Driving an Elise in London

[kambites]

Quite unusually for me, I drove into central London over the weekend and I was astounded at the amount of attention we got. During one day in London the car got more pictures taken of it than it has had in the two and a half years I've been driving it around the Winchester/Southampton area - I could be driving along next to a Lamborghini and people would take pictures of the Elise.

Are they that rare in London, or is it all foreign tourists who have never seen one before? I think we must be on at least 20 or 30 people's holiday snaps.

[Gooby]

It is really odd, when I first got my car we went to see the "lights". I was stuck in traffic behind a Nobel, people were gesturing him forward so they could take pictures of my car!!!

[jondude]

Bought mine in London and as brother is more used to the roads he drove it home.

Women were shouting 'nice car' and he milked it for all he could.

[EK993]

I live in Central London and am more often than not driving around Bond St / Oxford St / Knightsbridge of a weekend, and yes you are right they do get a lot of attention. I easily get as many people taking photos of it etc as I did when I had the F355.

I think vast majority are tourists that haven't seen one before.

[chris7676]

There are surely not many of them (driving) over there. I usually see one or two when I go for a weekend in the country (esp Wilts/Somerset) but hardly ever in central Lon. I myself drive a cheap more boxy Elise grandmother instead (MR2 mk1) when I go so central

[Stu_00]

Never that much fun driving the Elise at 20 mph and finding an elise friendly parking space

But nice to view in the city and seen a couple of people around the city, always puts a smile on my face !

[boobles]

It's not until you sell your Elise and not see one in ages (as i found out today) that you realize how stunning they are.

[kambites]

boobles said:

It's not until you sell your Elise and not see one in ages (as i found out today) that you realize how stunning they are.

Not likely because (1) I don't intend to ever sell it, and (2) there's usually about ten of them in the car park where I work.

[Tydeides]

Yeah I take mine for granted I think, I do regularly see two on the way to work, and there is a blue S1 exige where I work in the car park which trumps my elise for looks. Also the 993 Turbo distracts a little too

[almaw]

They're almost two-a-penny in west London, but of course no one sensible drives in central London much, so all the Japanese tourists gawp lots. The most interest mine's ever had was when I took it to the middle of France. The roads around the Tarn Gorge are absolutely astonishingly amazingly fantastic, too (makes Scotland look quite busy and rather boring).

[peter450]

At the end of the day, like most lotus's it never lacks in the dramatic looks dept, pretty much all lotus from the elan, + 2, excel, Eclat, Esprit, elise have looked proper striking in the flesh, and easily compare as far as visual theatre goes with much more expensive exotica

The fact they use fairly standard parts, does let the dream dowm somewhat and as a fan i would like nothing more than to see straigt 6's, v8 etc in these cars (nearly all lotus's have been 4 cylinder power with the exception of the Carlton and V8 Epsrit, and of course new Evora)

But i balance that fact that if they did they would no doubt be twice the price, lotus are alone in offering supercar style, and pretty decent handling, and performance (even if it they are powered by relatively ordinary engines) wrapped up in a affordable package for most people