I saw a car magazine show about the original S1 Elise back in the late 90's. I was driving a 944 and LOVED how it handled with it's even wt distribution and torquey engine. Elise seemed the pinnacle of that mentality. The closest dealer at the time was Ferrari of Denver (back they they were actually listed as a dealer before being unlisted and relisted) I called to put a deposit down, they had a few but the sales rep actually talked me out of putting the 500 down since there was no plan whatsoever for the car to come to US. So I held out till the fedelise was announced.