[DeanG]

Originally Posted by Doghouse

Hmmm let's see there was this guy named Collin and he had this idea that lightness was the key to automotive performance on track and that form should follow function / performance. The idea was quite revolutionary because at the time the other car guys were building big heavy high horsepower cars and corresponding street cars were even bigger and heavier and had lots of gadgets and some of them even looked pretty. I think he started a company that had the basic engineering approach that the performance of a car should be measured, hmmm let's see, .... on a track. Collin and his company came to be famous for building light, nimble, no-frills, track cars and trackable street cars that 99% of automotive drivers found to be too harsh, too uncomfortable, too small, etc...

I don't associated 1950's era race cars with frills. Most seem fairly basic to me. Now Chapman did build cars by repurposing and parts bin engineering. Once the 60s rolled around it seems pretty clear there was a great distinction between Lotus race cars and road cars. The cars where the line is blurred between race and road are the Type 14 and the Seven.

Originally Posted by Doghouse

When a first car weighs nearly 1900 lbs more than the second car that you are comparing it to and the first car has only 17-20 hp more than the second car, the first car (IMHO) is rightly called a big fat pig of a car.

I believe you are the one comparing the various models of Lotus not I. Now I would be willing to speak ill of many of the modern high performance sports cars and super cars. I will reserve judgement in the Evora until I have driven one.

Originally Posted by Doghouse

Perhaps someone from Lotus is reading / listening and appreciates a difference in opinion. They are big boys and girls, they hopefully can figure it out. If they want me to save them from making a big mistake, well that's going to cost them money.

At LOG a representative of LCU (I believe it was Dave Simpken (sp), a wonderful, kind & hard working fellow, with at title something like west coast service manager) said that part of his job was to read LotusTalk.

Originally Posted by Doghouse

Indeed Lotus is clearly not retaining the best features of the Elise / Exige and that is too bad in my opinion. Unfortunately the success of the Elise / Exige was because it did provide something unique to the automotive market. That uniqueness was it's raw driving experience and nimbleness (i.e. the very same ideas that some guy named Collin thought was important.) and drop dead exterior lines.

I believe that the last Lotus that received direct input from Collin Chapman was the Esprit. An up market car over previous cars. Would the equation hold Evora / Elise = Esprit / Europa?

Originally Posted by Doghouse

Enjoy your Evora and the associated creature comforts, just don't be upset when it does not perform as well as an Elise / Exige.

I hope to have an Evora (a light blue convertible with automatic please) some day and I don't think I will be dissatisfied. That will leave our 1958 Seven for spirited open air motoring and allow me to say disparaging things about Elise owners like "Real men drive Sevens, those posers in their Elise don't understand true sports cars". Our 1967 Elan, the best handling car in the world, for communing with the road and allow me to say disparaging things about Elise owners like "The fat tires, A/C and ABS of the Elise keep the poor Elise drivers from experiencing true subtlety of a drivers car." Our 1991 Elan for short pleasure trips and allow me to say disparaging things about Elise owners like "Poor souls, If they only had a true convertible that is vice less and practical they would be much happier. Maybe they should try and Evora"