John V
04-25-2005, 09:18 PM
Traveling ludicrous mileages to drive for a few minutes seems to be all the rage these days, and even with the recent Atlanta journey I was feeling a bit left out. So Marisa and I packed our bags and headed to typically sunny Colorado Springs to drive my brother's new toy - a spankin' new Lotus Elise (with sport + touring packages).
Okay, first impressions. Any car you need instructions to successfully get yourself into is pretty cool in my book. You sit on the floor in the Elise, and the frame rails are your armrests. Don't touch the windshield or steering wheel (they can break and bend respectively :? ), right foot in, hands on doorsill, plop onto seat, left leg in, shut door.
So, driving the thing. It wasn't nearly as primitive, rattly, harsh, or uncivilized as the car rags would have you believe. It is, however, an absolutely ridiculous automobile; when a Toyota Camry passes you and you think to yourself, "Hey, can the driver of this freakin' monster truck SEE me?" that also is cool. But of course they DO see you, and constantly stare, regardless of what traffic is doing around them. We witnessed several near accidents driving on local roads from people hanging out to get a better look. Hysterical.
The driving experience is actually very civilized. Yeah, it's sort of a rough ride, but it's the good kind of rough. The steering wheel quivers in your hands with the kind of feedback you only get with a non-power assist rack. It really feels as though you're holding the tie-rods in your hands.
The brakes are mediocre. They have great power, but a couple inches of dead area before they act combined with a mushy, no-feedback feel conspire to remove all joy from braking. Apparently, "they all do that." Regardless, it eliminates any possibility of heel and toe downshifts, because your foot sinks well below the throttle pedal with any brake pressure. Miserable.
Incidentally, the throttle pedal is an aluminum piece only about an inch wide, and my size 13 tennis shoes liked to apply the throttle simultaneously with the brake. I'd need to wear racing shoes if I were to drive this car every day. And pressing that throttle doesn't release the kind of fury I expected. Caveat: Colorado Springs is 6200 feet above sea level, and Rich estimated we were down 25% in power. The car is not fast up here. I estimate mid to high 6 second 0-60 runs with a moderate launch. Still, it manages to never feel slow and has no problem keeping up with traffic. Especially since traffic seems to stop altogether when you're in this thing.
Okay, the autocross!
I'll skip to the results. My first run of three, a 65.x ended up being .1 seconds off of the class win ("A Street Tire," a local class). My next two runs were dirty, but about 2.2 seconds faster raw times than the class winner. The 63.1 (+1) would have been second or third in SS (mind, we're on street tires), and would have been a close second in BS and AS. This car is, uh, FAST.
Initial impressions - it's a mid-engine car. Judicious trail braking is encouraged. The rear will gently step out if you're not careful, but applying lots of throttle afterwards sets the car into lovely slip angles at both ends and is the most entertaining way to drive it. Driven like a ham-fisted idiot, it will understeer into corners. The key is to go in just SLIGHTLY too fast, trail brake off the excess speed and get on the gas very early. Any faster and you'll understeer off the corner. Any slower and .. you're off the cam for longer, which is tortuous. The car changes directions like, NOW, and is a slalom machine as long as you don't jump off the gas through the slalom. Do that, and you'll end up backwards. In a hurry.
So the car is unlikely to be competetive in SS which is a shame, because I'd much rather own one of these than a Z06. Apparently there is great variation in how much front camber the car can get - and Rich's car didn't get much. It came at max negative on the left front and the right side set to match - but it only had around -1 degree. It needs more. Or more power. Or both.
But it's great fun, and yeah, I want one. Screw what the magazines say. I would drive it to work every day and love every second of it.
Will post pics tomorrow.
JV
Okay, first impressions. Any car you need instructions to successfully get yourself into is pretty cool in my book. You sit on the floor in the Elise, and the frame rails are your armrests. Don't touch the windshield or steering wheel (they can break and bend respectively :? ), right foot in, hands on doorsill, plop onto seat, left leg in, shut door.
So, driving the thing. It wasn't nearly as primitive, rattly, harsh, or uncivilized as the car rags would have you believe. It is, however, an absolutely ridiculous automobile; when a Toyota Camry passes you and you think to yourself, "Hey, can the driver of this freakin' monster truck SEE me?" that also is cool. But of course they DO see you, and constantly stare, regardless of what traffic is doing around them. We witnessed several near accidents driving on local roads from people hanging out to get a better look. Hysterical.
The driving experience is actually very civilized. Yeah, it's sort of a rough ride, but it's the good kind of rough. The steering wheel quivers in your hands with the kind of feedback you only get with a non-power assist rack. It really feels as though you're holding the tie-rods in your hands.
The brakes are mediocre. They have great power, but a couple inches of dead area before they act combined with a mushy, no-feedback feel conspire to remove all joy from braking. Apparently, "they all do that." Regardless, it eliminates any possibility of heel and toe downshifts, because your foot sinks well below the throttle pedal with any brake pressure. Miserable.
Incidentally, the throttle pedal is an aluminum piece only about an inch wide, and my size 13 tennis shoes liked to apply the throttle simultaneously with the brake. I'd need to wear racing shoes if I were to drive this car every day. And pressing that throttle doesn't release the kind of fury I expected. Caveat: Colorado Springs is 6200 feet above sea level, and Rich estimated we were down 25% in power. The car is not fast up here. I estimate mid to high 6 second 0-60 runs with a moderate launch. Still, it manages to never feel slow and has no problem keeping up with traffic. Especially since traffic seems to stop altogether when you're in this thing.
Okay, the autocross!
I'll skip to the results. My first run of three, a 65.x ended up being .1 seconds off of the class win ("A Street Tire," a local class). My next two runs were dirty, but about 2.2 seconds faster raw times than the class winner. The 63.1 (+1) would have been second or third in SS (mind, we're on street tires), and would have been a close second in BS and AS. This car is, uh, FAST.
Initial impressions - it's a mid-engine car. Judicious trail braking is encouraged. The rear will gently step out if you're not careful, but applying lots of throttle afterwards sets the car into lovely slip angles at both ends and is the most entertaining way to drive it. Driven like a ham-fisted idiot, it will understeer into corners. The key is to go in just SLIGHTLY too fast, trail brake off the excess speed and get on the gas very early. Any faster and you'll understeer off the corner. Any slower and .. you're off the cam for longer, which is tortuous. The car changes directions like, NOW, and is a slalom machine as long as you don't jump off the gas through the slalom. Do that, and you'll end up backwards. In a hurry.
So the car is unlikely to be competetive in SS which is a shame, because I'd much rather own one of these than a Z06. Apparently there is great variation in how much front camber the car can get - and Rich's car didn't get much. It came at max negative on the left front and the right side set to match - but it only had around -1 degree. It needs more. Or more power. Or both.
But it's great fun, and yeah, I want one. Screw what the magazines say. I would drive it to work every day and love every second of it.
Will post pics tomorrow.
JV