being as objective as you can let me know what your impressions are as to the above mentioned vehicle. lets put aside the crash worthlessness of the car and focus on it relative to your cars' and in relation to other cars in the same catagory. things like weight, acceleration, looks, value, tweaking ability and any other variable that you can think of is fair game.

 

it's what i'd be driving if it were available in the US.
like the S2K but more in all ways.

 

I like the fact it's so lightweight, has moderate power ratings, and still runs 0-60 in the mid 5 second range.

 

In fact, this car is even uglier than Z3 to me..!!

 

While I've been in the UK, I've seen quite a few of them. I've even managed to ride in one.

These are true track cars. No AC, no power windows, no carpet, no frills, no extra's. The weight is low and the engine sounded great (very loud!). Seemed pretty quick too. I didn't get a very good opportunity to see it in action, being in East London and all. Damn city streets. One disturbing thing I did notice, excessive body roll. Strange

The fit and finish weren't great. The plastic seemed cheap and there is exposed metal on the inside of the doors. I saw some gaps in the dash that shouldn't have been there and some paint drips on the inside of the door. While I'm at it, the ergonomics inside are utilitarian at best. The shifter is about 8 inches tall too.

Check it:


With all the body angles and "RAM air" ports, I'd hate to Zaino the sucker. The soft targa top, when you snap it on, it completely heinous and my mate said it tended to leak in the rain. Small rear window too. You think our blind spot is bad, hoo-boy

Also, these are *small* cars. Forget any storage space and people over 6 foot shouldn't apply.

I'd have a difficult time owning one as a daily driver. The Stook seems a bit refined in comparison. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

If the Elise was available in the US as a regular production car, I would still get the S2000.

My .02 pence

 

I've never driven one, and have only read about and gawked/inspected them. They strike me as an even purer version of a street legal race car than ours- albeit more like formula 2 than F1. They do look flimsy, but the ideal of an ultralight with that kinda power/weight ratio- wow. I also read about a elise fitted with an ITR engine- really wow. I wondered why they hadn't seen fit to use ours!

 

I'm sending this to OT since it has nothing to do with S2000's car talk. See you there.

 

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant purpose built car. Most fun I've had for a long time. I drove one about 2 years ago before buying the Stook and almost bought it but couldn't justify the price for what you get (or more to the point... what you DON't get).

Here in Australia they sell for $75k - same price as a Stook - but they are a very hard vehicle to live with on a daily driver basis.

Handles like a go kart, plenty of torque given the low weight, briliant handler, excellent brakes and looks fantastic - twice as good looking as a Stook as far as I am concerned (however, I'm referring to the just superseded model - I don't think the latest ones look as good).

On the negative side though - absolutely no creature comforts - and very noisy with that motor just behind your left ear.

 

They are notoriously unreliable. A colleague of mine has had his 18 months and its been back to the dealer 6 times, they once had it in for a month with a sticking throttle cable, when he got it back it lasted 6 weeks before it started sticking again.

The interior is unbelievably spartan with just two small (very tacky) plastic clocks. They look great from the outside but I just couldn't justify the costs for what you get.

 

Doesn't sound like something a person would want for a daily driver. Maybe a weekend car.