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Congrats! I've test driven a few in the past. Two things that immediately jumped out at me were the utter rawness of the car and the steering. The best steering I've ever experienced (that includes the cayman), it's a direct connection to the road (due to lack of power steering). Every time you sit in one, you can't help but feel like you are climbing into a legitimate race car. I love the exposed metal and the lack of sound deadening material. Acceleration is very s2000-esque, but faster. I didn't want to try to approach the handling limits on the road so I can't comment on that but I did feel a little understeer. You feel like a rock star when cruising, EVERYONE just stops and stares. Great buy!
In my dreams I have both my S2000 and an Elise. If you are still in Chicago and itching for a drive in an S2000 and you need someone to take the Elise off your hands for a few hours or days, I'm here if you need me. Green on a British sports car is always awesome. Enjoy it! Keep us posted.
Glad to read this, was expecting more of a "s2000 was nice but Elise is BETTER!!!". Since Lotus is one of the few brands that offers honest to god track cars this side of $100K the Elise was on my short list for next cars to add the stable (s2ks are never going anywhere). At the time of the purchase of my '08 the only Elise's for less than $30K were salvage vs. pristine S2000s for $20K.
Just an update to my old thread, I'm still rocking the Elise, just turned 24k miles. It's been fantastic, five years in and it's been perfectly reliable.
It's still essentially unmodified, which makes it pretty rare in the Lotus circles. I think it's actually appreciated a bit.
And I still miss my S2K, but life requires hard choices, right?
I think it depends how far you go in taking care of your car. I treat my S like you do your Elise. I get super paranoid whenever I park it in public too. When eating out, I can't eat a darn meal with my back on the seat
Earlier this month I went to a winery in downtown Mt Airy. I parked at the back of the parking lot and people pretty much stayed away. One guy parked his expensive suv on passenger side backing it in which ok, as long as you’re careful. Well this doofus comes in with this super huge Ford F-150 and of course violates my “if you can’t park it you shouldn’t drive it” rule. He didn’t have the angle and his girl was looking down at my S out of open window. He was super close and ended up bouncing up against the curb because again, can’t park it. I could hear her saying “you’re really close to this guy’s car” and as he started backing up and we were headed to the car to leave I call out “please tell him not to hit my car or I’m going to freak out”. Stood there watching the dummy back it out and then back into a spot across from us. He then stammers that he’s usually really good, has a narrow garage, etc. whatever dude - what’s with people wanting to park next to you when you’re clearly trying to stay away from everyone else?
12-05-2016, 05:13 AM
