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Gauss said:
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95jersey said:
Go to the Elise forums. YOu can add 50rwhp to that Lotus with some ECU upgrades. Also, there are other FI options that deliver 300+hp. Imagine 300hp in a Lotus...that is how the car should be made from the factory at less than Z06 prices.
I have considered buying an used Elise and putting on a Katana Supercharger and redoing the suspension, but I hear so many horror stories about the Elise being fragile, difficult to drive at the limit, having a lack of strength in the rear end of the chassis, that actually can come apart even without using R compounds. There is also a huge problem that is recognized by the factory regarding oil starvation under G loads, so either Accu-Sump or at minimum deep oil pan is required. The more research I did, the deeper the list of issue became. Also, the only way to make power is through Supercharger and more boost/timing which equal heat and detonation. Many spoke about need water injection at the track to deal with the heat soak. The car needed many expensive modifications to become a serious road race toy.
Where on the other hand the GT3 is 110% ready to go at the track with no modifications but tires and brake pads. It has dry sump which is worth it's weight in gold. You don't need FI to make power, so no heat/detonation issues or need for complex intercoolers.
I don't own either, but have been tracking cars for 8 years now and to me the clear winner is the GT3 (between the two). But Gt3 is twice the price, so it should be! Also, no offense to Lotus owners, but I would NEVER pay what Lotus is asking for those cars (at least in the US). The only way I would buy a Lotus is at 1/2 MSRP. For my $65k US I would pick up a Z06 (which I have..duh) and destroy both cars in regard to lap times! The Z06 is like the GT3, in that it needs no modifications to be track ready.
You should test drive an Elise before maximizing hypothetical problems. The thrills of an Elise lie in corner speeds and not in straight line performance.
Upgrading the Elise to >300 PS, and hence adding weight, isn't what this car is about.
It might not be the fastest car around the track, but it sure is one of the most enjoyable ones, anywhere!
We'll you assumed that I have not test driven an Elise/Exige. You know what they say about ass u me ing. I have driven an Elise, Exige S, and a Katana S (265hp) pretty hard and can tell you I prefered the handling of my Z06, putting power aside. Each car pushed and the steering was not nearly as responsive as publicized. I found the car to be more of a "hand full", and the steering difficult in low speed corners. There were several times I missed my corner entry as I could not get the car to rotate. This is partly due to the fact that I am not customed to driving a mid-engine car every day. But, as an example, if I were driving down the street in my Z and just grabbed the wheel, the car immediately turns in. In the Lotus, the car seemed to breifly hesitate, push forward a bit then turn in. This improved as the speed went up, but was very foreign to me.
I also have driven side by side, and rode in a number of Elise's at the track and I did not find them faster around anything but slower corners at best. Also, the problems I stated were heavily documented on the Lotus forum, which I have been a memeber for over a year. I have seen threads talk about all kinds of issues, regarding it's track reliability and was turned off.
Sometimes cars can be...well, over glamorized. I started thinking about a phrase an instructor once laughed about..."Lotus, for those afraid to go really fast".
Or...Lotus (Lots Of Trouble Often Serious)
