Lotus Elise (S2)
Why 7.0: Unassisted steering that ruins you for everything else. Values finally climbing, but the community still drives, tracks and tours them — appreciation hasn't yet built the glass case.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The Toyota 2ZZ switches cam profile at 6,200 and screams to 8,000 in a car with no carpet, no soundproofing and the engine a foot behind your head. It is a Celica unit underneath, thrashy rather than tuneful, which is what keeps it off the S2000's pace.
4-cylinder · naturally aspirated · 8,000 rpm redline · rated 7.6 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €35k (2005) → €64k (2026), trending up · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
There aren't any — strict two-seater.
No anchors, and on most of these no passenger airbag either — the car is too stripped for the question to arise. Whatever goes in that seat goes in on a harness or a belt.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
Values spent most of the 2000s and early 2010s falling, which meant the people who bought in during that window did it purely for the driving experience, at prices that made a glass-case mentality pointless, and a lot of that generation of owner is still driving the car today, now worth twice what they paid. The newer wave arriving since values started climbing again brings some caution with it, but the club-track culture built up over two decades of cheap ownership has not disappeared just because the car costs more to buy in. Track Rat holds because Elise owners still show up at track days in real numbers.