We bought a new car!!!!

Yep, we brought home our new baby, a 2005 Lotus Elise, in Atomic Orange. I have to admit, it is a pretty nice car. Thank you government surplus checks!


Oh, whoops, I thought it was April 1st today...
Sadly, I am not the proud new owner of a Lotus. I did get to drive it however. My first experience in a mid-engine sports car (MR2's are sporty...not sports cars) and it does sound quite nice at 8500 RPM. My friend from high school, Mike, came down to buy it in Sacramento and hung out for a bit before making the 750mile trek home today.

(Warning, this section is going to be about the "Lotus experience." Or in other words, my first foray into automotive journalism. Click the pictures to enlarge.)














The 2005 Lotus Elise is stiff, not uncomfortably so, but then again, I'll take handling over comfort any day of the week. However at 1,777lbs, stiff isn't that bad since as the shocks have a firm but comfortable rebound making the beginning of the bumps sharp but smooth as the car recovers and this really downplays how stiff the car really is. You also have to remember, there isn't that much force coming down on the suspension with less than a ton of total weight for the car. You also don't get power steering, but if you are on the right line, you won't need it right?

The steering ratio is very quick and I appreciate the responsiveness, there was not once I felt I had to work to get the car to turn, but the feedback through the wheel was amazing. 750 miles won't be too fun but for around town comfort, as a true sporting machine, ride quality will not be an issue.

The interior of the car is sparse. The seats are very thin shells with about 1/4-1/2" of foam and leather covers and everything else is either aluminum frame, machined aluminum, or some plastic body pieces (dash, center console).

Getting in and out of the car is definitely a "young man's" endeavor. Swing one leg in, butt on the door sill, lower body into the seat and tuck your right leg to your chest and swing it into the car. Let's not even get into crawling out of this thing, but leave it at, no matter the effort involved, it is worth it. I'm also sure with the targa top off it would be a breeze.

The door sills become your armrest and at one point sitting at a stoplight I noticed we were inline with the MUSTANG lettering on the bumper in front of us and our heads were inline with the Civic's door handle to our right. Standing next to the car, my waist is right about level with the roof. This Lotus was optioned with a pretty nice stereo system and AC making the ride comfortable if you are willing to sacrifice the 5hp for AC (I never touched it.)

The pedals are machined aluminum and setup so that heel-toe shifting is a breeze. Seriously, I could heel-toe without trying, in fact, I could only "heel-toe" with shoes on, as I would hit the center frame rail with the right side of my shoe and the brake pedal with the left side when pressing on the gas and thus I drove barefoot. Driving shoes would rectify the problem easily and are probably already in any racer's closest, mine included. The clutch release is very high, which is a good thing for power shifting. The brakes were a little spongy at first but once you got 1" in on the pedal travel you found a brick wall in front of you fast. You get a tach, speedo, digital oil temperature and some warning lights and thats it. As OCD as I am, I prefer to have coolant temp and oil pressure displayed as well, but with such a simple motor, you shouldn't need to worry too much and there is something to be said about simplicity.
(Note how 1-3,000 rpm are essentially a non-issue according to the tachometer, the motor agrees.)

The motor is a Toyota motor w/ a few perks. I should say here, the whole purpose of this car is to be a beast in the handling department and have the snot tracked out of it (road raced, did I mention the entire car has a full body undertray to maximize downforce) and to be reliable doing it, enter the Toyota motor. The motor, a 1.8L inline-4 making 190 horsepower at 7,800 rpm and 138 lb/ft of torque at 6,800 rpm, makes good music too. It has Toyota's version of Vtech (switching cam lobe profiles for more power at higher RPMs) and that came on like a secondary rocket booster at 6k-8.5k, redline. The motor isn't soft below 6k and gear ratios and redline shifting allow you to keep it above 6k and in the powerband, but I think changing the cam switch to come on at 5-5.5k would be a good choice. The motor rev's incredibly fast, and while I religiously follow all posted speeds, one could imagine 120 can come around quite quickly. This car will never feel slow or lugged unless you are straight line racing with another very quick car for perspective, but this car isn't meant for the straights, it is meant for the twisties and I'd imagine taking curving country road sweepers at 80, the car is settled, firm, and seemingly bored with how easy it is.

The motor isn't insane, the suspension is stiff, and the interior is sparse leaving a lot to be desired if you do more than track it (did I mention the 5 cubic foot trunk?) However the car is more than the sum of its parts. This car is a driver's car. As you mash the gas and pass from 5k to 6k and the motor begins to sing, for a brief millisecond right before the cam change you hear the air filter located right behind your left ear, the calm before the storm. Pop-swooooooooooooooooosh... like a vacuum cleaner from hell and then the cams change and BAM. Jerked back into your seat, the sound of air sucking into the motor is rapidly overtaken by an intense roar located conveniently just 5 or so inches behind you. First gear, second gear, third gear...let's take that off-ramp so we can swing around and do it all over again.

Inside the cabin testing out the top end of 3/4th gear...