Till a car with half the HP hands you your arse on a plate.

I couldnt catch an MR2 with that engine in my 3.2 (in my defence said MR2 being driven by a pro). Let alone a well piloted Lotus on R rubber. Lotus know a thing or two about chassis.

A buddy of mine just bought an Elise and I drove it last weekend. This is the type of low-frills lightweight car that Porsche should be making.

The interior is austere, but a little cheap at the same time. They were going for the bare-bones "aluminum panel" race look, but executed it with plastic which will probably be showing it's age in a couple of years.

It doesn't have a lot of torque, and the power doesn't come on until 6k, but it's very light and well set up out of the box. They even come stock with R-compound tires.

OTOH, it's a PITA to get in and out of, and apparently the A-pillars and windshield frame are a weak spot. Every time you try to get out, the owner is going to scream "DON'T GRAB ONTO THE WINDDSHIELD!!!!"

As far as styling, they're a light year away from the homogenized Bangle-ization going on today, so they attract a lot of attention. Japanese look-alike arriving in 4... 3... 2...

What I found interesting was the ECU prinout he got with the most recent service. I'm not up-to-date on car electronics, but this report showed the top n speed runs, with top speed, TPS and water temps; it also showed the most recent n times he's hit the rev limiter. I have to wonder how this will be used to invalidate warranties, and how long until somene comes up with ECU-sanitizing s/w.

The Exige is the pretty Elise's ugly brother. Its a coupe. Different track, different engine, wider rubber, big rear ricer wing, no frills.

Theyve been around since about 2000- no JPN imitator yet, AFAIK.

Stuart

I am not a professional and I don't car for being the fastest guy out there. I do it for fun. For me driving a 911 with all the challenges that an old 911 presents is part of the fun.

If my goal was to set the fastest lap I'd be driving a Radical or an Ariel Atom, not a 911 and certainly not an Elise.

Ofcourse, Matteo. No offence intended. I think that why we all do it. Just pointing out the (non HP) strength of the Lotus.

No offense taken. I agree with you. I lived in England and lusted after a Catheram 500 (240hp in a 1,300lbs car) for a while...

The Elise is a little more refined (thus not so focussed) but a fantastic proposition all the same.

I was just answering to the question posed by the title of the thread...
It's more of an emotional thing.

I would love to test-drive a Noble M400... That is a GT3 killer...

it may be un-pretty but the pic posted by "rtoms" sums up its existence very nicely. it's a track car... coupe is better, wider rubber is better, ricer wing is ricey, but so are the ones stuck onto serious track-oriented 911's... i thought most here were in agreement that 'no frills' is a good thing...

as for a japanese imitator... don't think they need to... they've had their own version of one for a while now too... at least since the 90's.... unless you've played gran turismo, you may not be aware of it, but it's a real company w/ a real car built in the same spirit as elise/exige. Tommy Kaira...

http://www.allcarpictures.com/pictures/tomita/tommy-kaira-zz/tomita-tommy-kaira-zz.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sdsefi.com/features/tommy6.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sdsefi.com/features/dec02tommy.htm&h=275&w=500&sz=31&tbnid=uDAsyvf4b3U PdM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=127&hl=en&ei=20ljRJr3JsbkadWqgLE I&sig2=1X4XM6xKov8dUtrEaqc2uw&start=5&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtommy%2Bkaira%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den% 26lr%3D%26sa%3DN


http://www.autodidactu.ro/cars/images/tommykaira/tommykairaa1.GIF

[QUOTE]Originally posted by }{arlequin
[B]it may be un-pretty but the pic posted by "rtoms" sums up its existence very nicely. it's a track car... coupe is better, wider rubber is better, ricer wing is ricey, but so are the ones stuck onto serious track-oriented 911's... i thought most here were in agreement that 'no frills' is a good thing...

as for a japanese imitator... don't think they need to... they've had their own version of one for a while now too... at least since the 90's.... unless you've played gran turismo, you may not be aware of it, but it's a real company w/ a real car built in the same spirit as elise/exige. Tommy Kaira...

QUOTE]

My remarks re the Exige were hardly meant as critisism. You must have missed the bit where I said I drove one in the UK a few years back and Id have one in a blink?

yes, i must have. sorry about that. you're very lucky then. i'm jealous.

No worries.

English backroads, bright blue pocket rocket, R rubber, 5 point harness and racing shells, little four potter snarling away.

Pretty much the most fun you can have sitting down....

And this is why I drive a 30-yr. old smog exempt car with no electronics at all.

I could deal with the host of ergonomic deficencies of the Elise; and I like revving for the hp much more than cheating with low-end torque. But having a black box as Big Brother frightens me.

What I wonder about is this is touted as a trackday car; it'd be a waste if someone owned one and did not take it to the track. So, if Lotus states the Elise's feasibility on the track via its design and intent, how could they void the warranty? It seems disingenuous to a high performance manufacturer like Lotus.

The lotus arrive and drive day I went to - which included trashing one on a mini autocross course - the organizers - one of which was from Lotus USA - touted the engine - mentioned that someone had mechanical overrev (to 12,300 rpms) and floated the valves - and that Lotus replaced the engine under warranty. I was a litle suprised - said from the black box - he achived 138 mph - did a 5 to 3rd downshift and weeeeeee clunk.

90% of the guys that attended were guys that tracked their cars -

Yes, but did any of them hide their license plates with tape like the Mitsu Evo guys? :D

The ones that I knew from PCA events either drove P-cars (two 911's one 944 and a boxster) or a s-2000 - one had a viper. nobody that I know tapes their lic plate.

Why not an S2000 then? Power comes on at the same time as the Elise at about 6k right? Better build quality, race bred, cheap to buy and own. Just have to put up with the young ricers.

The Elise/Exige may be ugly, but not as ugly as the 996/997/Boxter/Cayman/Pfefferwagen.

:D :D

Not as controllable at the limit or beyond the limit of traction. Very plain. Not as quick (before mods). All seem to be silver.

Edit: Here's that turbo link: http://www.forcedfed.com/elise.html

That will never happen!

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22747

It looks like the guys on the Lotus board have mentioned the car I posted about in the off topic section here yesterday.

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22659


Link to the car company. www.borncars.com