Agree you never feel connected to the front end unlike Lotii and Caterfields. It's more drive by wire no feeling as such. I await more car reviews from @chrispayze

 

Great review of that t350c (V8).
Sets you up now for a Tamora review, then 981 S if you can
I think Harris did a review of the 981S about 10 years ago, it's on YouTube. Much different to sit and experience though, rather than to listen to him. But I believe he makes some key points about the electric steering, and handbrake "switch".

 

Well I've got an ECU already, so not problem there! If there was a decent rack to put on it I'd be tempted. Not sure I'd go powerless, but an electrically operated hydraulic rack, like some are using, that could work.

As 4-bangers go, it's a superb one, but obviously more cylinders is better innit!

 

Cheers, I'll have a watch of that! BTW, T350 is a straight six, not a V8. And I probably won't bother driving the Tamora after discovering enough of what I need to know of it via the T350. They're essentially the same car underneath. And the Tamora is even worse for ground clearance! Well known for catching the front splitter, apparently. So even more difficult to get up my driveway.

 

I do wonder at times if there's anything better than the S. A few times of late, I've noticed drivers of other sports cars stare at my car (z4, mx5 and even some marques) .. I'm curious if they wonder if their car could have the same excitement mine has? Or if they're looking at the very small rust bubble on my arch ... Probably in reality, that they've often wondered and become curious why I'm in this S, than an MX-5 or their terrible suspension Z4.
I was over the Ribblehead viaduct on Sunday night with a friend of mine (he's on here but not posted for ages and had his S over 10 years), and by jove what a road, and my s2000 was bloody perfect stringing the many, many corners together and it was 2 hours of grinning ear to ear, bouncing off 9k. The 1992 MR2 that Barry was in was superb too, 160 odd horsepower but on the boil, gets down the roads fantastic and very dialled in.
Faster more comfortable cars may lose that feeling of going fast, until you need to, which gets a bit dangerous on said country road - which was tackled not in 3 figures, but not far off.
Paddy McGuiness crashed that Diablo filming TG on that stretch of road 3 years ago, I can understand why with the many adverse cambers and bloody sheep stranded in the road. Plus it was very wet and it had bald back tyres. Fortunately for me it was dry. The sheep were ignorantly in the way occasionally!
However - whatever you choose, it will have a steep task to deliver on that magical country road. If you have one. I face the same dilemma as yourself when I chop mine in next year - I plan to do something similar to you but half your budget.

 

How about this?

It is hard to replace. Gen 1 MX5 had great feel but a shit motor. I'd have one though.

 

What on earth is that?!

 

It's a concept Honda released. Had a bike engine I believe but they never built it

Honda 2&4? Something daft.. it's in Gran Turismo I believe but at a cool £1m or so lol

https://www.autonews.fr/nouveautes/c...da-project-24/

 

Haha, I quite like that!

 

Right, a very kind gent from the Evora Facebook group met me West of Bristol last night to show me round his Evora S and then gave me a ride. And then, very kindly (I've never met him before) let me drive it on a couple of relatively straight roads, but enough to give me a flavour. So, as requested, a follow up to my T350 review; this time for a 2014(ish - I didn't remember this bit!) Evora S Sports Racer. My research tells me that the Sports Racer has all three 'packs' (Tech, Sports and Premium), plus a close ratio gearbox on the manual. Sadly, this was an IPS (auto).

It's a good looking thing, like a proper supercar shape, but reasonably sized for British roads. An excellent colour combo of metallic grey with red leather seats (so, the same as my S2000 then!) and plenty of alcantara trim. As I say, I only managed to passenger in it and drive it back along some benign roads, so the following review is based on a very limited trip.

It sounds decent from the outside, very much a 'modern sports' sort of sound. Not quite as fake as a chavved up Audi or Golf, but not quite as effortless as a genuine exotic.

Inside - it's quiet and comfortable! Although even with the sports button pressed, the engine/exhaust noise in the cabin is actually quite muted, despite sounding pretty raucous from outside. I thought there would be more noise from the engine being not far behind your head but the supercharger didn't make much noise itself and the intake noise is obviously muted by it. Yes, I'm obviously comparing to my S2000 with a long arm CAI and I'm trying not to compare too much with the insanely loud T350! I think I'd have to stick a CAI on it if I got one. A lot of people swap out the exhaust, but I wouldn't want it to be much louder for other people outside the car, especially when a CAI only makes noise when your foot is mashed to the floor, whereas the exhaust is noisy all the time. The stock noise is a bit... uninspiring I suppose, even up at the higher revs. The ride is incredibly comfortable, to the extent I might want to firm it up a bit. But I don't know that yet, as I didn't get the chance to push it through any corners. But it barely feels 'purposeful' at all on stock suspension. But Lotus do know what they're doing, so I'll reserve judgement till I get to drive one properly.

Space-wise, there's plenty and the seats were very comfortable. The wide sill actually means there's a decent amount of space around your hips and legs, although it pinches in a little around the elbows (although I only noticed this as a passenger, not whilst driving). The boot is basically the size of one set of golf clubs (that's a guess - I don't play that boring game!), so the back seats would definitely be required as storage space for a weekend away with the Mrs. I say 'seats', they really are small!

From the driver's seat, again due to the wide sills, you feel sat quite 'inboard', with what feels like a lot of car to your right hand side, at least where the wheels are (the 'waist' of the car is quite sculpted inwards). So this means that the view from the driver's seat is quite different to the S2000 or T350. You feel very 'down in' the car, with the clamshell over the front wheel seeming quite high in your vision, and the nice view of the rear intake 'haunches' filling 1/3 of the wing mirrors. I had a feeling of wondering where the extremities of the car were, but I'm sure I'd get used to that. I remember feeling the same with the S2000 when I first jumped to that from my Civic! The engine also fills much of the rear view mirror, but crucially, the 'gap' you can see through seems to be in exactly the right place to know what's behind.

Driving it was very easy. Automatic, so no idea about clutch or gear shift, but it did cement my hatred of autos for this sort of car. Bloody hate the things! The pedals were offset to the left a bit, and very close together. Even when warned about it, I still caught myself pressing both pedals when trying to brake for the first time. And I wasn't even wearing wide shoes. Acceleration was brisk (this is the 345bhp model, although reports are they're usually about 20bhp shy of that), but actually a bit smooth and non-eventful. I think the 'slurring' of the noise that the auto box creates did nothing to help this. Combined with the very smooth running, but uninspiring noise from the engine, it actually made it seem not that quick. And this is the 'S' version! However, the Lotus steering.... Well, I reckon it needed an alignment, but otherwise, it was light (but not too light - although personal preference would probably lead me to add some more caster) and even on the short drive on smooth roads, I instantly noticed when the tarmac texture changed. Genuinely talkative, even in a straight line. It would be nice to tackle a few more interesting corners with it.

So, in summary, it's definitely 'different' and more refined than the S2000 (although not leagues apart in fit and finish, just more nice material on top!). But it didn't 'wow' me with the auto box and the roads I drove it on. But there was enough there to make me go back for a 'proper' go, when I can, so it stays on the list for now. I'd like to hear what a normally aspirated version sounds like in the cabin, and obviously try a manual. And actually chuck it round some corners, of course! It's also made me want to try an Elise more....