ME73 Comparison: 2005 Federal Elise and 2000 Boxster S
Discussion
Over the years I've written a few comparisons of cars that I've owned. I thought I'd share some of them here. This was written shortly after I bought my 2005 Lotus Elise in 2013.
I'm an excited new member of the Elise club and thought I'd start out with some first impressions and comparisons for fun.
I just bought this pristine 2005 magnetic blue Elise with only 3500 miles on it. It's like buying a brand new car! I hope to keep it for many, many years to come.
I'm a true believer in the pure sports car. I knew when the S1 was introduced in Europe that this is the car for me. It was a long wait.
The Elise is joining a 2002 WRX, and two Japanese classics with fairly heavy modifications, 1982 Rx-7 and 1991 MR2. The Rx-7 has a 200hp N/A ported rotary from a later model year car and the MR2 has a 3.0L V6. Both have a lot of suspension work as well.
At the beginning of the summer, I sold my 2000 Boxster S. I had the factory European (RoW M030) sport suspension and some chassis bracing on the car. The car was great fun, but I think I got bored with it after 6 years. I bought the MR2 with the intention of it being a dedicated track car but then decided I liked using it more than the Porsche, it wasn’t as refined or powerful and the limits are lower, but it’s more fun just tooling around and I could drive it anywhere without worrying about where I parked it. So I sold the Porsche knowing that eventually it would be replace with something more rudimentary.
Porsches have grown in sophistication and refinement to the point where they are very capable GTs. That’s all well and good, but I like a car to take up into the mountains for a couple of hours or drive to work every now and then and still enjoy the handling traits when not pushing the car to the outer limits. The Porsche has incredible limits, and behaves beautifully at those limits, but under 80%, it’s just not as engaging as I’d like.
ENTER THE LOTUS…
It’s almost not realistic to directly compare the Elise to the Boxster. Even though they are both called sports cars and sell at about the same price, they are completely different animals. The Boxster is like an Elise wrapped in a foot of foam insulation. The Elise is louder, stiffer, smaller, more maneuverable, and vastly more communicative. Interestingly, the Elise chassis is also noticeably more stiff, and the Boxster is already excellent in that regard. The steering is intricate and direct. It’s road braille! I’ve driven quite a few sports cars, classic and modern, and nothing matches the Lotus. The Porsche is good for a power steering rack, but just can’t match up. The chassis response to inputs between the Porsche and Lotus are pretty similar. Immediate motion when the steering wheel is turned with almost no body roll. No transient motion to wait for and no wondering what the car is going to do with your input. They are both excellent chassis in that regard. But just as with the steering, the Elise communicates exactly what the is going on under you through the chassis just a little more clearly than the Porsche.
Both cars are reasonably low wind when driving on the highway with the top off. Put up the windows in either car and it’s a nice place to be. The Porsche is more quiet though. The radio is still somewhat discernable where it's pretty much just wasting electricity in the Elise at 70mph.
The brake pedal in the Porsche doen’t have the mushy spot that the Elise does, but both cars give great feel through the brake pedal. My Boxster, with a shift lever from a 997, is shorter and a bit more fun to row through, but the Elise has a nice, mechanical feel. The throws are just a bit longer.
The 3.2L engine in the Boxster is a truly great engine. It’s smooth through the entire rev range and has reasonable low end torque and a really nice, flat torque curve up to red line. It is hard to get caught in the wrong gear with that car. So far I’m impressed with the 1.8L in the Elise. In the lower speed cam, there’s still plenty of anger and noise. The thrust really is pretty good. On the hot cam this thing is a kick in the butt! It would be nice to have a more smooth transition between cams, though. Overall, the Boxster’s engine fells much more relaxed and less frenzied than the Lotus. Porsche has a lot of design issues with that engine, though, so you have to stay on top of maintenance and make sure you are minding the known issues. Even then that fear of a $20k replacement engine is always in the back of every M96 Porsche owner’s mind.
The Elise is also more delicate, more simply assembled and more draining and tiring after driving for a while. I could drive the Boxster for hours on end without feeling like I needed a break. After my hour drive on the Seattle area’s poor highways in the Elise, I was ready for a breather. For errands and trips, the Porsche is superior. It has two trunks that amount to a surprisingly large amount of storage space. The seats are comfy for hours. The radio isn’t great, but you can actually listen to it at highway speeds, the top is thickly lined so the cabin is relatively quiet at cruising. The Elise is pretty much the opposite of all of those things
The quality of materials in the 986 Boxster really aren’t great. The seats and carpets are of high quality, but the dashboard and doors are covered in vinyl that is decent but not impressive. The hard plastics have a rubberized coating on them with feels nice to the touch, but is easily scratched and looks old after a few scratches. The Elise doesn’t even try to impress with plastics, it is what it is. Love it or leave it.
For a car to take out for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning through some twisty roads, the Elise would be my choice every time. It’s an honest, no compromise sports car. The purest of the modern breed. If you want to really understand what a car can feel like, with no filters and no fluff, this is the right car. I’m excited that I switched and can’t wait to get back into the car!
I'm an excited new member of the Elise club and thought I'd start out with some first impressions and comparisons for fun.
I just bought this pristine 2005 magnetic blue Elise with only 3500 miles on it. It's like buying a brand new car! I hope to keep it for many, many years to come.
I'm a true believer in the pure sports car. I knew when the S1 was introduced in Europe that this is the car for me. It was a long wait.
The Elise is joining a 2002 WRX, and two Japanese classics with fairly heavy modifications, 1982 Rx-7 and 1991 MR2. The Rx-7 has a 200hp N/A ported rotary from a later model year car and the MR2 has a 3.0L V6. Both have a lot of suspension work as well.
At the beginning of the summer, I sold my 2000 Boxster S. I had the factory European (RoW M030) sport suspension and some chassis bracing on the car. The car was great fun, but I think I got bored with it after 6 years. I bought the MR2 with the intention of it being a dedicated track car but then decided I liked using it more than the Porsche, it wasn’t as refined or powerful and the limits are lower, but it’s more fun just tooling around and I could drive it anywhere without worrying about where I parked it. So I sold the Porsche knowing that eventually it would be replace with something more rudimentary.
Porsches have grown in sophistication and refinement to the point where they are very capable GTs. That’s all well and good, but I like a car to take up into the mountains for a couple of hours or drive to work every now and then and still enjoy the handling traits when not pushing the car to the outer limits. The Porsche has incredible limits, and behaves beautifully at those limits, but under 80%, it’s just not as engaging as I’d like.
ENTER THE LOTUS…
It’s almost not realistic to directly compare the Elise to the Boxster. Even though they are both called sports cars and sell at about the same price, they are completely different animals. The Boxster is like an Elise wrapped in a foot of foam insulation. The Elise is louder, stiffer, smaller, more maneuverable, and vastly more communicative. Interestingly, the Elise chassis is also noticeably more stiff, and the Boxster is already excellent in that regard. The steering is intricate and direct. It’s road braille! I’ve driven quite a few sports cars, classic and modern, and nothing matches the Lotus. The Porsche is good for a power steering rack, but just can’t match up. The chassis response to inputs between the Porsche and Lotus are pretty similar. Immediate motion when the steering wheel is turned with almost no body roll. No transient motion to wait for and no wondering what the car is going to do with your input. They are both excellent chassis in that regard. But just as with the steering, the Elise communicates exactly what the is going on under you through the chassis just a little more clearly than the Porsche.
Both cars are reasonably low wind when driving on the highway with the top off. Put up the windows in either car and it’s a nice place to be. The Porsche is more quiet though. The radio is still somewhat discernable where it's pretty much just wasting electricity in the Elise at 70mph.
The brake pedal in the Porsche doen’t have the mushy spot that the Elise does, but both cars give great feel through the brake pedal. My Boxster, with a shift lever from a 997, is shorter and a bit more fun to row through, but the Elise has a nice, mechanical feel. The throws are just a bit longer.
The 3.2L engine in the Boxster is a truly great engine. It’s smooth through the entire rev range and has reasonable low end torque and a really nice, flat torque curve up to red line. It is hard to get caught in the wrong gear with that car. So far I’m impressed with the 1.8L in the Elise. In the lower speed cam, there’s still plenty of anger and noise. The thrust really is pretty good. On the hot cam this thing is a kick in the butt! It would be nice to have a more smooth transition between cams, though. Overall, the Boxster’s engine fells much more relaxed and less frenzied than the Lotus. Porsche has a lot of design issues with that engine, though, so you have to stay on top of maintenance and make sure you are minding the known issues. Even then that fear of a $20k replacement engine is always in the back of every M96 Porsche owner’s mind.
The Elise is also more delicate, more simply assembled and more draining and tiring after driving for a while. I could drive the Boxster for hours on end without feeling like I needed a break. After my hour drive on the Seattle area’s poor highways in the Elise, I was ready for a breather. For errands and trips, the Porsche is superior. It has two trunks that amount to a surprisingly large amount of storage space. The seats are comfy for hours. The radio isn’t great, but you can actually listen to it at highway speeds, the top is thickly lined so the cabin is relatively quiet at cruising. The Elise is pretty much the opposite of all of those things
The quality of materials in the 986 Boxster really aren’t great. The seats and carpets are of high quality, but the dashboard and doors are covered in vinyl that is decent but not impressive. The hard plastics have a rubberized coating on them with feels nice to the touch, but is easily scratched and looks old after a few scratches. The Elise doesn’t even try to impress with plastics, it is what it is. Love it or leave it.
For a car to take out for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning through some twisty roads, the Elise would be my choice every time. It’s an honest, no compromise sports car. The purest of the modern breed. If you want to really understand what a car can feel like, with no filters and no fluff, this is the right car. I’m excited that I switched and can’t wait to get back into the car!
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