Technorati Tags: 30k, Audi Rs4, Cabriolet, Corvette Z06, Giant Fan, Lotus Elise, New Sports, Pointers, Porsche 911, Porsche 911 Cabriolet, Porsche Cayman, Quot, Resale Value, Speed And Performance, Sports Car, Sporty Car, Third Choice, Thousand Miles, Toyota Engine, Warranty Insurance

There is a British Show called topgear where they test all sorts of cars. The elise performed better than lamborghinis, porsches, aston martins and god knows what else.

The Exige S was like only 1 second behind a Pagani Zonda!!!

Check it out here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/powerlaps.shtml

Technorati Tags: All Sorts, Bbc, Lotus, Lotus Elise, Lotus Exige, Martins, Monte Carlo, Mustang Gt, nissan, Nissan 350z, Pagani, Pontiac, Pontiac Gto, Porsches, Resale Value, Shtml, Toyota, Toyota Mr2, Viper, Www Bbc Co Uk

Elises and particularly Exiges are intense driving machines that will give enormous driving pleasure – even at moderate speed. They are not big comfortable bruisers that will let you cruise effortlessly and then go fast once in a while.

Many Lotus owners come from bikes, and except from some very extreme trackday specials, these cars are as close to pure racing as you can probably get with plates and waranty.

Technically, they are brilliant designs – immensely stiff chassis yet one third lighter than a plain spec Miata. General quality is decent, engines are Toyota and will last. These cars are hand assembled, so you may find slight niggles that you would not find on a 350Z or M3.

The only real answer is that these cars are so special that you really need to drive one. I love driving these, but I could never live with one as a daily driver.

Technorati Tags: Brilliant Designs, Bruisers, Chassis, Elises, Engined Cars, Lotus Elise, Lotus Exige, Lotus Owners, Moderate Speed, Monte Carlo, Mustang Gt, Nissan 350z, Pontiac, Pontiac Gto, Resale Value, S2, Spec Miata, Toyota Mr2, Viper, Waranty

Cars in the class:

Alfa Romeo Spider
Audi TT
BMW Z4
Mazda MX5
Mercedes SLK
Toyota MR2
Lotus Elise
Vauxhall VX220 or VX220 Turbo

The Mazda MX5 is the most popular, best-selling, sports car in the world — for good reasons.

Technorati Tags: Alfa Romeo, Alfa Romeo Spider, Audi Tt, Best Car, bmw, Bmw Z4, Cars, Lotus, Lotus Elise, Mazda, Mazda Mx5, Mercedes Slk, Selling Sports, Sports Car, Sports World, Toyota, Toyota Mr2, Vauxhall Vx220

99-01 Porsche 911 non-turbo
96-98 Porsche 911 non-turbo
Lotus Elise
Toyota Supra
Acura NSX
Lexus SC430
1998 Aston Martin DB7
1994-1998 Dodge Viper

Any other suggestions would be appreciated

Thanks

BMW M3 2004

*
Had a ‘02 330ci before upgrading to the ‘04 M3. The 330ci was awesome but the M3 is hands down the best car for your money. If you are looking for an ultra high performance luxury car, look no further. There is no other car on the market that can compare when it comes to the price/performance ratio – factor in BMW reputation, quality, and service and you’ve got yourself the ultimate driving machine.(copied from Scott from Portland, OR)

The M3 is truly a gem. For $30k you can pick up a used M3 that outperforms sports cars costing more than twice as much. No other car in the history of sports cars has received as much praise than the M3, and for good reason. The M3 gives you the best of everything in the sports car category. No other sports car will give you the performance, quality, safety and understated styling that the M3 can.
(copied from James)

Technorati Tags: 330ci, Acura Nsx, Aston Martin, Aston Martin Db7, Bmw M3, Car Category, Dodge Viper, Exotic Car, Exotic Cars, History Of Sports, Lexus Sc430, Lotus Elise, Performance Quality, Performance Ratio, Porsche 911, Price Performance, Quality Safety, Reputation Quality, Sports Cars, Toyota Supra

there is nothing wrong with top gear

and as it happens go to my website

www.lotusulie.com and you will see that in fact i do have a keen intrest in my car

thank u

You come on here looking for advice and get abused by people who think they know best, nice eh mate?

You need to arrange a turbo conversion before you start thinking about dump valves etc (no you can’t fit one unless you have a turbo). A specialist elise/lotus forum would be a much better place to ask for info about this, I know little of lotus modifications but hope this advice is a little more helpfull than the other answerers.

Good luck with your car.

Technorati Tags: Advice, Dump Valve, Dump Valves, Fit, Good Luck, Hello, Helpfull, Intrest, Keen, Lotus, Lotus Elise, Steam, Top Gear, Turbo Conversion, Website Www

Technorati Tags: Close Match, Different Story, Lancer Evolution, Lotus, Lotus Elise, Nascar

BOE systems are designed specifically for the Lotus Elise/Exige platform by BOE and Coast Fabrication working in concert. Coast Fab is the culmination of the legendary Dan Gurney race team (who coincidentally was a winning Lotus team from the 60’s).

Several folks have commented it is quieter than stage 2 around town(due to lack of drone) Aggressive, but not raspy off-CAM. On-CAM description best taken from bystanders: “Sounds like a Formula 1 car!”, “Crisp and not raspy”, and our favorite: “Bad-Ass!!!!”

A lot of initial testing was done and the final version was chosen after trying many different combinations of silencer diameter, core diameter, length, and packing material consistency to get great power, great sound, and kill the annoying drone present in so many exhausts including the factory and stage II systems.

One of the best features is that the Silent Touch and Quarter-Stick are rebuild able. After a couple of seasons of hard racing, you can undo the end cap and rebuild the exhaust with an inexpensive rebuild kit.

• 304 Stainless construction
• Mandrel bent exit pipe
• 100% TIG welded
• 2.5″ straight-through design reduces back pressure to support high power applications.

BOE exhausts have been tested on cars with 320HP both on and off the race track!

Recently, these mufflers were on the Brumos car that won Daytona 24 hour this year and the winning Sun Trust car in 2005 of the prototype cars. The only modern podium car they’re not on is the Ganassi car, as they have their own exhaust. Just about everyone else uses Coast. They’re THAT GOOD.

You’ll find pics of these mufflers glowing red hot and they’ll stay that way for the whole race. The same muffler will often get used for 3, 4, or 5 races. Most track day enthusiasts don’t come even close to working the exhaust that hard in years worth of use.

Current exhausts on the market all use fiberglass packing and most are NOT rebuild able. Fiberglass will simply burn up and blow-out over time with the ultra short exhaust tracts of the Elise/Exige, a very short time if you track your car! You’re then left with a loud exhaust that actually robs power and isn’t rebuild able!

The “Quarter-Stick” uses 100% stainless-steel packing, which is far more heat resistant and much longer lasting than fiberglass. In the quieter “Silent Touch” version they use a stainless/fiberglass hybrid that provides much higher heat tolerance than pure fiberglass, but maintains a very light weight. Both are rebuild able.

Critical to any racer, especially the Lotus owner. These are the lightest exhausts on the market for the Lotus: Including all the clamps, mounting rod, tip and silencer, The Quarter-Stick weighs in at just over 8lbs! The silent touch only a bit over 11lbs!

Now we get to the best part! These exhausts were extensively tested for great sound as well as power production.

Off-cam it has a deeper, richer sound than stock and about the same volume. No drone. On-cam a bit louder than stock, more aggressive, but deeper, crisper, and with no drone. Very liveable on a day-to-day basis. Customers tell us its about a loud as their old 8″ exhaust, but deeper tone.

Currently both exhaust are a “high exit” which require removing part of the heat shielding and either trimming or removing one of the rear side panels. We recommend the Von Hep license plate bracket that replaces the rear panel.

You can find out more info from BWR at http://www.blackwatchracing.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1099

Technorati Tags: Bad Ass, Boe, Bystanders, Core Diameter, Dan Gurney, Daytona 24 Hour, Drone, Exhaust Systems, Formula 1 Car, Lotus Elise, Lotus Elise Exige, Lotus Team, Mandrel, Moderate Volume, Mufflers, Packing Material, Power Applications, Prototype Cars, Stainless Construction, Sun Trust

Technorati Tags: Amp, Gto, Lotus, Lotus Elise, Lotus Exige, Mustang Saleen, Pontiac, Pontiac Gto, Reliability, Saleen

Eleven
Elite
Elan
Elan +2
Europa
Elite again
Eclat
Esprit
Excel
Elan again
Elise
Exige
Europa again
Evora
Esprit again coming soon.

Some of the names have meaning others are just nonsense. Elise was the name of the then Chairman of the Board’s granddaughter. Exige is the singular present tense conjugation of a somewhat obscure French verb to demand i.e. I demand. The original Europa was designed for the European market and had a French Renault engine. Although Evora is a town in Portugal and the name of a dress shop in England, Lotus has denied that it is named after either but is simply a name they made up presumably because they thought is sounded cool and could be copyrighted.

There were a few prototypes that got E names as well that were never built. There was a Esprit replacement that was called the Etna, after the volcano in Italy, which was never built and the Evora was called the Eagle throughout its development but it was decided the name could not easily be copyrighted.

Slightly embarrassed that I know all that

Jim

Technorati Tags: Chairman Of The Board, Dress Shop, Eclat, French Verb, Granddaughter, Lotus, Lotus 7, Lotus Elan, Lotus Eleven, Lotus Elise, Lotus Esprit, Lotus Exige, Lotus Models, Lotus Super 7, Prototypes, Renault Engine, Road Cars, Roman Numeral, Tense Conjugation, Volcano