Bloody good engine it is too.
Un1eash, get the Elise. Even if you hate it (which you won't), if you buy correctly you'll sell it on for what you paid for it and can then buy something bigger. Every petrol head should own one once in their life
i'm with ekona on this out of all the cars you mention the elise is the only one that jumps off the page for me. if its a weekedn toy then the elise is perfect. pure drivers car, great fun and the rover engine is a great piece of kit, yes there have been head gasket issues, but hangar 111 brought out a revised head gasket which cures the issue. the engine is very tunable and has a great sound.
as for rover engines, their V8's are the back bones and basis for many kit cars and engine conversions.