Was at the Aston Martin garage in Edinburgh the other day and sat in a race spec exige (I know it's a Lotus!). Wow, talk about raw. I liked it. Perhaps my next car in threee years?

 

I arramged a test drive of an Elise there once - turned up and very apologetic salesman said "Err.. sorry, the car is stuck in my garage - I've had to drive the fiesta to work"


I barely fitted in the Elise, so would be too small for me. Minimal padding on the seat was what I most remembered - had a sore @rse after about 30 seconds of sitting in the thing.

Must be a blast to drive though..............

 

Did a track day at Brands in a Lotus organised event a couple of weeks ago. Drove the Elise 111S and 111R for about 20 laps of the full circuit.

The 111S did nothing for me, but the 111R was pretty good. It felt no quicker than the S although on paper it is slightly (especially 0-60), but the handling was fantastic. Conditions were dry and there was just nothing you could not do in it. Most impressive were the brakes. You could approach a sharp bend at 120 and wait for the 50 yard sign before starting to brake. I'd not feel comfortable doing that in the S.

Driving the S home though I can see no reason to change!!