You all know the feeling, lovely Sunday evening, roof down open roads (near Fleet, Hampshire)...when i come up behind a bloke and his Mrs in a Lotus Elise.....

Tight country roads so no overtaking and i stay a respectable distance behind (tailgating for Nova SRI's, not S2000's!!). He slows down and starts smirking in his rearview mirror, clearly making some "watch me loose him style" comments to his Mrs.

Up comes a straight, he floors it, i drop into 3rd, but you've guessed it, i'm right up his ar*e all the way to 6000 at which point I have to move into the opposing lane to avoid hoovering him up as VTEC kicks in!!

He looks sheepish and turns off.

TIP to Elise drivers - don't bother

 

standard Elises i.e the basic 112bhp 'ish versions couldn't pull the skin of a rice pudding.........then again it's not really their brief is is?

At Keevil I had some fun with what I assume was a standard Elise and he was trying..........he was able to brake earlier and carry more speed into the corner but just got mullered on the straights

I guess the quick 0-60 time must be down to gearing? once over 60 they are slloooooooow

 

Light weight is important for accelaration - but aero-drag kicks in quite quickly, and for that you need power

 

apparently the weight of an everage adult adds over a 1 second to the 0-60 time of an Elise........would be even more over the 0-100 sprint

 

that'll put 2 seconds onto any of my thoughts on buying an Elise then not that I would fit anyway of course.

 

I've always wondered how we perform vs the elise, and the exige, but never tried, one, they seem to contain posers in my experience. I wouldnt wanna meet maca in his project though, knowing him it has a rocket launcher in the back

 

Ian,

Get down to Bell & Colville's and try one!

The handling is amazing and the steering has road feel. And there is insufficient torque to cause rear end grip problems.

Colin is right, the Elise is initially quite quick but brick walls at 100. And screaming a K series is not pleasant.

 

Plus low top end as well sub 130 as you scream past in 5th with a gear to go

 

Plus, the brakes are f***ing useless!

 

Well what a load of twaddle - 90% of the comments on this thread are from people that have never even sat in an Elise - let alone driven one.

I came from a 160 elise and still go driving with my old Lotus mates. There is a mixture of cars on the runs we do....with at least two cars being standard.

Upto 60 mph the Lotus will be quicker - and up to 100 the S2000 will be faster - but not by much. On normal A / B roads unless there are some long straights where speeds of up to 120 are possible the Lotus will easily match the S2000 - and in most cases if driven well it will start to pull away. The cornering ability of the Elise is far far superior to the Honda......that's why it makes me laugh when people post comments on this board about how great the S2000's handling is - try and follow a well driven Elise on twisty back roads...no chance.

(Our car is identically matched to a 111s or 160 Elise in terms of straight line performance)