[Rondo Fondu]

I own a 2008 Elise SC and have tracked it a few times this year. This is a touring suspension with no sport/track pack. The 175/16 tires push like crazy and in my opinion Lotus should be ashamed of specing that size tire on a car like this. Understeer is scary for the driver, oversteer is scary for the passenger. Getting the arse to step out on this car is possible but it takes work. My car on the track was pushing so hard in the corners that the speed scrubbed off was a major factor in the lap times. All that being said it was still fun to drive. My lap times at Pacific Raceways were in the 1:45 range, a 2005 Elise with the BWR SC, Ohlins, RAC mono's & race pads with A048's 195 front & 245 rear on RAC's was turning 1:43's. Pacific is a 2 1/4 mile course and probably wouldn't be considered a high hp course. We were running approx the same HP so the difference was elsewhere. An Exige s240 was turning around 1:41. My point is that if they were testing a 2008 Elise SC with no other mods the car is not set up as an optimum track performer even compared with a 2006 na with a LSS never mind a track pack. I'm not surprised at a 6 second difference on a longer track. Next year I'll have the rear brace, Nitron da, better tire, sway bar, brakes, wheels etc and be able to say how much of a difference it all adds up to. Knowing I was going to do all this is why I went with the base set up to begin with but still Lotus should step up the base suspension & tires to match the rest of the car, especially on their supercharged models.