Showing her off!
Discussion
I have a good mate who I havent seen in a while, he popped in to show me his toy. He has a Civic Type R. He is very proud of her and rightly so. We went for a spin and found some of the old country lanes we used to spin down when we were students.
We went back to my place and I opened the bat cave to show him the liz. He was gobsmacked! I felt a little bad for stealing his thunder but he was really exited about a drive.
We went down the same lanes adding 30-50% to his speeds then to top it off there are a few bends at the side of bournemouth, we used to have fun sliding my old Mk1 mr2 around. I had a clear run at them, 'round the roundabout then back. He actually asked me not to do that again!
I have never been so proud (sniff)..
We went back to my place and I opened the bat cave to show him the liz. He was gobsmacked! I felt a little bad for stealing his thunder but he was really exited about a drive.
We went down the same lanes adding 30-50% to his speeds then to top it off there are a few bends at the side of bournemouth, we used to have fun sliding my old Mk1 mr2 around. I had a clear run at them, 'round the roundabout then back. He actually asked me not to do that again!
I have never been so proud (sniff)..
Yeah, no doubt about it - driving other cars hard makes me feel there's something wrong with them as I've become used to the cornering speeds handled by the Elise... Passengers (who aren't used to the speeds) appear to just simply hang on 
My mate was hooting all over the place the other week - it's just not right when your mate hoots, is it?
My mate was hooting all over the place the other week - it's just not right when your mate hoots, is it?Been test driving cars for my girlfriend the last few weeks, various hot VTEC integras and the like and there's just no contest, the Elise is just orders of magnitude more capable and entertaning to drive if only marginally quicker.
I've not had the elise long enough to be confident enough to really throw it around with other people on board.... the girlfriend has been companion to my "pressing on" on a few occasions though, including one amusing encounter with the NZ chapter of Pistonheads where we managed to completely lose a train of Griffith 500s on the road up the peninsula
I've not had the elise long enough to be confident enough to really throw it around with other people on board.... the girlfriend has been companion to my "pressing on" on a few occasions though, including one amusing encounter with the NZ chapter of Pistonheads where we managed to completely lose a train of Griffith 500s on the road up the peninsula
Don't forget my favourite bit :-) The steering feel and feel through the chassis in the Elise is second to none. Wonderful!
I remember similar amusing experiences in the Caterham - people think their car's quick and then you take em out in a Caterham :-D lol I've never heard the expression "oh my god" repeated so quickly so many times :-D
I remember similar amusing experiences in the Caterham - people think their car's quick and then you take em out in a Caterham :-D lol I've never heard the expression "oh my god" repeated so quickly so many times :-D
Too right Rob - I went out in a mates SL R500 and nearly shat the bed. I've never experienced such a mix of emotions - total sensory overload. Amazing piece of kit. Just awesome. Makes every Elise/Exige I've ever been in (and I've been in a 300pony SC Honda'd Exige driven very hard on track), seem positively pedestrian.
:-D yeah, that'd be about right.
A Caterham R500 has 500bhp/tonne
A Caterham R300 has 330bhp/tonne
a Lotus Exige 240R has about 270bhp/tonne? I think?
standard Elise is about 150bhp/tonne.
The other thing is the noise. The sound that an 'R' Caterham makes with its roller barrel throttles is quite extraordinary.
I'm in an interesting situation now that many people on this forum can probably identify with - I've owned a Caterham for three years (mine was a VVC roadsport, so 280bhp/tonne with creature comforts such as a windscreen and leather seats), and had an R300 for a few days on two occasions. However, I now want an Elise. Why? Well, the Caterham was just extraordinary, but too impractical for everyday use (mainly the time it took to put the hood up - 15 minutes plus a lot of elbow grease) - so I did 2,000 miles a year in the 7, and 10,000 in my old BMW 325i. With the Elise, I would plan to do 10,000 miles in that, and 2,000 in a Nissan Micra (carrying my cello and guitars etc). Overall, I'm sure the Elise will be more satsifying. Th eonly worrying thing will be the running costs... The Caterham was £230 a year to insure, £250 to service and that was it - it never missed a beat, never needed new tyres, new brake pads or anything.
A Caterham R500 has 500bhp/tonne
A Caterham R300 has 330bhp/tonne
a Lotus Exige 240R has about 270bhp/tonne? I think?
standard Elise is about 150bhp/tonne.
The other thing is the noise. The sound that an 'R' Caterham makes with its roller barrel throttles is quite extraordinary.
I'm in an interesting situation now that many people on this forum can probably identify with - I've owned a Caterham for three years (mine was a VVC roadsport, so 280bhp/tonne with creature comforts such as a windscreen and leather seats), and had an R300 for a few days on two occasions. However, I now want an Elise. Why? Well, the Caterham was just extraordinary, but too impractical for everyday use (mainly the time it took to put the hood up - 15 minutes plus a lot of elbow grease) - so I did 2,000 miles a year in the 7, and 10,000 in my old BMW 325i. With the Elise, I would plan to do 10,000 miles in that, and 2,000 in a Nissan Micra (carrying my cello and guitars etc). Overall, I'm sure the Elise will be more satsifying. Th eonly worrying thing will be the running costs... The Caterham was £230 a year to insure, £250 to service and that was it - it never missed a beat, never needed new tyres, new brake pads or anything.
S Works said:
Too right Rob - I went out in a mates SL R500 and nearly shat the bed. I've never experienced such a mix of emotions - total sensory overload. Amazing piece of kit. Just awesome. Makes every Elise/Exige I've ever been in (and I've been in a 300pony SC Honda'd Exige driven very hard on track), seem positively pedestrian.
thats depressing ..... i hate it when any other car beats an elise (111R or ExigeS2). to me its the epitome of the perfect sports car.
Well, you've still every right to say that the ELise is the perfect sports car - speed isn't everything.
I'm in the sometimes unfortunate position to have driven some seriously quick road cars (quickest being the Superlight R & Noble M400); but I still get all excited about the prospect of an Elise, despite the fact that they all feel very slow to me. Why do I still get excited? Cause the Elise is a great car.
Lots of F1 drivers have collections of interesting road cars; but every F1 driver I've ever seen interviewed on the matter thinks everything with numberplates on is slow! 500bhp/tonne (let alone 270 from a 240R) just doesn't feel fast once you've felt 1700bhp/tonne every other day of the year!
I'm in the sometimes unfortunate position to have driven some seriously quick road cars (quickest being the Superlight R & Noble M400); but I still get all excited about the prospect of an Elise, despite the fact that they all feel very slow to me. Why do I still get excited? Cause the Elise is a great car.
Lots of F1 drivers have collections of interesting road cars; but every F1 driver I've ever seen interviewed on the matter thinks everything with numberplates on is slow! 500bhp/tonne (let alone 270 from a 240R) just doesn't feel fast once you've felt 1700bhp/tonne every other day of the year!
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