Lotus Cars
Nov 16th, 2007 by Tim Skipper
It’s February 2002. I’ve been doing quite a few track days in my Porsche 911 Carrera 2 (type 993) and although it’s a fabulous road car, it is a little soft for track work without spending a further large wedge of cash on suspension upgrades.
Track days are also going through £700 sets of tyres like there’s no tomorrow and fuel at the rate of 7 miles to the gallon!
I started to look around for a replacement – something that would cope with track days as well as being a decent road car. I had a brief flirtation with a new BMW E46 M3 but the potential depreciation put me off (turns out I was right, they have bombed horrendously since) and I felt the feel through steering was seriously lacking compared with the Porsche.
My thoughts turned to the Lotus Elise. I was initially put off because, well, they’re a bit slow. But I thought it would be worth having a look and a test drive anyway. I’m glad I did, the result was a revelation.
The story of how I ended up with the first UK customer S2 Lotus Sport Elise 190 unfolds over the following Lotus Cars articles that I wrote at the time. Enjoy.
