one less lotus elise ....
 

One of the folks who works somewhere here on campus drives a Lotus Elise....

Or rather, he did until he totaled it this morning on I-75


Saw him get onto the on-ramp as I was pumping gas, always feel a twinge of jealousy as he'd power thru the on-ramp curve...

Then I passed him and a bunch of other cars in various states of deconstruction about 10 minutes later. Minimal front end damage, probably from hitting median and spinning around, but back end was completely destroyed.

Fortunately all persons involved were standing around pointing and talking, waiting on police etc to show up

Wow, that sucks.

sadface

They don't fair well in even minor collisions.

I don't think that's possible on an Elise. I small crack in the hood necessitates changing the whole thing out. Sucks for your co-worker.

I had one of those cars. It sucked. Neil is correct above if you crack the front or rear clam you replace the whole thing. They are (were) very delicate, about $15K each, and perpetually backordered from Lotus. Usually you had to wait 9-12 months to get one when I owned mine, I can't imagine what that wait is like now.

IMO the biggest problem w/ the Elise/Exige is the wheelbase is too short. I was never able to dial out the snap oversteer on the track despite alot of effort and $$.

A guy I used to race with had an orange Elise. He was in my run group and I loved that car. He had an off track excursion and never came back.

It looked like something I could have easily fixed. I heard it cost $$$ to fix and no insurance at the track.

But I will speak the unspeakable on this forum...

But an Elise drives exactly like you think your Pcar should drive.

I owned one for about 6 years and not a day goes by that I don't miss it.

This is truth. I spent a fortune on my 911 to make it competitive with a stock Elise.

One of the biggest reasons I sold mine. I was always paranoid no matter how I was using it. It was just so fragile.