[zvezdah1]

HI All,
First off, thanks to Arnie, Clyde, Dave, Mark and the rest of the LCU, had a great visit there today. Also, met up with Kiyoshi Hamai who flew out from Cali. Last time I met kiyoshi he cleaned my clock in my first ever autocross, my 348 vs his rental taurus! I'm so embarassed.

At any rate, the whole Lotus crew are busier than I've ever seen them. Three Lotus UK employees were putting the finishing touches on the cars for next week. You'll be pleased to note the build quality was first rate and the finishes on the dash and sill protectors are textured slightly to not show scuffs.

I took one of the 111R cars out for a spin. Aside from some interior diffs. and the Lotus badge on the tail, the car is almost identical. The exhaust note is a bit quieter than the US car. Cam turnover at 6200 is still a smooth transition as I remember fromm the Sept. ride. Forgot how really quick this car is!!!!! Man I love this thing!

I happened to see the stage 2 sport exhaust, very compact and about half the weight of the standard exhaust the car comes with (I'm in for one of these, no quotes on performance yet).

Total of 12 cars for the launch. 10 US spec (including two show cars from LA) and 2 111Rs.

Colors, two ardent red, one silver, one aubergine, one magnetic blue, one storm ti., one krypton, one chrome orange, one saffron, one aubergine, two racing green.

I must say, the chrome orange is without a doubt THE color for the elise. It's truly spectacular!!!

We also went over and looked at the new LCU headquarters about 5 miles away finishing construction, 40000 sq. feet. Slated to move mid april.

Here are a few pics. The aubergine is dark so I didn't put it in here. Remember this was in the warehouse so lighting not the greatest!

First pic is the guy we all owe for fighting for years to finally get this car over, had to beg him to let me take a pic. He picked CO to stand by, Arnie has been with Lotus for over 30 years and is truly passionate about the marque.

Another pic is of Kiyoshi Hamai, elisetalk member and GGLC director. Super guy.

If I could've stopped Clyde long enough I'd of got a pic of him, maybe next time.

The whole LCU crew are as excited as I've ever seen them!!

Chris

 

[zvezdah1]

#2

 

[zvezdah1]

#3

 

[zvezdah1]

#4

 

[zvezdah1]

#5

 

[zvezdah1]

#6

 

[zvezdah1]

#7

 

[Modern Wedgie]

Damn...regreting color order now.

 

[Derek]

Hey Chris, cool pictures and info... Any interior shots?

 

[OneFastLotus]

Damnit. Now I want Chrome Orange.!


Thanks for the write up chris!

 

[MikeAR303]

#7

They've got more than one KG car???

How did it look in person, could you see the "pearlescent" properties at all?

 

[babak]

Damn...regreting color order now.

What do you want? The CO looks really good. I almost regret not having ordered a hardtop. The CO from Lotus Admin post with the HT on seems like a totally different car. I just couldn't support minimal use for such a price.

 

[Derek]

Damn...regreting color order now.

I gonna pretend you didn't just bring that up... dam chrome orange

 

[Modern Wedgie]

I couldnt order CO, not because I didnt like the color, but I needed to make a stand against the COM. But the COM was right, theres no escape...

 

[zvezdah1]

Only one Krypton car there, was particularly taken with it, seems like too bright and too much yellow tint to it. The pearlescent/met. was only noticeable close up.

They had a guy their putting on the 3m paint protection films, I watched him, took hours, he said the front clam/bumper was real challenge, did a beautiful job.

Didn't get any interior shots unfortunately, they didn't have the airbag pods in place and didn't want to take a pic without them in. Had to leave before they put them in. The dash is like the show cars but has a very fine texture to it. The vents were all moved facing towards driver passenger at the top edge of the dash. Speakers as I recall were mounted one on each corner of the dash, didn't look to see what other speakers were in the car if any.

Chris

 

[offroadr35]

i'm SOOO happy to hear and see that CO is as awesome on this car as i expected. I have lusted for about 3 years over a CO esprit that i saw. Was almost too chicken to order it for the Elise but i am unbelievably glad i did.

Thanks for the write up and pics!
-Steve

 

[Racer X]

I want Aubergine pictures!!!!!

Ok, it was dark in the warhouse, did it look almoxt black in there?

I am hoping for a car with paint like the Black Cherry available on the early 90's Corvette, only purple.

Any comments on the Aurbergine other than it was too dark iin the warehouse to take a picture?

Help the Eliseless out a little bit

Greg

P.S. any with the Sport pack?

Oops, just noticed the Krypton Green is a Sport Pack, or at least has the wheels.

 

[zvezdah1]

I think 3 or 4 were sport pack cars, but can't remember for sure.

The aubergine is a very dark purple and does indeed look like a dark eggplant, I think it'd look quite good in sunlight.

Chris

 

[mikester]

Chris - a big THANK YOU for the report and piccies, it's all good news !

P.S> I'm really jealous of you right now !

Cheers, Mike

 

[JonOrangeElise]

Chris, a few more questions:

- I'm curious as to how you get this level of access. We're you invited to see the press cars? Did you call and ask? Don't worry; I have no intention of bugging anyone who works for Lotus. I'm just curious.

- About the sport exhaust: Any news on whether this option will be available when the customer cars arrive? If not, how soon thereafter? And by any chance has Lotus discussed how the option will be implemented, i.e., any chance this will be a factory install option? (It would be nice to only pay the dealer for the exhaust and not exhaust + installation.)