Elise appearance in Northern California

Just got off the phone with Stu, there shipping out what sounds like a S2.5 from Lotus USA for the Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance at Stanford, even got him to send me a comp ticket (they've only got a handful). He said other then the motor it should be what the US version would look like (he did say something about different bumpers <edt>). Dang Matt, that the weekend of NSR. Wonder about skipping it or playing hookie from work Monday? Stu will allow test drives- if you've got a deposit down with them.

Dang it, I forgot about the Palo Alto Concours. Oh well. I'll most likely take a long lunch on Monday to go check out the car. Lemme know if you're planning on going up there that day; maybe between the two of us we can talk him into letting us drive it. After all, we may be buying our cars from Los Gatos, but Boardwalk could still win us over on the parts&service side of things...

No way I'm skipping NSR though...that drive is too much fun, and we'll have other chances to see the Elise.

Hey, if (when) you guys go, take a camera.

NSR, it is, haven't been in that area & looking forward to a long run in the '2. The Concours would have been a nice spot to check out the Elise. He's expecting to sell out his year allotment (maybe sales talk) from the show. I'll give him a call in a day or so to "book" a spot, they may get real busy after the show. How does noon sound Matt ? First time seeing a Elise, yeah I'll bring the camera & take lots of photos.

Noon would be fine.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Elise made an appearance at Concorso Italiano this August. Dealerships often display select cars for sale, and there is a substantial section devoted to non-Italian marques. If nothing else, there should be one or two S1s there, usually are.

Ooooh, I hope that Lotus does have a presence at the Concorso, I'm going there for the first time. And/or, they may show up at the Concours on Sunday....

Was going to bring that up with our dealer, but as tough as it was trying to get him to commit to our order # forgot about it. I'll give our dealer a call to check on the car before calling Stu.

mikester, I'll decide by the end of the month if I'm going to the Concorso. If I do will be showing the '2 at the Corral. If you haven't got your ticket already most likely will have a open seat/ticket (1) to get in.

Thanks for the offer LarryB, I appreciate it but It'll be four of us and we've already purchased tix, but I'll defo look for your car in the corral ! Hope to meet you there !

I take it the '2 you're referring to is the MR2, and not an S2 ;-).

Found out a bit more about the car- it's going to have front & rear bumpers & a styling change to fit them, suppose to be as close to what the US spec will look like,,, until the real one get here.

Matt, we're going have to play it by ear, Stu's not sure when the car will be back from the show, will have to give them a call in the morning to check. By Monday or Tuesday it's gone off to someother show. Talked to our dealer- they'll have to check if they can get it in Aug. They will have a Enzo & S7 to show at the Concorso.

mikester- Yes, it's a MR2 Turbo... for now I should be able to get away with calling it a '2

uh-oh, front and rear bumpers, doesn't sound very good...I know that I shouldn't pre-judge without seeing first, but I hadn't planned on the thing looking drastically different than the current S2. Picturing front and rear bumpers stuck on the Elise doesn't conjure up a pleasant image.

Now I'm a little nervous !

Larry, did BoLG ever give you your place in line? I must admit, I wasn't all that happy with the vagueness that I got talking to the new sales manager..

Well, we only need the 2.5mph bumper & there was some dead space in there... but yeah got to see what it looks like. Recall reading a online mag that the Elise in crash test would submarine & Lotus would correct it my redesigning the front skin. Guess they had to throw in the bumper too.

When I put a deposit down it was with the old GM & saw the list. Had bug Mike a week or so about the order #(that he wouldn't give me). Asked again, said he'll send out the letter to everybody, stating your order by the end of the month.

I'll be interested to see pics of the bumpers.

I was pretty much under the impression, bumpers were wavered on this car.
Chris

zvezdah1 said:

I was pretty much under the impression, bumpers were wavered on this car.

Click to expand...

With the way things are going, I'd recommend approaching this with the attitude that nothing is final until the keys are in your hand! I even read an engine rumor saying that Lotus THEMSELVES aren't even sure what engine it'll have. The rumor goes that the Lotus engineers weren't thrilled with the peaky nature of the Toyota 4-cyl, and that Toyota was offering them the V6 as an alternative. Who knows...

Talking about the motor, when I asked Stu, said Toyota or Honda ~185hp. When pressed couldn't/wouldn't say which but they are in line to make it official next month & it is going to be a 4 cyl. I agree once we've got the car & look under the hood, then we'll know for sure (it wouldn't be that bad).