My two Hethel creations and the wife's barge
Discussion
Thanks chaps. Yes the older one is an Elan M100 SE (that's the turbo). It is actually one of the pre-production cars and there is a slim chance that it is the car that was on the Top Gear test when the Elan first came out. Chris Goffey drives a red car in the test that is three number plate numbers later than mine but William Woollard in the segway is pawing a silver M100 with the same interior as mine but you never see the reg number.
They're very different which is sort of why I wanted both of them. Always wanted an Elan since playing Lotus Turbo Challenge on the Amiga as a kid and the Elise is my second one. The Elise is one of the 30 (mine is number 24) or so Sport 190s that Lotus Sport made.
As such its a bit of a headbanger while the Elan is an old smoothy. Very different things to drive but both great fun in their own way. Doing a long journey you'd take the Elan every time, a quick Sunday morning thrash and it would always be the Elise.
They're very different which is sort of why I wanted both of them. Always wanted an Elan since playing Lotus Turbo Challenge on the Amiga as a kid and the Elise is my second one. The Elise is one of the 30 (mine is number 24) or so Sport 190s that Lotus Sport made.
As such its a bit of a headbanger while the Elan is an old smoothy. Very different things to drive but both great fun in their own way. Doing a long journey you'd take the Elan every time, a quick Sunday morning thrash and it would always be the Elise.
[quote=benmac]
Always wanted an Elan since playing Lotus Turbo Challenge on the Amiga as a kid quote]
I loved that game! Chick-chick-ah!
I blame that for my love of cars today,
still played on it too much so school work never got done...hence my inability to be able to afford a lotus now, oh the irony
Always wanted an Elan since playing Lotus Turbo Challenge on the Amiga as a kid quote]
I loved that game! Chick-chick-ah!
I blame that for my love of cars today,
still played on it too much so school work never got done...hence my inability to be able to afford a lotus now, oh the irony
ol' dirty said:
benmac said:
Always wanted an Elan since playing Lotus Turbo Challenge on the Amiga as a kid
I loved that game! Chick-chick-ah!
I blame that for my love of cars today,
still played on it too much so school work never got done...hence my inability to be able to afford a lotus now, oh the irony
You aren't the only ones!! Only I played it on my Atari STe
Hardly EVER seen Elans at all. What's the spec on those? RWD I assume?
Cheers
Leo
No, its FWD. That was the thing, it was intended to be a new take on the sportscar. They didn't want to just make a modern day copy of the old Elan. It was supposed to appeal to people who'd had hot hatches and wanted the same sort of driving experience but with a 2 seater. In that sense it worked as it does feel like a hot hatch in many ways. They did a great job of quelling torque steer with some fancy front suspension arrangement and with 165bhp from the Isuzu turbo engine its plenty quick enough. Lots of them run more than that, 200bhp is just a chip install away and a chap in Greece has one with 400bhp!!
At the time it was criticised for being almost too good in that it can cover ground very quickly and very easily but without the seat of the pants feel that people seemed to expect. It really is a fantastic point to point car and down a twisty, dark and wet b road I'd put money on an Elan leaving a standard Elise behind without much bother.
With those issues and the fact it was expensive in the market as it was so expensive to make meant it wasn't a great success. About 4600 were made in the two production runs.
Its a real shame as it is a fab car and fulfilled its design brief so well. Just a case of wrong place, wrong time I suppose.
It was designed by Peter Stevens and the amusing thing I always think is that it shares its sidelights with another Stevens creation - the Mclaren F1.
At the time it was criticised for being almost too good in that it can cover ground very quickly and very easily but without the seat of the pants feel that people seemed to expect. It really is a fantastic point to point car and down a twisty, dark and wet b road I'd put money on an Elan leaving a standard Elise behind without much bother.
With those issues and the fact it was expensive in the market as it was so expensive to make meant it wasn't a great success. About 4600 were made in the two production runs.
Its a real shame as it is a fab car and fulfilled its design brief so well. Just a case of wrong place, wrong time I suppose.
It was designed by Peter Stevens and the amusing thing I always think is that it shares its sidelights with another Stevens creation - the Mclaren F1.
Horses for courses I'd say. They're different enough to me to make it tricky to choose one I like 'more'. Depending on what weighting you apply to what criteria its possible to come up with an answer as to which is 'better' that's different each time. I like them both for what they are.
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