I had two cars in mind down the road that I would really considered as a next "Toy" when I decided to finally sell my ITR. The first being a lotus product and the second being an NSX.


Well the GF and I decided a few months back to plan a short trip to Vegas since she had never been. This give me the perfect opportunity to rent a lotus and see if it was the car for me. I ended up before hand messing a local Lotus owner online in the city I lived in to meet me to let me try to see if I can actually sit in it since I am on the tall side at 6"3'. I was able to sit in it will plenty of room to spare.

Fast forward to last week. We picked up the lotus and off we went for a 9 hour rental. The lotus like all exotic rental cars was pretty beat on. The interior was well used and abused and some of the electronic components. The engine was decently strong as I could tell it didnt smoke at all. A plus!

The trip consisted of city driving, highway driving, short canyon driving. We went out to Hover Dam and Meade Lake.

So after my day of driving the lotus my conclusion is, I must take it off the list of an ITR replacement.

PRO's
I car was a blast to drive!!! Even in it's current shape. It very quick for a stop even though it has very little torque (nothing below 6500 rpms). It handling is as good as a go kart, its turning radius is fantastic.

CON's
Where to start...
1)Its really small, and that becomes apparent when your driving it on the freeway and people don't see you.

2)I would consider it a very "fragile" car. I read up a lot on it's problems and the car car I rented had a variation of them. From electrical to over heating problems, ect. Owning one of these cars you will definitely have to sacrifice a lot (even if its not a daily driver)

3)The chassis is good but you feel everything! If I ran over a quarter on the road I could feel it and it would shake the car.


4)Most important- Its a death trap! Once I got passed the excitement of initially driving the car I realized (CON #1) how little of an accident it would take to get killed in the car.


Now my conclusion is I drive my ITR maybe 500 miles a year so the Lotus would be driven in the same manner. With that being said I can live with all the issues 1-3 I mentioned above because I have had similar (stripped out crx's) in the past and somewhat of a clue know how to work on cars. What turned me away from the car was #4.


Just a short review. The Elise is a great machine, Sadly just not for me.

I will put up pictures soon of the car, the Dam, and Meade Lake.

If anyone has anymore questions about the car I will answer them.

Sorry about the long POST.

 

Always seemed to me that the Elise is literally a street legal gocart. I'd love to try driving one much like you have, but I'm not sure I'd ever own one personally. I know it's my girlfriend's dream car though, funny enough. Maybe she just needs to try driving my ITR

 

Interesting I've also always wanted to give one a rip and see how handled Nice review.

 

Nice post and review. I've always admired Elise's from a far since I was younger but good to know about your experience in one.

 

Well...Lotus cars like the Elise are "weekend" cars. With that said, that's what it is...a miserable fun driving machine

 

My brother has one, its def not a every day car. He only drives it on weekends in the summer. Its a waste of space unless your loaded. Its fun to drive but its def a love hate relationship.

 

I don't think there is a replacement for the ITR. No matter how hard we try.


On that note, someone rent an Ariel Atom!

 

Pic's as promised