Stopping the Mrs .......
Discussion
That's not ingenious, it's just very lucky indeed 
Are you like me in terms of 'really not bothered about convertibles' so the Exige stays *yours and yours only*… or is it a 'best and worst of both worlds' with both cars shared, so you can choose light roof-off delicate naspiness (not a typo, I'm assuming the Elise has no supercharger and the Exige does) or harder-core beat-the-s
t-out-of-the-road maximum-attack mode just by swapping keys?
For what is essentially the same car, the different suspension settings, weight and power delivery (again I'm making assumptions about your two cars having not checked, sorry fella, the Exige may be a nasp and the Elise a SC, in which case I'm spouting bks as per usual) give two completely different driving experiences. It'd be cheaper to have two engine maps, an easily removable roof and electrically adjustable suspension / springs (is that feasible? I'm sure an old-school Rover-style Hydrolastic setup may work, could be heavy though) but then you've got the issue of 'I want a black one today'… 
It's an interesting situation since I've just replied to your other thread in virtually the same situation but on the other side of the coin - in anticipation of more than a thousand miles in the saddle, I forced Becky to get herself relaxed in the driver's seat of the Exige and took her around the local area so she could get used to the car. She's driven all of my other cars, including not having any problem driving the Noble (which was fiercer than the Exige… until my next tweak which finally equalises power-to-weight), but has steadfastly refused to drive any of the Lotus-based cars (i.e. starting from the VXT, then the yellow Exige, then the car almost built for her - it even looks like her, if that makes sense, which it doesn't… must wake up).
Hence I drove every mile of our French road trip. Every mile. I loved it, as I adore driving, and oddly enough she loved being a passenger even on the more extreme roads (the D1212 - extreme) but the result was that I was too exhausted at the end of each day to be much company in the evenings - it was a driving holiday and nothing more
Her rationale has been 'I'm in love with these cars, pride & joy etc. and if she stacked it then I'd never forgive her' - which is nonsensical since I felt nearly the same way about my blown 993 and the Noble, they're insured, and I've got the everlasting guilt of killing one of them (well hopefully it's still enjoying life on a track somewhere right now, given the stupidly eager write-off for what was only bent suspension - front passenger pickup chassis points, duff Lotus design 'feature') anyway. Her everyday car is her 'Growler', which is a full-size saloon car with a 400 bhp / 420 lb ft supercharged 4.6 litre V8 with no traction control other than an inconsistent LSD and a long-travel throttle pedal. Speed is not really the issue as the Growler *is* fast. She's a good driver - and has had to be, with her favourite car being the MX-5 I bought her when she commuted by car to work (import, hence Bakelite Japanese tyres and winter making oversteer a daily occurrence - this was more than 10 years ago and I wasn't as enlightened about tyres back then - if I'd known what I know now then she'd have had two sets of rims with winter tyres and summer tyres) - she always tried to pretend that she drives like Little Miss Daisy with me as a passenger but she drifted that Eunos about and I can hear her in the Growler a mile off. She also drove the Griff 500 (very apt car considering her surname) and decided to tweak the tail over the NSL without binning it too.
Of course, you don't drift Elises or Exiges on the public road unless you're very, very confident or are just about to crash - they're not that type of car - so most of that is irrelevant except the fact that she's not an unskilled, unaware driver. She's done her CBT and has retained the hazard-awareness that only bikers and drivers who've had advanced training seem to pick up.
So why the hell is she scared stiff of driving any of the Lotuses? I want her to love them too, I've got her insured on my car so she *can* drive the thing for fun, but it can't *all* be down to worrying about my reaction if she had an accident. It's not like she's going to go out of her way to stack it - any accident would be just that - a freak accident - or somebody else's fault. And we all make mistakes, I've made more than her so I can't play the self-righteous a-hole.
Sadly for me (on the other hand, I'm sure a load of blokes would love it) she's completely irrational about the issue and claims the Exige is both 'too fast' and 'too hypersensitive' with the general opinion that it'll jump off the road without any assistance. This feeling, of course, only arises when she seizes up, shoulders stiff, arms locked, white knuckles on wheel - from this irrational fear - and we all know that's what Elises do if you drive like that. Especially on A048s. I'm hardly an ogre, I'm not going to kill her if she breaks my car. If anything, the Growler is a lot more rare and precious - it'd be SO much harder to replace than the Exige if a write-off were to occur. I could (insurance permitting) just go out and buy a replacement Exige, whereas the Growler is a 4-year-old swansong from a dead company with only 600-odd made as standard, with an engine that was modified in a different country, and probably the lowest mileage example of its type. It'd be impossible to replace exactly - I'd have to compromise on something. It's also been faultlessly reliable and for an MG Rover that sat 2 years unused after being built… I was lucky.
The Exige is NOT too fast, and you generally have to be driving like a cock or be caught out by those damn A048s (standing water gets most of us, by the reports over the years, with driver error a close second i.e. winter on 48s, cold tyres) as they have high limits. The Growler can't get bigger than 235 width rears under the arches and has 420 lb ft torque, but Becks claims it's a 'soft teddybear' of a car whereas the Exige is a flick-knife.
I don't know, perhaps she's happier drifting around in a long-wheelbase car. However I want her to love the Lotus driving feel and she *did* absolutely *adore* her Eunos (which, being a mk1 with a Japanese modified 1.6 that revved a bit higher than normal, and shorter on luxuries than normal, probably weighed around the same as the Exige).
Which is scary, because I have this very horrible feeling that if I were to plonk her in a standard-engined *Elise* with proper road tyres and rear visibility that she'd fall in love with it. The Exige is just that bit intentionally intimidating (I let my younger brother drive it after he passed his test, and you could tell the car demanded respect because he just did NOT play the fool - I had to force him to speed up!), and Becks has said on more than one occasion that it's a BOY'S TOY and belongs on the track (hell - it's not *that* track-ready yet). But it's clear as the light of day that a new road-spec Elise is as much of a girl's car as you want it to be. IMO, her old MX-5 was a blokey version by MX-5 standards, so it's not as if she's a girly-girl who wants a pink car (no offence Pinkie if you're reading this, but I think you stick to SELOC)...
The good thing is that she doesn't read Pistonheads. So every time she says 'I loved that MX-5' I can just say 'you can always drive this Lotus, darling, it's a sports car too'… and there's no risk at all of her saying 'did you see zebra's thread? Can I try a normal Elise?'
And if there is a particular fellow who happens to sell Lotuses reading this, please don't have nice coloured normal-engined Elises sitting in the showroom prepped for test drive next time we're down and I want a go in an Evora, please - it could be ruinous, ha ha ha ha!
Are you like me in terms of 'really not bothered about convertibles' so the Exige stays *yours and yours only*… or is it a 'best and worst of both worlds' with both cars shared, so you can choose light roof-off delicate naspiness (not a typo, I'm assuming the Elise has no supercharger and the Exige does) or harder-core beat-the-s
t-out-of-the-road maximum-attack mode just by swapping keys?For what is essentially the same car, the different suspension settings, weight and power delivery (again I'm making assumptions about your two cars having not checked, sorry fella, the Exige may be a nasp and the Elise a SC, in which case I'm spouting b
ks as per usual) give two completely different driving experiences. It'd be cheaper to have two engine maps, an easily removable roof and electrically adjustable suspension / springs (is that feasible? I'm sure an old-school Rover-style Hydrolastic setup may work, could be heavy though) but then you've got the issue of 'I want a black one today'… It's an interesting situation since I've just replied to your other thread in virtually the same situation but on the other side of the coin - in anticipation of more than a thousand miles in the saddle, I forced Becky to get herself relaxed in the driver's seat of the Exige and took her around the local area so she could get used to the car. She's driven all of my other cars, including not having any problem driving the Noble (which was fiercer than the Exige… until my next tweak which finally equalises power-to-weight), but has steadfastly refused to drive any of the Lotus-based cars (i.e. starting from the VXT, then the yellow Exige, then the car almost built for her - it even looks like her, if that makes sense, which it doesn't… must wake up).
Hence I drove every mile of our French road trip. Every mile. I loved it, as I adore driving, and oddly enough she loved being a passenger even on the more extreme roads (the D1212 - extreme) but the result was that I was too exhausted at the end of each day to be much company in the evenings - it was a driving holiday and nothing more
Her rationale has been 'I'm in love with these cars, pride & joy etc. and if she stacked it then I'd never forgive her' - which is nonsensical since I felt nearly the same way about my blown 993 and the Noble, they're insured, and I've got the everlasting guilt of killing one of them (well hopefully it's still enjoying life on a track somewhere right now, given the stupidly eager write-off for what was only bent suspension - front passenger pickup chassis points, duff Lotus design 'feature') anyway. Her everyday car is her 'Growler', which is a full-size saloon car with a 400 bhp / 420 lb ft supercharged 4.6 litre V8 with no traction control other than an inconsistent LSD and a long-travel throttle pedal. Speed is not really the issue as the Growler *is* fast. She's a good driver - and has had to be, with her favourite car being the MX-5 I bought her when she commuted by car to work (import, hence Bakelite Japanese tyres and winter making oversteer a daily occurrence - this was more than 10 years ago and I wasn't as enlightened about tyres back then - if I'd known what I know now then she'd have had two sets of rims with winter tyres and summer tyres) - she always tried to pretend that she drives like Little Miss Daisy with me as a passenger but she drifted that Eunos about and I can hear her in the Growler a mile off. She also drove the Griff 500 (very apt car considering her surname) and decided to tweak the tail over the NSL without binning it too.
Of course, you don't drift Elises or Exiges on the public road unless you're very, very confident or are just about to crash - they're not that type of car - so most of that is irrelevant except the fact that she's not an unskilled, unaware driver. She's done her CBT and has retained the hazard-awareness that only bikers and drivers who've had advanced training seem to pick up.
So why the hell is she scared stiff of driving any of the Lotuses? I want her to love them too, I've got her insured on my car so she *can* drive the thing for fun, but it can't *all* be down to worrying about my reaction if she had an accident. It's not like she's going to go out of her way to stack it - any accident would be just that - a freak accident - or somebody else's fault. And we all make mistakes, I've made more than her so I can't play the self-righteous a-hole.
Sadly for me (on the other hand, I'm sure a load of blokes would love it) she's completely irrational about the issue and claims the Exige is both 'too fast' and 'too hypersensitive' with the general opinion that it'll jump off the road without any assistance. This feeling, of course, only arises when she seizes up, shoulders stiff, arms locked, white knuckles on wheel - from this irrational fear - and we all know that's what Elises do if you drive like that. Especially on A048s. I'm hardly an ogre, I'm not going to kill her if she breaks my car. If anything, the Growler is a lot more rare and precious - it'd be SO much harder to replace than the Exige if a write-off were to occur. I could (insurance permitting) just go out and buy a replacement Exige, whereas the Growler is a 4-year-old swansong from a dead company with only 600-odd made as standard, with an engine that was modified in a different country, and probably the lowest mileage example of its type. It'd be impossible to replace exactly - I'd have to compromise on something. It's also been faultlessly reliable and for an MG Rover that sat 2 years unused after being built… I was lucky.
The Exige is NOT too fast, and you generally have to be driving like a cock or be caught out by those damn A048s (standing water gets most of us, by the reports over the years, with driver error a close second i.e. winter on 48s, cold tyres) as they have high limits. The Growler can't get bigger than 235 width rears under the arches and has 420 lb ft torque, but Becks claims it's a 'soft teddybear' of a car whereas the Exige is a flick-knife.
I don't know, perhaps she's happier drifting around in a long-wheelbase car. However I want her to love the Lotus driving feel and she *did* absolutely *adore* her Eunos (which, being a mk1 with a Japanese modified 1.6 that revved a bit higher than normal, and shorter on luxuries than normal, probably weighed around the same as the Exige).
Which is scary, because I have this very horrible feeling that if I were to plonk her in a standard-engined *Elise* with proper road tyres and rear visibility that she'd fall in love with it. The Exige is just that bit intentionally intimidating (I let my younger brother drive it after he passed his test, and you could tell the car demanded respect because he just did NOT play the fool - I had to force him to speed up!), and Becks has said on more than one occasion that it's a BOY'S TOY and belongs on the track (hell - it's not *that* track-ready yet). But it's clear as the light of day that a new road-spec Elise is as much of a girl's car as you want it to be. IMO, her old MX-5 was a blokey version by MX-5 standards, so it's not as if she's a girly-girl who wants a pink car (no offence Pinkie if you're reading this, but I think you stick to SELOC)...
The good thing is that she doesn't read Pistonheads. So every time she says 'I loved that MX-5' I can just say 'you can always drive this Lotus, darling, it's a sports car too'… and there's no risk at all of her saying 'did you see zebra's thread? Can I try a normal Elise?'
And if there is a particular fellow who happens to sell Lotuses reading this, please don't have nice coloured normal-engined Elises sitting in the showroom prepped for test drive next time we're down and I want a go in an Evora, please - it could be ruinous, ha ha ha ha!
cyberface said:
zebra said:
Will respond to this later _ meeting calls. Need to digest the war and peace you've written. 
Even bigger one in the other thread. Sorry 
Nobody is forced to read them… perhaps I'll finally be the reason PH acquires an 'ignore list' feature My other half not only won't go in my Exige (as I drive like a tt apparently?), she would rather walk the 2 miles into town and same back, if for some reason I have pinched her Q5?
If she is forced for some reason of necessity to drive it, she will...but in general she "hates that stupid ******* little plastic go kart" as she calls it!!
t apparently?), she would rather walk the 2 miles into town and same back, if for some reason I have pinched her Q5?If she is forced for some reason of necessity to drive it, she will...but in general she "hates that stupid ******* little plastic go kart" as she calls it!!
Gooby said:
zebra said:
Will respond to this later _ meeting calls. Need to digest the war and peace you've written.
He he - cyber-dissertation!You only got her an S? Dont you love her?
Edited by mrs zebra on Wednesday 8th September 21:04
Edited by mrs zebra on Wednesday 8th September 21:06
mrs zebra said:
Gooby said:
zebra said:
Will respond to this later _ meeting calls. Need to digest the war and peace you've written.
He he - cyber-dissertation!You only got her an S? Dont you love her?
Edited by mrs zebra on Wednesday 8th September 21:04
Edited by mrs zebra on Wednesday 8th September 21:06
So when are you bringing your baby out on a run then
mrs zebra said:
Gooby said:
zebra said:
Will respond to this later _ meeting calls. Need to digest the war and peace you've written.
He he - cyber-dissertation!You only got her an S? Dont you love her?
I think Mrs Zebra has really earnt an SC!
ew! Zebby's skiddy XXXXL's!
Edited by Gooby on Thursday 9th September 09:10
Gooby said:
mrs zebra said:
Gooby said:
zebra said:
Will respond to this later _ meeting calls. Need to digest the war and peace you've written.
He he - cyber-dissertation!You only got her an S? Dont you love her?
I think Mrs Zebra has really earnt an SC!
ew! Zebby's skiddy XXXXL's!
Edited by Gooby on Thursday 9th September 09:10
I'll let his lordship respond to your slight on his size himself!
Ads, I can't take photos, navigate & drive at the same time!...(Car is still 100miles from being run in!)
mrs zebra said:
Gooby said:
mrs zebra said:
Gooby said:
zebra said:
Will respond to this later _ meeting calls. Need to digest the war and peace you've written.
He he - cyber-dissertation!You only got her an S? Dont you love her?
I think Mrs Zebra has really earnt an SC!
ew! Zebby's skiddy XXXXL's!
Edited by Gooby on Thursday 9th September 09:10
I'll let his lordship respond to your slight on his size himself!
Ads, I can't take photos, navigate & drive at the same time!...(Car is still 100miles from being run in!)
Get Zebs to take photos and just follow the car in front or follow the sound of the larini's
As you can see from mrs zebs post I did not have to even buy her car as she got herself. How good is that?!?
Phil _ you're right about having the two together as well as having twice the pleasure of cleaning.
Only a few miles till it's run in and then oil change and wayhay!
ps Phil _ you coming out on a run soon as I'm looking forward to seeing the Exige?
Phil _ you're right about having the two together as well as having twice the pleasure of cleaning.
Only a few miles till it's run in and then oil change and wayhay!
ps Phil _ you coming out on a run soon as I'm looking forward to seeing the Exige?
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