Elise Tops Class In Car and Driver Track Test

[evomind]

Originally Posted by LW Elise

The Lotus Elise DID NOT BEAT THE Z06. C&D classed the cars by retail purchase price. It beat the stock C6 Corvette, and only by 1/10th of a second. They actually liked the stock Corvette better as being a better all around car that was within 1/10th of a second of the Elise.

The Z06, Viper and Ford GT all blew away the rest of the field, beating the VIR track time of 3:09 by 8 seconds at 3:01 (not exact).

The stock Vette is a terrific car and is terribly underrated. It doesn't even say if the supplied Vette had the Z51 suspension which includeds upgraded brakes, suspension and gearing change. If it didn't, then we could expect the Vette to do even better if it got rid of the runcraps and had the Z51.

I love my Elise, but if the Corvette is its match. The Z06 would put the Exige S on the trailer. Don't know how a 340 would do.

i always felt a regular c6 was on par with an elise on a roadcourse....hmmm.
i drove a z51 packaged c6. was not all that impressed as far as the suspension. way too soft. fine for the street though. z is totally different.

>>I love my Elise, but if the Corvette is its match. The Z06 would put the Exige S on the trailer. Don't know how a 340 would do. [/quote]

i dont think the elise or the exige s will match the z on a roadcourse. we'll see soon enough i suppose.

[evomind]

Originally Posted by Casey@ForcedFed

I destroyed a c6 z06 on the freeway with our 380R...but then again it's making 390whp and it weighs @1950...

maybe so, but how much would that setup cost?

keep in mind how cheap it is to get a lot more linear, useable power from the small block 427. i can get another 80hp to the wheels very easily and reliably for abt 3500 bucks including labor and tuning.

that 380r must be a hell of a ride though...

[LW Elise]

Originally Posted by foosh

I never thought I'd buy a Corvette either, but I did buy a Z06. It is truly a monster, but with gentle manners if you can control your foot. It is deceptively fast, it's so smooth you don't realize how fast you're going and have to remind yourself. It's also easy to lose quickly, and if you're not careful it will teach you a lesson with a baseball bat.

I also own an Elise, and I have to say it is far more fun to drive, and I'm more confident in the Lotus' handling and feedback. It simply communicates what it is doing way better.

I have the Lotus Elise and in the past few days drove a 2005 Viper (I owned a 2003) and a 2006 Z51 Convertible (I want to be able to take the top down).

There is no comparison in nimble handling. The Elise wins hands down. To that end I would consider either a Forcefed supercharged version of my Elise, or a move up to an Exige S (factory warranty on 218 hp- not as fast, but certainly not slow) based purely on handling.

I ruled out the Porsche GT3 on price-- I'm getting too old to drop that type of money on my toy car any longer.

It finally comes down to comfort vs. agility in my mind. The Vette does almost everything the Elise does, but not in as "connected" a manner. On the other hand, I have my soft top back on the Elise for a few days now, and I am reminded of what a pain it is to get in and out of, and just how small it feels compared to traffic surrounding it.

The Exige S would be just as uncomfortable. I'm starting to think that putting a Sector 111 wing on the Elise, with the Forcefed supercharger, or moving to a Z51 Vette Convertible are the final choices for me.

Since I already own the Elise, and trade in values are pretty bad, going the Forcefed and winged route would make for an exotic with all the punch I would ever need or want.

But the Vette would be far more usable, and I'm not going to do any serious track days.

[Terry]

This past weekend I ran with a brand new Z06 at Pocono North. The car was pretty new to its driver. Nonetheless, I must say that I was much faster through the entire infield (except the exit of turn two) and onto the bowl. Of course, he pulled me on the bowl but not at all in the high speed kink into the infield. It was a lesson as to how fast our little cars really are on the right track, where the high speed parts are limited.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by evomind

maybe so, but how much would that setup cost?

keep in mind how cheap it is to get a lot more linear, useable power from the small block 427. i can get another 80hp to the wheels very easily and reliably for abt 3500 bucks including labor and tuning.

that 380r must be a hell of a ride though...

Even with another 80 hp in the Z06, the 380 Elise would still have a better power to weight ratio. Like a mentioned before, you would need to get the Vette closer to about 700-750 hp to match Casey's Elise.

As for cost, the 380 Elise I believe is another 40K over whatever you paid for your base Elise. Since the motor is rebuilt on the 380 kit, you could just get a used Elise for 35K making the total about 75K, or about the same as a base C6 Z06. The 380 Elise also upgrades as part of the 40K the wheels, suspension, brakes, aero bits, accusump, gauges, clutch.................it is a complete turn key package.

I would say GOOD LUCK keeping up with the 380 Elise on the track with any other street legal car!

[MitchT]

The 380 is a racecar, so it should beat most anything, funny when grassroots did a similar test they put a noraml exige up against a viger comp coupe and a race prosche and a noble all car costing much more and two aren't even street legal. This type of stuff is just stupid, mag's need to compare apples to apples, race car to race car street to t street and price has to come into play. Take an elise and exige and put another 30-40 into it then comapre it tos a viper race car. Or run a exiges against a cayamn s, or a z51 vette and see some real dollar comparisions.

[SweetDaddyD]

Originally Posted by Eye Candy

Not to hijack, but has anyone put NOS in the Elise/Exige for that purpose (boost on the straights?)
I would be happy with just a nice 75 shot at the beginning of the straights.
Cheapest way to get more power on other engines.
I know it's kind of ricey, but I'm not so anxious to spend $11k more for turbo power that may or may not blow up my engine.

Yes. Well I have almost all the components in now and will be doing the install soon. My billet quick release bottle mount came in yesterday, I think all I still need is a guage bracket if I don't install the guages in the AC vents. The peanut gallery can hate all they want and it won't bother me. You can't beat the value for the money. Just something to have fun with. I don't think roadcourses allow nitrous but if you were to use it in such an application I would set it up with a window switch and progressive controller. I will start playing with just a 35 HP shot to make sure everything is going smooth and when I work up to the 75 shot I will tune it on the dyno. Found an awesome shop (actually gave me a free bottle fill) and we've actually been talking about getting me in there to do a little interning on tuning since I used to work in the field anyway. Could be fun for all.

[wcaswell]

I love my exige and would never trade it for a Zo6, but I had a chance to drive a new 2007 Z06 and the thing is ridiculous. You really need to drive one. I really dislike corvettes, always have. I got in thinking it would be a peice of crap and its far from it. The thing has so much grip, so much power, and brakes to match. I don;t think its as fun to drive on the track as more pure car like a lotus, but if you want to smoke the field, its probably the besdt thing out there for under $100k hands down. I tried numerous times to light up the rear tires and they kept gripping. The rear suspension soaks it up and it launches. It was far easier to get the car rolling and then rev it and re dump it and then it would light them up. Anyway the point is that the car had incredible grip mroe so than I would have ever expected.

[Eye Candy]

Further information regarding my question earlier: this weekend I drove my son's 99 Miata at Roebling Road for a few sessions. He had just installed a nitrous system he bought used for $650. Most of the work he did himself, and it has all sorts of little safety gadgets to keep from blowing up the engine. To use it there is a switch on his dash to open the nitrous bottle remotely, then a covered trigger switch is deployed. When you mash the throttle, on comes the nitrous, for 75 extra HP for up to a 5 second count. I took the car out with a passenger and had a blast staying right on the tail of a Mustang Cobra SVT driven solo. He would still get 750 feet ahead of me on the straightaway, but by the end of turn 3 I would catch him again and he was obviously unnerved by the pesky Miata he could not shake, as evidenced by a lot of mirror watching, slipping and sliding. The nitrous made a huge difference. Only problem is you don't want to forget to flip the switch off and then hit full throttle unexpectedly with the wheels turned.
I liked it.

[klone]

What were the lap times?

[Icedog_16]

Originally Posted by klone

What were the lap times?

$120K-$240K
Ford GT 3:00.7

$60K-$120K
Chevy Corvette Z06 3:01.1
Dodge Viper SRT10 3:01.6
BMW M6 3:10.0

$30K-$60K
Lotus Elise 3:09.2
Chevy Corvette 3:09.3
Porsche Cayman S 3:09.5
Ford Shelby GT500 3:11.0
Dodge Charger SRT8 3:18.2

Under $30K
Nissan 350Z Track 3:12.5
Mitsu Evo MR 3:13.5
Mazda RX8 3:19.0
Chevy Cobalt SS 3:20.6
VW GTI 3:20.9
Honda Civic SI 3:26.5
Mazda MX-5 3:29.3

[klone]

Impressive to say the least. I know drivers, conditions and track times can vary, but the Elise seems to hold its own regardless of any of the above.

[eliselurker]

Originally Posted by mattwhite

I think C&D was a little inaccurate regarding the longevity of the A048s. I don't have the article in front of me but didn't they say they would only be good for about 2,000 street miles? My first set lasted much longer than that - about 4,000 miles, with roughly 1,200 of those on the track.

I can atest to this. I'm at 4K, have about 2K left and am on a first name basis w/the police chief of my town (no joke!) becuase of how I hit the curves.

[jlb1001]

I'm wondering if a transverse LS6 would fit in the space left by a 2ZZ...

Just need a manual transaxle, that will bolt up to a Chebby.

Yup, I'd do it. It's not a Lotus motor anyway, so why not. hehehe

[etypeiii]

Originally Posted by jlb1001

I'm wondering if a transverse LS6 would fit in the space left by a 2ZZ...

Just need a manual transaxle, that will bolt up to a Chebby.

Yup, I'd do it. It's not a Lotus motor anyway, so why not. hehehe

Remember, the current small block Chevy does have a transverse (though not manual, as far as I know) mount application. If you had 400+ ft. lbs of torque at 3000 rpm, on a 2200 lb (with motor) chassis, do you need a manual transmission?


DLY

[jlb1001]

Yes, that's what got me thinking. The new Impalas have a transverse 5.3, which would be externally the same as any gen 3 small block. As far as I know, it's only an auto.