Lotus Elise

[Behemoth]

I've always wanted to have a go in one of those, but get the feeling I'd kill myself very quickly.

[Stoo]

That's what track day/racing school experiences are for... nice wide run offs

[kalniel]

Got one handy? ..i'll show you

Use of the handbrake doesn't count

[jon bda]

Been running around in a VX220 today...my bleedin' back and backside are killing me!.

[Moby-Dick]

I got a ride in a VX220 at le mans....definatly not a car to be a passenger in if you like your personal space

[arbitor]

I think that there are more "hard cars" out there to drive.

Afterall it doesnt have much outright power at the end of the day as said its light, im sure a very powerfull rwd car woudl be harder to drive

[Rave]

I've never been in an Elise (either as driver or passenger) but I did drive a Mk1 MR2 for four years. I span it within 2 days of buying it- I accelerated into a wet roundabout, and as I went over the lip in the road at the entrance to the roundabout the back went light and came straight round on me. Luckily I didn't hit anything- I was lucky in another way too, as a police car had just gone round the roundabout in front of me, doubt they'd have been impressed if they'd seen me.

That was with a pair of crap, and fairly bald tyres on the back though. Soon after I put some Yoko A539s on the front and put the remaining two good tyres on the back, and never had another problem. Until the one time I decided to be a pillock and see if I could get the back out in the dry. I floored it out of a roundabout in second and sure enough the back did come round- at which point I panicked and stepped off the gas. Big mistake- it gripped again and flung me right round the other way in a classic tankslapper. I ended up smacking into the central reservation facing the wrong way down the road. Luckily again, the damage was just some more dings to my already shabby alloys.

After that I just used to drive fast, but within what I knew to be the limits of the car. I never got lift off oversteer- I would quite often pile into streaming wet roundabouts a bit fast and just scrub away the excess speed with understeer.

I wish I'd tried a bit harder to master its handling, but round here in SE London big expanses of empty tarmac to experiment on are in short supply, and I think a track day would have made it fall to bits. I wouldn't be frightened to buy an Elise or any other mid-engined car though.

[Vimeous]

Are we basically saying then that mid-engined cars are loads fun and in the real world perfectly safe, mastering the handling though is best done on an airfield?

[Lowe]

In the main yes, so long as you have good tyres, and aren't refering to a Porsche Boxster varient, in which case they're probably the most planted 'safe' feeling mid enginer I've ever driven - probably because they weigh so much.

[Zak33]

Lotus Elise's are superb, but there is no point in deliberately driving them in the rain, cos they're a right handful. It's why they're such a good second car. They understeer like a barge OR they oversteer like Indiana Jone's Whip....all over the place. And you get wet. Both in the car, and while swapping insurance policies.

"Heavens above......he's talking about driving fast in the rain"

Well, cos it's so easy to drive safely in rain, quickly, in almost any front wheel drive shopping trolley, why take the Elise ?

"what if we're stuck, out for the day on a sunny drive.... and it rains? Then what?"

Drive it slowly....really slowly...and don't try to keep up with the hooligan in the Agila 1.2 who just mashed past you in the twisty lanes around Silverstone, you might just die and he can't stop for you, his gran doesn't know he toook it from her garage.

"Surely not, surely such a great car is perfectly safe if driven sensibly?"

Yup...the problem is the "sensible bit" It's got no weight over the front unless you brake, the suspension is pretty damn firm and that stops weight transfering well, and it has solittle body roll that the tyres just let go....no notice. Gone.

How many have I driven? 3..... 2 Mk 1's and a Mk2. And VX220's? 2..... a 2.2 and a turbo.

I genuinely rate the VX220 higher than the Elise because it IS easier to drive in cack weather. Not sure of the real hardcore reasons, and the differing tyre widths aren't it, but it's more relaxed in the rain. Still wouldn't choose it over a Nova 1.6GTE/GSi though, in pouring rain.