Discussion
I've just come back from the south of France with a few mates [and the mrs] after a driving holiday in the Alps. It's been a while since I drove in France and it's the first time I've had the Exige in France.
I'm sure others will have had a similar experience; everywhere we went the cars were respected. Once parked up they would draw a significant crowd of onlookers who looked but didn't touch and just wanted to chat about the cars. Now I know that in part, that is due to the fact they see less Lotus and TVR's than we do in England. However, the car was always safe wherever we parked up as well as outside the gite at night.
Now, in comparison, it made a refreshing change to the nobbas who shout obscenities as you drive by and the constant fear that if parked up you'll get the obligatory car park damage or deliberate vandalism.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know that sports cars do create interest over here but I'm never fully relaxed until I'm either back with the Exige or it's parked up securely at night.
Just wondered about other people's foreign experiences.
Zebra
ps. for fun, here's the Exige at Reims _ make sure you up it to HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxQ2peF8-Lk
I'm sure others will have had a similar experience; everywhere we went the cars were respected. Once parked up they would draw a significant crowd of onlookers who looked but didn't touch and just wanted to chat about the cars. Now I know that in part, that is due to the fact they see less Lotus and TVR's than we do in England. However, the car was always safe wherever we parked up as well as outside the gite at night.
Now, in comparison, it made a refreshing change to the nobbas who shout obscenities as you drive by and the constant fear that if parked up you'll get the obligatory car park damage or deliberate vandalism.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know that sports cars do create interest over here but I'm never fully relaxed until I'm either back with the Exige or it's parked up securely at night.
Just wondered about other people's foreign experiences.
Zebra
ps. for fun, here's the Exige at Reims _ make sure you up it to HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxQ2peF8-Lk
I went to Nice for two weeks in June (last went in 1987) and spotted only one local plate Elise, I also popped over to Monaco a few times and there is a Lotus dealership on the main start line, all the while I was there, I kept wishing I had my JC with me. I will take it next for sure!
SOF is a place I want to retire too.
Glad you had a good trip.
SOF is a place I want to retire too.
Glad you had a good trip.
Edited by Bebee on Monday 6th September 16:52
Fantastic trip _ the weather was a bit damp one day that turned into an electrical storm but after that it was glorious and we all got out onto some fabulous alpine roads. At the risk of boring you here's the full vid for the trip [minus the reims section]. Film of two halves. The roads at that time of year are so quiet as well meaning you can maintain a decent pace.
My only problem with European trips is the amount of food I eat making accessing the Exige progressively harder as the week continues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5QfDscIoSE
My only problem with European trips is the amount of food I eat making accessing the Exige progressively harder as the week continues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5QfDscIoSE
Heh. Was just about to post up something about my road trip holiday (left for the south of France 9 days ago, got back this evening).
Basically, it went - my gaff, chunnel, Reims tout suite for old GP circuit photos before the sun went down. Then hot-foot it to Dijon for first stop. Enough motorways after that, through Annecy and then up to Chamonix (the D1212... thought I'd died and gone to heaven). Back from Chamonix, same amazing roads, aiming for Route Napoleon but cutting out the boring beginning bit near Grenoble, arriving eventually at Castellane where a rather nice 430 spider (gleaming and clean) made my filthy Exige look rather hard-used (it had... the local drivers are mad, and I'd had as much fun on those roads as I did at Brands the week before my holiday). Then from Castellane to Cannes to see whether the *real* rich and famous sneered at the Exige. At my hotel, it had to compete at the front door with a Bugatti Veyron. The passers-by took photos of *both* of them - the spotlessly clean Bug, and the filthy Exige
Then a more congested and frustrating drive round the south of France to Bormes les Mimosas, and an equally tedious drive home. Should have gone back the way we came down.
So where the hell were you? I saw ONE Lotus - in Castellane, funnily enough, on British plates, an S1 painted with the Union Jack (hardly the way to ensure maximum leniency from the French traffic police, I'd have thought
). Then again I was ragging it. 
The point is I agree with you. My Lotus is a bit of a lairy colour but in France, everyone loved it. Even the rougher parts of certain towns where you'd expect a bit of envy and the odd awkward eye from people, the reaction was invariably 'WTF is *that* ???' and then the pumped-fist 'give it some' indication, with cheers and waves if I had the road space to hit above 7500 rpm
We've been road-tripping around France for 9 days so sort-of got used to it. Only got brought back to earth this evening, having hot-footed it from Folkestone (blatting home so didn't notice anyone's reaction if any), in my home town. Stuck in a traffic jam both ways, old guy in a cream new Mini Convertible turns to look at me, sneers with a look of disgust on his face and then proceeds to look down his nose at the car. I turned to my girlfriend and said 'look at the way that guy is looking at us - far cry from France, eh'
I'm not into aggression or road rage and really wasn't bothered (he had a Mini Convertible, so I'm not entirely sure what his angle actually was, since his car is less efficient, can equally be seen as a status symbol or wealth display, and with the soft top is even *more* of a 'look at me' machine than the Lotus, which is a driver's car first and foremost).
I guess both of us were tired-looking since we'd left Reims at lunchtime and the roadworks there screwed us up massively, wasting more than an hour and getting us stressed. However I stopped ignoring him when I spotted him looking up and down at my girlfriend with disgust on his face - I turned to look him straight in the eye at that point, at which (of course) he wound up his (tinted) window. The guy was in his late 50s at least, FFS. Hell, if you're going to do something idiotic, when you're stuck in a traffic jam is NOT the place to do it. If I'd been a psycho then he'd have had nowhere to go. Then again I suppose it just emphasises the foolishness of certain people. Or maybe he was knocked down by an orange car once, or his girlfriend ran off with a Lotus owner. Who knows, eh?
It's not *all* bad in the UK though. I do find that kids love the Lotus (and this applied equally to the yellow VXT, the yellow Exige and the current orange Exige). Perhaps it's because they look like toys It's only a small subsection of haters in the UK, and they're like that towards *anything* that betters their failed lives, and certainly aren't singling out Lotus in particular. Those people are even worse to Porsche drivers (I love both marques and have owned both, and you get it MUCH better in a Lotus).
I'd love an excuse to live near Castellane though and be able to afford my Exige... I'd probably end up slinging it off the mountain eventually though
I didn't manage to get the video camera working (though I'd not post the D1212 sections on the internet for fear of incriminating myself) but I did get a few nice pics eventually in the usual places... perhaps I'll post them up on my original 'road trip question' thread, or should I add them here?
Basically, it went - my gaff, chunnel, Reims tout suite for old GP circuit photos before the sun went down. Then hot-foot it to Dijon for first stop. Enough motorways after that, through Annecy and then up to Chamonix (the D1212... thought I'd died and gone to heaven). Back from Chamonix, same amazing roads, aiming for Route Napoleon but cutting out the boring beginning bit near Grenoble, arriving eventually at Castellane where a rather nice 430 spider (gleaming and clean) made my filthy Exige look rather hard-used (it had... the local drivers are mad, and I'd had as much fun on those roads as I did at Brands the week before my holiday). Then from Castellane to Cannes to see whether the *real* rich and famous sneered at the Exige. At my hotel, it had to compete at the front door with a Bugatti Veyron. The passers-by took photos of *both* of them - the spotlessly clean Bug, and the filthy Exige
Then a more congested and frustrating drive round the south of France to Bormes les Mimosas, and an equally tedious drive home. Should have gone back the way we came down.
So where the hell were you? I saw ONE Lotus - in Castellane, funnily enough, on British plates, an S1 painted with the Union Jack (hardly the way to ensure maximum leniency from the French traffic police, I'd have thought
). Then again I was ragging it. The point is I agree with you. My Lotus is a bit of a lairy colour but in France, everyone loved it. Even the rougher parts of certain towns where you'd expect a bit of envy and the odd awkward eye from people, the reaction was invariably 'WTF is *that* ???' and then the pumped-fist 'give it some' indication, with cheers and waves if I had the road space to hit above 7500 rpm
We've been road-tripping around France for 9 days so sort-of got used to it. Only got brought back to earth this evening, having hot-footed it from Folkestone (blatting home so didn't notice anyone's reaction if any), in my home town. Stuck in a traffic jam both ways, old guy in a cream new Mini Convertible turns to look at me, sneers with a look of disgust on his face and then proceeds to look down his nose at the car. I turned to my girlfriend and said 'look at the way that guy is looking at us - far cry from France, eh'
I'm not into aggression or road rage and really wasn't bothered (he had a Mini Convertible, so I'm not entirely sure what his angle actually was, since his car is less efficient, can equally be seen as a status symbol or wealth display, and with the soft top is even *more* of a 'look at me' machine than the Lotus, which is a driver's car first and foremost).I guess both of us were tired-looking since we'd left Reims at lunchtime and the roadworks there screwed us up massively, wasting more than an hour and getting us stressed. However I stopped ignoring him when I spotted him looking up and down at my girlfriend with disgust on his face - I turned to look him straight in the eye at that point, at which (of course) he wound up his (tinted) window. The guy was in his late 50s at least, FFS. Hell, if you're going to do something idiotic, when you're stuck in a traffic jam is NOT the place to do it. If I'd been a psycho then he'd have had nowhere to go. Then again I suppose it just emphasises the foolishness of certain people. Or maybe he was knocked down by an orange car once, or his girlfriend ran off with a Lotus owner. Who knows, eh?
It's not *all* bad in the UK though. I do find that kids love the Lotus (and this applied equally to the yellow VXT, the yellow Exige and the current orange Exige). Perhaps it's because they look like toys
It's only a small subsection of haters in the UK, and they're like that towards *anything* that betters their failed lives, and certainly aren't singling out Lotus in particular. Those people are even worse to Porsche drivers (I love both marques and have owned both, and you get it MUCH better in a Lotus).I'd love an excuse to live near Castellane though and be able to afford my Exige... I'd probably end up slinging it off the mountain eventually though
I didn't manage to get the video camera working (though I'd not post the D1212 sections on the internet for fear of incriminating myself) but I did get a few nice pics eventually in the usual places... perhaps I'll post them up on my original 'road trip question' thread, or should I add them here?
zebra said:
I love this second vid zebra - great choice of music
limpsfield said:
zebra said:
I love this second vid zebra - great choice of musiccyberface said:
So where the hell were you?
Nice write up there. We spent most of our time around Morzine where there is a plethora of fabulous driving roads.
Some great shots of Morzine and the gite on our slideshow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68677672@N00/sets/721...
Apologies now for the people photos _ I definitely have a face for radio rather than TV.
cyberface said:
I didn't manage to get the video camera working (though I'd not post the D1212 sections on the internet for fear of incriminating myself) but I did get a few nice pics eventually in the usual places... perhaps I'll post them up on my original 'road trip question' thread, or should I add them here?
I used to use a bullet cam connected to a camcorder, however, the editing can take bloody ages and the bullet cam has an extremely wide view. Switching to Mac software and a proper motorsport camera has made the difference. I wouldn't go back now; no piles of spaghetti in the car from all the wires as everything is integral. I have yet to use it on track and may not get a chance this year but hope to go to Spa early next year which will give it a proper test.This year I drove to the Monaco GP and on arrival decided to have a drive round the track. As we drove up to Casino square, the place was packed with people and amazing car exotica (Ferrari Enzo, Lambo's, Porsche's, Astons etc etc). As I pulled round the corner into the square everyone stopped admiring all those amazing cars and focussed their attention on me and my wife in my plastic S1.
The attention was unbelievable. People were crouding round trying to look in the car, taking photos, I felt like a celebrity.
Also, when driving on the way down we stayed in a place called Gap. When we arrived at the hotel all but 1 of the car parking spaces for the hotel were taken (street parking). As I got out of the car the hotel manager was running towards me shouting dont park there. Completely bemused I asked why and he said your car is too nice, you can park in the private underground car park. Bonus!!!!
The attention was unbelievable. People were crouding round trying to look in the car, taking photos, I felt like a celebrity.
Also, when driving on the way down we stayed in a place called Gap. When we arrived at the hotel all but 1 of the car parking spaces for the hotel were taken (street parking). As I got out of the car the hotel manager was running towards me shouting dont park there. Completely bemused I asked why and he said your car is too nice, you can park in the private underground car park. Bonus!!!!
zebra said:
cyberface said:
So where the hell were you?
Nice write up there. We spent most of our time around Morzine where there is a plethora of fabulous driving roads.
Some great shots of Morzine and the gite on our slideshow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68677672@N00/sets/721...
Apologies now for the people photos _ I definitely have a face for radio rather than TV.
zebra said:
cyberface said:
I didn't manage to get the video camera working (though I'd not post the D1212 sections on the internet for fear of incriminating myself) but I did get a few nice pics eventually in the usual places... perhaps I'll post them up on my original 'road trip question' thread, or should I add them here?
I used to use a bullet cam connected to a camcorder, however, the editing can take bloody ages and the bullet cam has an extremely wide view. Switching to Mac software and a proper motorsport camera has made the difference. I wouldn't go back now; no piles of spaghetti in the car from all the wires as everything is integral. I have yet to use it on track and may not get a chance this year but hope to go to Spa early next year which will give it a proper test.
Can you recommend hardware and software? I've got the standard Exige S2 harness bar behind my standard Lotus Sport seats (harness holes etc.)Been wanting to do this for ages, and things like the GoPro are cheap enough to justify as a track lines review aid now (where allowed by organisers)…
Ta in advance!
R.P.M said:
zebra said:
cyberface said:
So where the hell were you?
Nice write up there. We spent most of our time around Morzine where there is a plethora of fabulous driving roads.
Some great shots of Morzine and the gite on our slideshow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68677672@N00/sets/721...
Apologies now for the people photos _ I definitely have a face for radio rather than TV.
That was the one good thing about the Exige _ it never missed a beat or put a foot wrong the entire holiday.
Cyberface _ Go Pro is the cam. The full all singing and dancing motorsport is fabulous if you've got a spare additional few hundred quid. The Go Pro is flexible as to positioning, waterproof when needs be, the only downside is resolving the quality of the built in mic and wind noise when it's on the outside of the car. When editing, the addition of music disguises things, but if you watch my Reims Fly By there is a limit of about 60 leptons over which the sound is all wind noise. [The waterproof sealed back is supposed to be good over 100 mph _ it's not. We use a little bit of sponge over the mic which helps a little.
On the tunnel run [Tunneltastic in my vids] we use the Go Pro for the footage and some of the sound and a different camera to get the rest of the audio _ the same camera that we use for static shots.
On the tunnel run [Tunneltastic in my vids] we use the Go Pro for the footage and some of the sound and a different camera to get the rest of the audio _ the same camera that we use for static shots.
zebra said:
R.P.M said:
zebra said:
cyberface said:
So where the hell were you?
Nice write up there. We spent most of our time around Morzine where there is a plethora of fabulous driving roads.
Some great shots of Morzine and the gite on our slideshow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68677672@N00/sets/721...
Apologies now for the people photos _ I definitely have a face for radio rather than TV.
That was the one good thing about the Exige _ it never missed a beat or put a foot wrong the entire holiday.
zebra said:
cyberface said:
So where the hell were you?
Nice write up there. We spent most of our time around Morzine where there is a plethora of fabulous driving roads.
Some great shots of Morzine and the gite on our slideshow:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68677672@N00/sets/721...
Apologies now for the people photos _ I definitely have a face for radio rather than TV.
As to hard driving or posing - well it was all hard driving apart from one day I won't forget - Miss cyberface and I decided to have a laugh and get Amex to book us a room at a nice hotel in Cannes for the one night (affording one night was worth it for giggle factor, but not financially sensible; staying longer would have been crazy), and seeing how many 'benefits' Amex could pull out of the bag for us. They found us a place called the Carlton Intercontinental on a road called La Croisette, the hotel was right in the middle of the road, which was right opposite the beach. The hotel had its own private beach and restaurant on the seafront, naturally.
Being a valet parking affair, it was the usual fear-factor dicing with French urban traffic to get into the hotel proper (the one big disadvantage the supercharged Exige has is the intercooler in the rear view mirror (not literally, you know what I mean
) but once there, what I *wasn't* expecting was the number of people with rather expensive professional-looking camera equipment taking snaps…Why haven't you washed my car?
Do you think I'll escape the attention hidden behind a Bugatti Veyron?
For those considering a similar one-day blowout (i.e. if your Lotus is your main sports car - if your Lotus is part of a collection including a Zonda then you can probably stay there as long as you like, but for people like me such hotels are one-day treats), if you use Amex at all then give them a call. I was shocked by what we ended up with. Being out of prime season obviously helped (turning up during the Film Festival wouldn't have worked) but we got upgraded to an Executive room (whatever that was) - it was the plushest, largest hotel room I've seen in my life, sea view, champagne in bucket of ice (Nicolas Feuillatte NV, nice enough stuff) and a few pretty-looking petits fours on arrival. The room was twice the size of my bedroom at home, the bed was about the size of my entire bedroom floor space
On top of that, there was an €85 bonus for the bar (OK, at their prices, it's not much but it paid for a couple of drinks each in the hotel bar before we hit the sack). But most of all… 4 pm late checkout. Of all the things to have to do (it was the 31st August) on holiday, I had to do my company VAT return. This is simple but involves keying all the purchase invoice tax breakdowns into my accounting software on my Mac. The hotel were in the dark ages bandwidth-price-wise (room Wifi was something like €100 per megabyte, which I politely declined) and after Vodafone had blocked my hacked 'Three' Huawei E585 for using more than 50 MB (a tenner? anyway saved me one set of crazy roaming data charges) it was onto tethering the iPhone 4 (hacked again). So two hours of tedious accounting was rescued by Amex's room upgrade - I plonked the MBP on a lovely writing desk, sat on a lovely antique (well almost certainly repro but quality and comfortable as well as looking nice) chair and bashed the tax return through before the deadline whilst quaffing champagne. Miss CF lounged on the huge bed reading and drinking the champagne so wasn't annoyed at this interruption to the holiday. The late checkout meant that we *still* had time to go out and get a few drinks in and some decent food, without worrying about hangovers. We both had hangovers, of course (must have been the cocktails because champagne is usually a pretty safe drink for me), but had plenty of time to recover and crucially there was no chance of residual alcohol being a problem for driving the next day.And, of course, the next day involved the entertainment with the valet parking chaps and the Veyron. I don't think the owner of the Veyron (I know who he is but I despise the whole 'celebrity' hounding thing so haven't exposed the plate, besides which, he's not a 'celebrity' as such other than owning (and driving *properly* decent distances) his Veyron) wanted the valet guys driving his car, but I had no real other choice as I wanted her tucked away - she was *filthy*. There must have been a pecking order amongst the valet parkers as to who gets to drive which car - as I suppose most of the rich who stay at that hotel often arrive in bland but expensive luxury saloons, with a significant amount but still a minority flaunting it in 'flashy' cars. But with the expensive Italian metal being ten-a-penny on La Croisette, the Lotus was *different*. I didn't see another Lotus in Cannes. So the eldest, most senior (assumed!) valet took my car away. They weren't impressed with our luggage and ability to gain tips from porterage - since we had none! Waitrose bags were the plan, even in Cannes. My girlfriend initially ruled it out on embarrassment grounds but I insisted - it's part of the fun. The amount of clothing you can get in the boot of an Exige is *enormous* - but not if you put the clothes in luggage, of *any* sort. The kidney-shaped aperture to the boot allows a small aeroplane-carryon type bag, but if you put one of those in, you waste most of the rest of the space. Forcing luggage in and out also risks the integrity of the seal, and whilst there was no rain in the south of France, there certainly was in the North on the way down, and turning up in Cannes with a gorgeous dress that was soaked in muddy water from a leaking Lotus boot would have tested both Becky's patience and the speed of the hotel's laundry service (it'd have been a special dry-clean affair too…). So whilst the valets messed about the car trying to work out which bit was which (hell, they've seen enough exotica to know, but presumably they were expecting the boot-release to be on the key like the *expensive* exotica? Anyway let's not be insincerely modest - I'm not rich and the car's no Bugatti but I'm not poor and it's a new Exige which is a £40k car - expecting these mundane automatic features is, after all, not unsurprising), I unloaded our meagre luggage (three Waitrose bags and my laptop bag, plus a camera.
) and swanned off into the hotel porter-less whilst I heard the valet blip a few times and drive away smoothly. No Ferris Bueller nonsense. The chap certainly *appeared* sincerely interested in the car (though I honestly couldn't tell for real, these chaps have to deal with all sorts of people and are professionals) and after seeing the boot space perilously close to the engine bay (Becky's white lace dress was somewhat at risk there, heh) started asking a lot of questions about the engine. It's clear how small the car is, but he'd just seen the size of the boot. Yes, you have to forego the Louis Vuitton pose-a-bag luggage nonsense but that suits me perfectly. The car is known to be a giant-killer and the brakes, wheels and tyres made it quite clear that it was no cosmetic makeover. But that means the engine must be tiny, because all the *other* mid-engined supercars (OK, the Lotus is not a supercar), sorry, the other mid-engined *supercars* all have enormous engines.So whilst some considerably-richer-than-I couple waited impatiently in their huuuge chrome-wheeled AMG Merc M class behind, I had to explain the lowly source of the engine (presumably the Celica is known by another name in France? but Toyota and 1.8 litre had them perplexed), then explained the supercharger. I'm sure they knew it all already, and whether the pointing out of the Toyota engine was a very subtle dig at lack of bespoke nature or not is a matter for the paranoid. I'm not that bothered about status, and to my eyes, the gesture that said it all was holding up the increasingly irritated gangsta-SUV, almost certainly worth three times the cost of my little Lotus, to get a smile at the words 'légère' and 'deux cent quarante c.v. ou PS, et peut-être deux cent soixante-dix en deux ou trois semaines'
I suppose I didn't get it washed because I didn't give them a big tip. However, getting in and out of the car when it's dusty and dirty poses serious risks to your clothing, as the old chap who brought the car round the next day found out. I had to help him out, which brought much merriment from the other younger guys there (perhaps he pulled rank to drive it, or the opposite!). However, even though there was a lot of attention at the front of the hotel due to the presence of the Bugatti, there was no snootiness at Miss CF and myself folding our Waitrose plastic bags into the boot of the Exige behind. It was the idea of the head honcho to pop it behind the Bugatti, which was either genius or idiocy - either hoping that the sight of two hungover non-celebrities (though to be fair, IMO Miss CF is pretty damn tidy and you don't see red hair like hers (it's like the car) much around those parts) packing supermarket carrier bags into a dirty plastic car would deter the celeb-hunters from bothering the Bugatti owner, or on the other hand, putting a real risk that *we* are going to end up on the internet celeb blogs as, sadly, there are people who devote their entire online time to posting up pictures of 'celebrities' they have seen. Thankfully, the owner of the Bugatti parked in front of my car is a retired businessman (if my quick search proved correct) who just uses his car a lot (Bravo! And I *really* mean that - it was on Florida plates!) and not a film star. So far, I'm not on the Hello-forums as the 'get that dweeb and his plastic bags out of La Croisette'
Incidentally, some of the TripAdvisor reports on the hotel say chip-on-shoulder stuff like 'only stay if you know the manager or are famous' or 'caters only to the obvious rich, noble, celebrities and oil sheiks'. I was treated superbly - really superbly - even with my slightly off-piste arrival in the slightly eccentric car and my lack of richness, famousness or well-connectedness. Snooty, disinterested poor service? Not a jot - all the staff were really friendly and helpful, even despite my refusal to hand out wodges of dollars or euros to any member of staff. This was all the way from the scene at the front of the hotel where the car obviously had some effect, to the next day having lunch at their beach restaurant (at which they didn't know I was staying there until I asked to put the bill on my room). And I don't dress expensively, my clothes are cheap (apart from the driving shoes but they were gone once I'd got out of my travelling outfit!). The only possible giveaways that Miss CF and myself could be the sort of people acceptable in the establishment are our A-list beautiful-people superb looks. Ahem, that'll be two white worms who haven't seen any sun for 6 months and spend all our time in offices staring at computer screens, more like. I'm a watch enthusiast and collector and I've acquired Becky a reasonable watch but they could all be fakes for all the staff knew.
So honestly, I was blown away, since I was somewhat expecting a bit of snootiness. Perhaps I had a bit of an inferiority complex as it's by far the most expensive hotel I've ever stayed in. But the Amex deal made it an affordable *long* day's stay (with the late checkout) - I've paid much more elsewhere. And I got to have a good hard look at a properly-used Veyron up close too. The overriding impression was of hewn-from-solid quality but uncontrollable weight - the fact that it only weighs 1,888 kg is beyond belief. It's compact, as the pics show, but it just radiates the impression that it's thrice the mass of the Lotus. With the fat ginger ballerina, the Veyron comes in at around exactly twice. With more than four times the horsepower. The brakes and tyres give the game away though, and whilst I'm currently at odds with some lost tyres and the effect that nearly £650 has had on my monthly cashflow, the alleged price of $25,000 for replacing the Veyron tyres does put things into (surreal) perspective, especially since the tyres can only be changed at Bugatti HQ and the labour costs $70,000 (so a change of all four tyres costs $95k each time plus shipping to France? Shureley shome mishtake?).
Back on topic - respect - well I'd say that the Lotus even achieves positive response in some of the richest / most famous / 'celebrated' locations in France. How about the other extreme? Well in my road trip, I'd guess the only counterpoints were the really poor outskirts of Cannes / Canette, with the immigrants fighting over who tries to squirt filthy water over your windscreen to beg for payment (this gets me *very* annoyed but I don't do 'road rage' unless it'd be the same, car or no car, so I just firmly say 'no' in as many languages as possible and make it VERY clear I don't want it and I won't be paying. But if any suggestion of menaces are hinted at, any aggression from these beggars, or any awkward eye and indication that they will vandalise my car, then I have to control myself because my reaction is never fear, but escalation… usually involving 'say hello to my friend Percy' (a new friend, a beautifully designed and made French folding knife from the Perceval company) which is all bluster since I don't intend to wriggle out of a Lotus for a knife fight at the side of the road, but it shows intention, I guess. The wheelbrace down the side of the driver's seat is more usable since I don't know how to fight anyway, the knife was bought for its functional art, I like stuff like that). There and maybe getting lost due to a combination of city roadworks and satnav in Dijon, but no windscreen-washing immigrants in Dijon.
And the reactions? Well even the one set of north african immigrants who came happily bounding over to my car at the lights (it's pretty conspicuous) with their bottles and squeegees seemed more *disappointed* that I was shouting NO at them, 'LEAVE MY CAR!' without being aggressive or scared, just an attempt at a respectful 'hey just leave my car alone guys, I won't be giving you money'. It seemed to work, they started and Becky (scared, having been on the receiving end with her father driving in the past, but he did all the wrong things) wound up her window and locked the door (not *that* useful in a Lotus!), but I kept shouting at the main person who was a large pregnant black lady in very colourful floppy clothes. There was another lady, a bit younger looking, a similar age bloke, and an older, harder looking chap keeping a respectful distance (presumably there if things got nasty). We went through the 'leave my car alone, OK, go on, it's clean already (hehehe - as if!), I've got no money for you, please, eh? <hopeful grin>' followed by her happy 'beautiful car! Yes! Yes' and starting squirting water on the windscreen (the others step towards the car except the older bloke), then my 'NO! You hear me? I said no - leave my car alone. Leave it. NOW. Go away! OK??? OK?? <more serious frown>' at which she stops (the others step away from the car) and starts the pleading routine, 'my baby! I must eat!' (by now I was wondering whether they had the electronic skills to hack the traffic lights because it was becoming a soap opera, pun not intended). The bloke stayed away and didn't stare at me either (I was keeping an eye on him) so with no impression of aggression or potential revenge, I kept with the firm apologies, 'NO - very sorry, but no' and thankfully the traffic started to move. Got the full guilt-trip 'shame, shame, my baby' etc. but people having babies they can't afford to raise without begging has special issues with me so that was that. I'm not saying that approach will work everywhere (and when you're up against a gang of young men with little to lose then it's a different game) but the Lotus didn't provoke envy. None of them said 'you are rich' - none spat on the car.
I've gone on far too long so I'll leave it here. However the OP was a darn fine one and one worthy of serious consideration. There's the British benefit-scrounger class' well known hatred of success, and the much less overt but still present slight disapproval by the upper classes of 'self made men' and deserved success. However this attitude exists in other countries too. America, perhaps, is often held up as a counterexample (qua 'the American Dream') but we're mostly talking about European attitudes as that's where we drive. I've been reading Rossi's autobiography and he claims the Italians are the same (quote 'the Italians will forgive you everything but success').
Bottom line - in England, kids love the Lotus (and similar, e.g. VX220) but some adults give disrespect or insult, usually in the form of envy or jealousy. In France (given my limited number of road trips in conspicuous Lotuses!), whenever I've got a reaction, it's been universally positive. These are brilliant, since they make me feel so damn good about myself. It's great to be given an ego boost like that and that's part of the reason why I love my car so much. But for each one of these open-mouthed pointing lads, or winking girls, or cheering groups of drunk blokes, there are hundreds more normal French people who simply ignore the car.
I'm not so sure it's a 'respect' thing at all, but merely a 'WTF' situation. I saw one other Lotus in France and that was a Union-Jack painted S1 Elise with a British plate (I won't post it here unless the owner pipes up). There really weren't many 'sports cars' at all - the French like their hot hatches (and blimey do they make good ones) but the Exige, especially in bright orange, is just *so* different to everything else that it may as well have rolled off the Le Mans circuit after the 24 heures. I reckon part of the explanation is sheer unfamiliarity. Screaming away in the distance, then blip-pop-blip downchanging as I slow into some provincial village to roll through at a safe, respectful speed, the people at the side of the road are seeing something they have no sodding idea what it is. But it's very, very orange and looks utterly outrageous compared with the average Frenchman's choice of vehicle (and the French are the guys who love innovation and difference… look at Citroên in the old days, and what they're trying to return to). The response isn't 'cool Lotus, that's a great taste in cars you have there sir' - it's 'WOW, WTF IS THAT??? Belle voiture!' - and then, the sign saying 'give us the noise!' (endless turbodiesels destroy the soul eventually and even a crappy-sounding inline four ends up being special… who'd'a thunk it?). And if I can comply, with a hot engine, the superb 2bular exhaust will give a pop and a crackle and a scream and a happy onlooker.
In England, most people know what they are. And there's this impression that Lotuses tend to be owned by IT consultants who are nerds unsuccessful with the ladies but like their techie toys and gadgets. And a lot of people know that a new Lotus Elise or Exige is not a cheap car, it is *very* showy and the people with 120+ dB exhausts are just *never* going to be appreciated by the jealous. You get more 'respect' in a completely unknown car, because there's the element of 'WTF is *that*???' well before the natural envy and that dirty blemish on the national psyche comes to the fore. When I drove the Noble, it was the most expensive car I'd ever bought (now it's the 2nd. The Lotus currently holds the title). It was faster, lairier, bigger and more in-your-face than any Exige, even though it was a more subtle colour. And the reaction I received from the *South East English* (the worst of the lot, you'd expect, from very rich to very poor from town to town) was more like the French reaction to the Lotus. Nobody knew what the hell it was. And it was as antisocial as the local barry-boy brigade's cars (mine was an earlier 2.5 with the dual atmo dump valves and cone filters at head height - if you're my age (past mid thirties…) think of the boy racers with large atmo dump valves on Escort RS Turbos, or the older, better off working class blokes with Cossies turned up to 400 and again, atmo dump valves. Town is the perfect place for the game - you accelerate away as traffic starts moving, nail it, then come straight off the throttle as soon as boost has built to the point at which you start to accelerate. Turbo lag means you haven't accelerated into the car in front, but all that boost that was *just going to* instead *POOOOOSSSHHHH* and makes pedestrians jump. Well my Noble had two of the damn things and I could make each one *POOOOSSSSHHH* at the same time, or in sequence, it was great, childish fun.
Did I get called a chav? No, because nobody knew what the hell it was. Perhaps the French feel the same way about the Lotus.
Secondly, we tend to drive the fun roads through the countryside and the people are nicer. It's the same in England. None of us travel to France to slowly trundle around the immigrant arrondissements of Paris. We see the best of the place, and that has to be taken into account as well.
Bloody hell, I want to go back though
zebra]I've just come back from the south of France with a few mates [and the mrs said:
after a driving holiday in the Alps. It's been a while since I drove in France and it's the first time I've had the Exige in France.
I'm sure others will have had a similar experience; everywhere we went the cars were respected. Once parked up they would draw a significant crowd of onlookers who looked but didn't touch and just wanted to chat about the cars. Now I know that in part, that is due to the fact they see less Lotus and TVR's than we do in England. However, the car was always safe wherever we parked up as well as outside the gite at night.
Now, in comparison, it made a refreshing change to the nobbas who shout obscenities as you drive by and the constant fear that if parked up you'll get the obligatory car park damage or deliberate vandalism.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know that sports cars do create interest over here but I'm never fully relaxed until I'm either back with the Exige or it's parked up securely at night.
Just wondered about other people's foreign experiences.
Zebra
ps. for fun, here's the Exige at Reims _ make sure you up it to HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxQ2peF8-Lk
Nice story, nice videos-didnt see Jeremy Clarkson anywhere!. As a Brit living in France I could spend hours extolling the virtues of France, their ideas on cars etc etc. Suffice to say its more fun driving over here than being back in the UK and I'm a patriot!! Its rare that I see a Lotus-probably once every couple of months. The day I buy mine,that will no doubt change. Only drag, there are a lot more 'radars' these days, even on so called quiet roads so have to be careful. Happy motoring and Bravo for the videosI'm sure others will have had a similar experience; everywhere we went the cars were respected. Once parked up they would draw a significant crowd of onlookers who looked but didn't touch and just wanted to chat about the cars. Now I know that in part, that is due to the fact they see less Lotus and TVR's than we do in England. However, the car was always safe wherever we parked up as well as outside the gite at night.
Now, in comparison, it made a refreshing change to the nobbas who shout obscenities as you drive by and the constant fear that if parked up you'll get the obligatory car park damage or deliberate vandalism.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know that sports cars do create interest over here but I'm never fully relaxed until I'm either back with the Exige or it's parked up securely at night.
Just wondered about other people's foreign experiences.
Zebra
ps. for fun, here's the Exige at Reims _ make sure you up it to HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxQ2peF8-Lk
Always had good reception abroad with my old yellow Exige S and my new one so far Zeb's. I think this countries lost the plot for some reason the scumbags in the north east love nothing more than to hurl abuse at somebody in a nice car that they've worked bloody hard for. Its as if they have an attitude of well i've got 237 kids and I dont work so why havent i got a nice car as well. Im always getting stick off my fiance for fussing over where im going to park the car but at the end of the day if it gets damaged in a car park most will not leave a note and just bugger off.
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