RE: Lotus Elise SC
Discussion
Well the 500 is shorter, has a smaller (and thus lighter) engine to start with (Changing it from 1.2 to 1.4 sport spec adds on 65kg), the wheels are smaller, the brakes are smaller, the clutch will be less robust - All these things mean less weight, if you put lower spec kit on the Elise and chopped a good chunk off the back, you'd get the weight down as well 
AFAIK airbags are now compulsory along with lots of other safety kit, hence the weight going up.
AFAIK airbags are now compulsory along with lots of other safety kit, hence the weight going up.
The Pits said:
er, lets get some perspective here. A ford focus weighs 1300kgs and that's being kind. So the Elise SC is 400 kgs lighter. That's virtually a whole caterham lighter.
anything under 1000kgs is superlight.
don't go with that view, 1000Kg's is a shed load for a 'lightwight' sportscar...anything under 1000kgs is superlight.
there are quite a few all steel cars under that, even with iron blocked engines.
consider that the orriginal Elise is over 200Kg's less and that was over the target set for it.
The original target for the elise was 575kg, (without doors) when they decided to go with doors the target was raised to 650kg The first cars (one of which i bought) were closer to 750kg!....wich is still 150kg less than the car we are discussing here.
IMO reduing weight is more a question of philosophy rather then spec or materials. Of course those things are important but more important is to create a car where low weight is a primary design philosophy. Thats how Lotus started the Elise project, i just do not think they follow this philosophy with much comittment anymore. (either because they do not have the budget or they feel its not critical to their target audience, rightly or wrongly)
IMO reduing weight is more a question of philosophy rather then spec or materials. Of course those things are important but more important is to create a car where low weight is a primary design philosophy. Thats how Lotus started the Elise project, i just do not think they follow this philosophy with much comittment anymore. (either because they do not have the budget or they feel its not critical to their target audience, rightly or wrongly)
The Mk1 was so loud and impractical you may as well have bought a caterham and saved even more mass for added weekend fun. My 111R was slightly less insane, but still iwas only any good as summer toy. For me, all elise variants sit in the uncomftable middle ground between a practical boxter and real track weaponry. Neither one thing nor the other, just a compromise.
zagato said:
The Mk1 was so loud and impractical you may as well have bought a caterham and saved even more mass for added weekend fun. ...For me, all elise variants sit in the uncomftable middle ground between a practical boxter and real track weaponry. Neither one thing nor the other, just a compromise.
Having owned a couple of S1 Elises and a Caterham, I'm not sure I'd agree with that. The Caterham is a just about acceptable as a road car but better suited as a track machine. The Elise is a remarkably competent 'weekend' road car (and a practical everyday car, if you are tough enough) that's also reasonably credible on the track.I'd say it fills the gap between everyday sportscars like the Boxster and S2000 and the weapons-grade track day cars remarkably well.
It's the later 'soft' Elises, with cupholders, air con and carpets that don't make any sense - all the 'wooliness' of a Boxster with none of the real practicality?
kambites said:
dinkel said:
Would the 'Noble' V6 fit?
Someone managed to shoehorn a Audi V6 into the back of one but it required some serious work to get it to fit, including completely removing the boot. 
Quick question: I love the Elise, always have... In the real world, how easy is the S2 to live with? I'm not talking about general city driving (I'm guessing that, getting in and out excepted, it'd be pretty ok), but what about long-distance road trips? Hours of motorway driving to get to that fabled road in Scotland or the South of France...
These are drives I do regularly, and lost luggage room aside, would the S2 (with the Probax seats) be a step too far for me and, more importantly, the girlfriend?
These are drives I do regularly, and lost luggage room aside, would the S2 (with the Probax seats) be a step too far for me and, more importantly, the girlfriend?
urban_alchemist said:
Quick question: I love the Elise, always have... In the real world, how easy is the S2 to live with? I'm not talking about general city driving (I'm guessing that, getting in and out excepted, it'd be pretty ok), but what about long-distance road trips? Hours of motorway driving to get to that fabled road in Scotland or the South of France...
These are drives I do regularly, and lost luggage room aside, would the S2 (with the Probax seats) be a step too far for me and, more importantly, the girlfriend?
The Elise, especially the later ones, are much better than many people would expect at long trips but it's certainly not their forte. They're comfortable enough (as long as you don't mind hard seats) and ride fairly well at speed but they're pretty noisy inside and that gets draining on long trips. Also, the very thing that makes them so good on back-roads, the wealth of information they give to the driver, becomes tiring on long trips because you find yourself correcting for things you wouldn't even have noticed in a normal car.These are drives I do regularly, and lost luggage room aside, would the S2 (with the Probax seats) be a step too far for me and, more importantly, the girlfriend?
400 mile trips in an Elise are doable but you need to be pretty dedicated.
kambites said:
urban_alchemist said:
Quick question: I love the Elise, always have... In the real world, how easy is the S2 to live with? I'm not talking about general city driving (I'm guessing that, getting in and out excepted, it'd be pretty ok), but what about long-distance road trips? Hours of motorway driving to get to that fabled road in Scotland or the South of France...
400 mile trips in an Elise are doable but you need to be pretty dedicated.The worst problem with the standard S1 was that the seat base had naff all padding, so your bum went bumb after about 150 miles and you had to stop for a de-numbing break. That wouldn't be an issue with the latest S2 seats, though.
kambites said:
[400 mile trips in an Elise are doable but you need to be pretty dedicated.
My best road trip was 1000 miles in a single day with the 111S from London to venice through the http://www.timmelsjoch-hochalpenstrasse.at/home.ht...
(yes i arrived tired).
edoardo said:
kambites said:
[400 mile trips in an Elise are doable but you need to be pretty dedicated.
My best road trip was 1000 miles in a single day with the 111S from London to venice through the http://www.timmelsjoch-hochalpenstrasse.at/home.ht...
(yes i arrived tired).
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