[ayglass]

I have a slightly crazy philosophy on cars. I buy cars that I like (practical or not) that also sold well to car buffs and that remained consistent over years. If enthusiasts bought a lot of them there will be a lot of knowledge out there. If the model didn't change much there will be a lot of parts out there.

I don't have enough money to get an interesting car unless I know that I can drive the wheels off of it and then rebuild it and do it again. I don't know if the Elise is there yet on that scale.

Here's an example: I have an '83 Jeep CJ-7. I can buy everything from a frame to interior trim for it from after-market sources. The Jeep has 300,000+ on it's original engine and I just put new Dana-44 axles under it. I am going for 1,000,000 miles on that vehicle.

As you know, you can get just about anything for your SC because they were raced and remained consistent for years. In the 10 year view you will still be able to get anything. This is a little less so for something like a Datsun 240Z which was raced, but which remained consistent for a shorter period of time. The Elise isn't there yet, but might get there.

From my crazy perspective, the SC is a car that you can put 500,000 miles on and still buy stock parts to keep it like new. Another, lesser car would have to have modified and/or custom parts on it to keep going. That's about 5 standard American sedans worth of driving in an excellent car!