NSXS

There is news GM may bring the Opel Speedster to America. It costs around $30k and has less feature content than the S2000. It has a 2.2 liter engine making 147 hHP and 150 ft-lbs of torque. It weighs only 1941 lbs (I'm thinkin' it's not a very stiff chassis) but still has a worse power to weight ratio than the S2000. I see it inferior to the S2000 in every way. So what's the point?

What gets me a little upset is that Motor Trend says it will compare to the S2000 and MR2 but not to the Boxster or Z. Huh? The S2000 is a Boxster beater Motor Trend-wake up.

Tox

The Opel is really a competitor for the Lotus Elise, and will be much harder-edged than the S2000.

If I hadn't already spent my sheckels on the S2000 I would be tempted -- except for the fact that it's an Opel. I still remember the Kadett (circa 1969) and what an amazing piece of crap it was. I've also rented a few Opel sedans in Europe that were hardly better, so I wouldn't want to touch any Opel product with my own money involved.

NSXS

I wonder why this got moved to Off-topic? What's different about this comparison compared to many other in the Car Talk forum?

Jay Li

Cthree stated that all car comparisons are now considered OT.

DavidM

Good topic - though, being in O/T I doubt anyone will read it or replay :-(

Anyway, from what I gather, the Opel is really something to aim for the same market as an Elise - it's using the same chassi as well as suspension. It has different tuning and a different engine. Also, it has a tad more 'laxuries' ... like a stereo :-)

Either way, it'll probably just as good a car as Lotus Elise (if not better), but it's still not really a car but more of a go-cart for road (like the Elise) - it's not a car that you can actually live with and therefore does not compete with S2000, Boxster, Z3, TT or even MX5.

How will they comapre anyway? Good question, about which I'm curios too. If it's anything like Elise then it will handle and brake like possesed but will have not that much actual power. ps. Lotus Elise does not have really any power when there's 2 people in it ... with 2 people if not that much faster than MR2 (in a straight line). Also, Lotus Elise really accelerates up to about 160 - 170km/h ... anything afetr that is a struggle.

BassMan

Had to go find a picture. This car is not my cup of tea really, it's all angles...

CG

I would rather have the Lotus Elise but if this is as close as I can get I very well may buy one -- if it handles like an Elise. I would like to have more power (too much is not enough) but as long as I don't have to slow down in corners I can live with a little less.

DavidM

I bought a magazine in Malaysia called 'Autocar', it has an article comparing the new Elise, Speedster and S2000. I think this article is lifted from some UK publication 'cos it's written by someone in the UK and they drove near the Lotus factory. To be blunt, the S2000 was alegedly way out of it's depth and despite it's straight line superiority it handled badly compared to the other two cars. That's right, in the straight line the S2000 blitzed both of them (while the Lotus was quicker of the other two), the Elise and Speedster were 'inspiring', 'confidence building' and 'predictable' as far as handling went while the S2000 was 'remembered for all the wrong reason' ... something about very 'taily' around slow corners and 'going straight ahead' on the fast ones. They concluded that the Elise is the ultimate Roadster and the Speedster is very close to it but not quiete up to par. The S2000 was rated as an 'average' car among great ones.

One thing though, the roads were wet and bumpy (and twisty of course).

Personally, I've driven the '98 (and '99) models of Elise and even though I though that it was very much a go-cart for roards, I didn't think that it was as great as all the write-ups lead me to believe. I though it was an exceptional sports car but I wasn't left with anywhere the same smile and sence of awe as when I drove the Boxster (2.5) for the very 1st time. I concider Boxster to be a better handling car than the Elise. How do I think the S2000 compares? Hard to tell as I haven't driven the S2000 on overly bumpy roads or in the wet. All my experiences are in the dry where it's impressing me and I'd rate it pretty high ... not sure how high exacly 'cos I'm still not comfortable with the back end - I'm thinking that my back end does not have as much grip as I had in my MR2 or as I felt in the Boxster.

Bernie

You raise a pretty good point on this David. I get a lot of the car magazines available and have been for years. Autocar is an English magazine so I asume the Autocar you got in Malaysia is part of the same group.

Quite frankly, I have given up on the English mags like Autocar, Car etc because they are so damned biased. There is little doubt they have something against the S2000. If you saw an article about three to four months ago in Car, you would have seen the comparison between the S2000 and the TT Roadster. Well, they found the TT pretty much way superior. About the only magazines on this planet who do are the English magazines. Even the Audi world website are more balanced in their assessment.

It is not just the S2000. In the past, they have found reason to find the NSX and even the Skyline GTR wanting in comparisons against the European cars. The current R34 is about the easiest car to drive hard on this planet but respect is only grudgingly given.

Like yourself, I have driven the Elise. Fine for a racetrack but don't even dream of driving it day to day. I also agree wth your asessment of the Boxster. The rear end just feels more fixed than the S2K - but it does not rev to 9000rpms!