How many have seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmlUHi-p8Q4

Gets good at ~7:00, Elise is like white on rice on the Corvette's ass. They enter the last corner before the long straight at ~10:00. Worth watching the whole thing once, but allowable to skip to the seven minute mark as long as you watch the next five minutes

It is hardly a new video. - it's older than youtube. I know, right? But it's cool, regardless. IMHO.

 

I'd say it's more like 'power vs lightness'. Though, I suppose lightness aids handling.

ps. Have seen the video many times ... but it's a good one.

 

He had the F-ck me look on his face when they got to the strait. Corvette was gone. Handling/lightness is surely awesome, Power is Boss.

 

What I gathered from this is that the Corvette is awesome, the Elise is a fun little car that needs the full racecar treatment to get around a course. But if I had to listen to the aweful racket coming from that Elise for another few seconds I was going to shove a pair of screwdrivers in my ears.

 

You must not like race cars cause even a 911 cup car sounds like that, it's the straight cut gears in the transmission.

 

the whole power vs light argument is slightly flawed, yes light weight cars like the elise handle very very well but the issue lies on the straights, with only 200 or so horsepower aerodynamic drag holds it back since it doesn't have the power to push it through the air over certain speeds. The corvette on the other hand it may not handle as well as the elise through the corners, but it will take it on the straights since it has the power to push itself through the air

 

I'm going to go ahead and throw in the driver argument here as well. The corvette isn't exactly a poor handling vehicle. In fact a Lotus Elise is measured to do a .98g skidpad versus that of the corvette at .94g. Not a gigantic difference. I think given an equally skilled driver in both vehicles that we would have seen a slightly different video.

 

This is all based on driver, not car. Once you drive the Nurburgring that will make more sense. The driver of the Corvette is taking poor lines and isn't pushing the car that hard.

 

So from what I can see, the Elise is a racecar (ie, actually prepped for racing) and the Corvette is pretty much stock?

If so, this makes even more sense that normal. Handling is going to swing way in favor of the Elise, just due to the racing changes to the suspension, better tires, and all the stock kinks worked out. It's built for this. It'll carry way more speed through tight corners, plus it's narrower so the transition requirements are less through tight, multiple corners.

The Vette just has big tires and a big motor, both of which are actually (at times) a hindrance on a wet track. No improved suspension, I'm guessing, so it's surprising that it did as well as it did, in my opinion.

 

Grip and handling are two different things.