The new Lotus Elise
 

I've seen a few of these driving around, and I am not sure if I like them or not. it is a Lotus, and the Esprits from the 80s were pretty fucking badass, but I dunno about the Elise. Opinions?

Car gurus are gushing over that thing. I guess it is an amazing car for the price. Speed and handling are amazing, but I think it is ugly as shit.

Very nice car! good bang for the buck! :thumbsup

Also check out the Noble M1 I think it is! great sports cars for aboout 60K!

This thread is useless without pics

Lotus is a tough drive, I had an esprit twin turbo. Never could get comfy driving that thing. About 10 of my friends drove it, only 1 liked it and could drive it well.

I think I am going to go schedule a test drive and see how it drives. I saw a guy in one the other day and he goosed it and it looked like it had some power, but it kinda looks like a girls car.

Heres your pic spunky.

http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elis...luefrontaa.jpg

Nice fuckin car :upsidedow

That's a nice car. :)

NEWSFLASH: theres not too many 2 seater cars that a 375 pound man will feel comfortable in. :warning

Sounds too much like a chick car to me.

HAHA, sorry.

Yeah, the more I think about it and look at it the more I can see some teenage girl driving around in it.

Check out the noble!

http://bhp365.qbic-pro.co.uk/htdocs/...s/A98T9940.jpg

:thumbsup :thumbsup

Had nothing to do with fitting in the car. BTW, at my fattest I was 240;-)

If you could afford such a car, or even to rent one then you can comment further.

Leonardo: Do you concur?
Me: I concur.

Body & Frame by Lotus, engine by.... Toyota!!

Thats pretty badass looking. :thumbsup

This is much better!

the Elise would be my second dream car, love it :thumbsup Not because it´s the best sports car, but because it´s fun to drive and it would be very rare down here. I bet they´re not that big a deal in the UK

I haven't seen any in Vegas. I'm considering purchasing one in the next year though if it drives well.

http://us.autos1.yimg.com/img.autos....23_346x270.jpg

http://i7.ebayimg.com/02/i/03/46/f3/4d_1_b.JPG

The Lutos is one of the dopest cars out right now!

The current Espirit still looks like the 80's Espirit. The new Elise looks like a chics car...and isnt it front wheel drive? :disgust

I agree about the chicks car part. However, a properly tuned front wheel drive car is more than capable of being a beast on a nice mountain road or a race track, and from what I've heard about the Elise, it handles like a dream :thumbsup

The Elise fucking rocks, but I've always been in love with the 1st gen.

http://www.supphoto.net/galerie/phot...otus_elise.jpg

I've seen 2 of them in the Summerlin area

no, its rear engine & rear wheel drive, just like the Toyota MR2

the elise has a really nice design, however, they are really really fucking small.

elise is an awesome car. certainly not a car you're going to drive across the country in, but for tearing up the twisties, there is nothing closer to a race car out there.

the car is wonderful, so much power and its so light

there is even that sportier version called Exige with more power and more carbon fiber!!

The Elise is an insanely well handling car, and weighing less than 2000lbs, it's supposed to be incredibly nimble. Rear engine, rear drive, nearly perfect weight balance... by all accounts, it's like driving a kart.

However, with just 190hp, it doesn't quite hit 10lbs/hp, which is really a minimum in my book. The US version uses the same Toyota engine that's in the MR2, and there are tuners producing 260-280hp with reliability on that motor, so an engine swap would be a necessity day one.

All that said, if you want one next year, better go plunk a deposit today. They're only importing 2000 of them a year, and my understanding is that there's roughly a one year wait right now.

Cheers
-b

Nice looking car but at 6'7" 300 pounds i'm thinking I won't fit well

i saw a red one today

It is - I've driven one flat out around the Silverstone circuit in England, and it is by far the best handling car I've ever driven. At 190hp, the engine feels a little underpowered but the handling more than makes up for it, and in the corners you'll outrun just about anything on the planet. If you're worried about fitting in - well, I'm 6' tall and had no problems once I was in (getting in is awkward with the roof on though).

Just don't expect to do your weekly grocery shopping in one though.

And ANYBODY who thinks an Elise is a "girl's car" in more interested in image than driving and should stick to blinging up Escalades and thinking old 'Vettes are sports cars.

I'll take the old one

I thought the "M" in MR2 was for "Mid-engine"?

exige is faster, on top gear it outperformed a porsche gt3:

http://www.carbc.com/news2/highres/exige-05.jpg

that looks amazing :thumbsup

i love this car

Now that's just sexy

Some people really don't like the styling of this car but simply from a performance standpoint it's worth every single penny, it's also not nearly as costly as most cars of its caliber. Best bang for the buck by leaps and bounds.

absolutely, its not too practical for every day use, but if you are fortunate enough to have a nice car already for that and just want something fun, then this will eat all those porsches alive for 1/3 the price :)

lotus designs is girlish, i think theyre ugly as fuck. Only the esprit was fucking dope

Exactly... MR2 is a mid engine, not a rear engine.

ive been looking to buy one of these for quite a while, maybe a slightly used one from ebay.

edit: in reply to alkalanines post:
absolutely, its not too practical for every day use, but if you are fortunate enough to have a nice car already for that and just want something fun, then this will eat all those porsches alive for 1/3 the price


did you see the ariel atom on top gear? not very practical and just a fun car, but it was faster than pretty much all the super cars (including mercedes maclaren slr and Carrera G) and it was only about £30k

My friend owns one...he is one of the first to have one here in California :thumbsup

Now that looks fucking badass. :thumbsup