Top Gear, The Stig, & The Elise

[Dave]

I've been watching Top Gear for only about a month now...what a great show. It lead me to find their website to check out the Stig's lap times from earlier shows: http://www.topgear.com/content/tgonb...times/thestig/

The Exige pulled in 21st out of 66...quite respectable. And the Elise 58th A whopping 2 positions better than a Honda Civic and 3 seconds slower than a Ford Focus???? What's up with that number? Surely this isn't the 190HP motor. Any long-time viewers have any idea what model was tested? Was the Stig nursing a hangover that day?

[rnr]

I believe the Elise they tested was the 111S with the 1.8 K series engine that produces 143 bhp. The exige they tested used the the 1.8 out of our federal Elise

[andykeck]

Originally Posted by rnr

I believe the Elise they tested was the 111S with the 1.8 K series engine that produces 143 bhp. The exige they tested used the the 1.8 out of our federal Elise

Something like that. It was certainly a Rover-engined Elise, not the Fed. car.

[BrianK]

Not only that, but it was sopping wet out when tested - as in puddles of water on the course. I wish they would test them all on a dry track for comparion's sake.

[shinoo]

Originally Posted by BrianK

I wish they would test them all on a dry track for comparion's sake.

Brian, you've been living too long in the Southwest. It actually rains on a weekly basis everywhere else....

[SillyPuppy]

That's correct, rnr, the Elise was the standard Rover engine, while the Exige uses the Toyota enginer (the beginning of the clip explains that... sales of the Elise in Europe were plummeting, so they've decided to start selling it in America. But they needed a different engine to get around all the "US emissions rubbish. So they got one. From a Toyota! *audience groans, Jeremy corrects the audience's reaction*... )

Yes, I've watched that particular clip WAY too many times.

And it would be nice if they could test all the cars under the same conditions, but unfortunately, I don't think Pink Floyd's drummer was going to let them hold onto his Enzo until the weather got better (although I think the Enzo weather was good, you get the point...)

Orrie

[keith86a]

What a pathetic performance for the rover-engined elise! This just proves that handling is nothing without power, a fact that many on this board dont want to admit. Too bad they dont have 240R in that list to further prove that point!

[Vantage]

Most people aren't saying the car doesn't need more power to do better at a high speed track. That definitely seems to be the limiting factor against the likes of Porsche. What they are saying is that the added power needs to be drivable in a certain way. At least that what people are saying now, whether or not you believe they changed their statements from before.

- J

PS: BTW guys, I believe the Rover 111S time was on a very wet track.

[MikeP]

I don't know why they don't include the Noble M400 on the list since The Stig did a 1:22.2 with one lap.

To compare, a Noble M12 2.5l in heavy rain managed only 1:33.1

[andykeck]

Remember that it was the even lower powered, 120bhp version of that "pathetic" Rover-engined Elise that prompted Road and Track to print this:

OF THE MOST OFTEN ASKED questions of an automotive journalist is, "So, which is the best car you've ever driven?" And providing a defini-tive answer is virtually impossible...it's a bit like asking Ben Cartwright who his favorite son was (although we all know it was Hoss). In the past, I re-sponded by supplying a long list of au-tomobiles mostly too obscure for any-one to recognize, thus making them regret ever attempting to converse with me. However, I now welcome the op-portunity because I have a clear-cut response: the Lotus Elise.

[Troy_Audio]

Sweet I knew I was right.. My buddy was like that car is slow as hell..lol
Im like ok man you get your Civic & I will see you when you show up..lol
I told him look at the Exige Time..
Peace Troy

[redbull1983]

both times are with wet track...in particular the 111S made the same time of a 575 M also with wet track

[shay2nak]

They're not showing Top Gear next week. Is the season over?

[milehitom]

Top Gear is indeed done for the season. They start up again in the UK in November. Then they have to re-edit the show for U.S. audiences-maybe they chop out words like "bonnet" and "grotty." It's the best automotive show I've ever seen primarily because they explore the fun aspect of cars and give us looks at cars we may never have a chance to see without a passport stamp. Look for the Discovery Channel to fire up the new season soon!

[SouL]

For all your top gear/5th gear needs:
http://www.finalgear.com/

That site is on top of whatever is going on with those 2 shows. A good resource for where to find downloads of the episodes.

[delliott00]

This is a much more comprehensive Stig Top Gear lap time list.

http://www.supercars.net/PitLane?vie...ID=0&tID=10264

And if anyone needs previous Top Gear/5th Gear episodes, I've downloaded the last 4 seasons using BitTorrent. Takes a while but its free!

Go here: www.mininova.org and search for either Top Gear or Fifth Gear.

The new season of Fifth Gear has started in the UK and its pretty good. They are also doing a lap time database.

-Dave

[meat]

Originally Posted by keith86a

What a pathetic performance for the rover-engined elise! This just proves that handling is nothing without power, a fact that many on this board dont want to admit.

I'm not sure where to start here, but obviously this person has a testosterone problem.

[psionix]

Originally Posted by meat

I'm not sure where to start here, but obviously this person has a testosterone problem.

but he can get away with it because his car is turboed.

[alexio]

how about this video... go to downloads section & watch "lotus vs. apache"... totally nuts... .NUTS!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/downloads/

[doma]

I've started watching 5th gear. The Tivo can't find Top Gear, though the internets are a great place to find those episodes.

5Th gear has these theams like 'armoring cars' and 'how do movie cars blow up they way they do'. *shrug* I just like the car reviews however. The rest seems like extra fluff eh?