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| Message: | Sorry for the caps...but I got to test drive an Elise today! Sitting around on a Monday afternoon, I received a call from my Lotus dealer. "Say," said Mike, "would you like to drive an Elise?" What kind of question is that!!!!! Apparently, after the NY auto show, Lotus had loaned a few Elises to some dealers to show and my dealer got a nice red 111s with 400 km on it. So today, I got to do something I did not think would happen for a long time. Arriving at the dealership this is what I saw.     Please keep in mind this is not the federalized verision. Just the euro spec, but boy oh boy...what a pretty car. Being such a nice day, they where removing the hard top before we putted out on the test drive. The process doesn't look that difficult and can be done in a few minutes. Here is an interior pic.  The drive itself was painfully short, but for the brief twenty minutes I was able to form some opinions. Driving the car you make an immediate connection with it. The steering is so direct a mere thought would steer you towards it. It makes the M Coupe's steering feel like that from a 18 wheeler. The car felt very solid, going over rough surfaces around a corner did not unsettle the chasis. There was no creaks, groans, pops, or rattles. I wasn't able to accelerate that hard due to the engine not being broken in, but my overal impression is that this car has some scoot. The gearing was well matched with its 158bhp motor and never felt that you had to row through the gears to find the power band. The things I didn't like were the shifter and the brake pedal. Going through the gears the box felt vague with no real feeling for the gate, nor if the gear is properly engaged. Getting onto the binders hard seem to sink the pedal lower than the gas making it pretty hard to heel-toe. One really neat feature I found was in the brake calipers. The bleed valve is on the outboard side so no more removing wheels to bleed brakes!  One strange thing I noticed is that, while the Lotus is a small, its not really that small. Here are some side by side with my M Coupe.    According to Mike my dealer, ordering might start as soon as Sept-Oct with the first cars possibly being delivered in April 2004. Although for a second or two it was tempting just to take off.  notice the keys???? Cheers, Tomo  | ||||
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