drop of oil 5k miles later, very happy.

Then I did the crank seal again.

At some point in this at one stage in the reassembly I also managed to connect the VVC solenoid connectors the wrong way round - this blew the idle circuit on the ECU, which luckily was repairable.

I have also had the radiator fans size (I removed the clam to change them... Fun)

I've had the front clam repaired 3 times now - in the first week a big stone got thrown up from a lorry and went through the front clam. On another track day I had a visit to the gravel bed, when they went to tow it the rotten tow post snapped off and took bits of the clam with it - I had to remove it again to fit the post and repair, and another time somebody hit it in a car park and cracked it all up - no note, nothing.

Then last week I had the starter motor cable shear off (replaced with new cable).

Maybe one day I'll get round to the suspension bushes and balkony And steering rack replacement that has been on the list for 5 years...

The car has also survived a divorce, whilst all this was happening (it wasn't the cause!)

But, everytime it does work and I drive if, it gives me such a smile, just like the way those Italian cars could with their 'character'.

I've started to video some of the trials and tribulations on YouTube, I'll do a video of the last engine rebuild pics shortly, so please subscribe to keep me encouraged!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyra8TwoHFsn0yGMpD9B-VuRpbezQTrm

Pics to follow