If I was in your position RC, I seriously doubt I'd pick a Lotus either. And I admit this, with you knowing my feelings on Lotus! I think the areas that a lightweight car really improve the driving experience are somwhat overshadowed by the lack of hp in your case RC, due to your driving priorities and preferences. Despite having a good p/w ratio, above certain speeds, horspower starts to matter more and more and that's why a 911 will leave it in the dust (not to mention more evolved engineering). Now, if you want to talk about cornering g's, there are even some corners at the the race track where the Elise can't generate more cornering force without more power. Sad but true. I think if you evaluate its more direct competition, it does pretty well. I know Lotus has a 250hp version of the 111R engine behind the scenes...I hope they put it in a road car. That would be something special.

MKW, you raise a good point. I know people with both a GT3 and Elise in the garage, and they tell me they are glad to have both but they are in no way substitutes. A more fair comparison would be Boxster vs. Elise, but even they are very different cars.

There are certainly Lotus 7 iterations that outperform 911's (even the 996 GT3 RS). Caterham makes a few. Would I drive the car daily? The vast majority of us wouldn't. These are very focused cars. Regard it as a flaw, if you wish.

A lot of the added weight these days seems to come from size. Look at the difference between the F355 and F430. If Porsche and Ferrari built a car as small as the Elise, it would probably be around the same weight, long as they used similar materials. But there's really no market for it.