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Don't step away....
Other than the Isuzu engine and Toyota gearbox its a great car...Lotus designed the chassis and body and the suspension. The engine was reworked to suit the new chassis but I recall the gearbox being used pretty much unmodified.
Seriously, when it was launched the reviews were great.
Sure it's FWd which sounds mad for Lotus but it was a hoot to drive and certainly over here in the UK one of the fastest cars from A to B, including 911s of the day....
It was never really raced as a the time Lotus were part of GM who were not into factory teams and Lotus, as Lotus Racing, was still in F1.
They are now overshadowed by the Elise here but they still rate highly.
Probably the one of the easier cars to drive very quickly over an unknown European twistie road. That's what they were designed for and htat's what they are best at....
My guess it that they are underpowered for the US market if loaded with equipment etc and possibly not suited to the majority of the roads over there.
Certainly when I lived in the US, over in NoVa, other than the Blue Ridge Parkway and roads around there which are police intensive there was no equivalent roads to what we have over here and so the driving requirements were different, not worse but different. Its horses for courses.
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