1st time you fell in love with your car....?
Discussion
Thought an interesting thread could develop from the question of: what was the scene/time/place when you 1st fell properly in love with your Lotus? I'm not just talking about when you test-drove it, more like when you fell 100% for it?
To start off, mine was the day after I brought it home when I took it on a local road that had a fast, sweeping downhill 90deg left hand bend. I wanted to try to explore the car's handling (and my talents!) and pushed it as hard as I dared to - about 60% of what I know it can do now - and felt the amazing adjustability and response through every fibre of my body.
The feeling I got for those few seconds was pure electricity throughout my being - not since falling in love with my fiance have I felt so alive and exhilerated.
No other car driven before or since has made me feel that way. This is the special bond a Lotus gives me and I LOVE IT!!!!!
To start off, mine was the day after I brought it home when I took it on a local road that had a fast, sweeping downhill 90deg left hand bend. I wanted to try to explore the car's handling (and my talents!) and pushed it as hard as I dared to - about 60% of what I know it can do now - and felt the amazing adjustability and response through every fibre of my body.
The feeling I got for those few seconds was pure electricity throughout my being - not since falling in love with my fiance have I felt so alive and exhilerated.
No other car driven before or since has made me feel that way. This is the special bond a Lotus gives me and I LOVE IT!!!!!
I liked it a lot... but only loved it when I probably started to mod it about 8 years in.
It took me a long time and several cars later to overcome my first love. I think I must have been grieving for nearly 10 years.. the last 8 of which included Elise ownership.
Ashes to ashes has not helped either.
It took me a long time and several cars later to overcome my first love. I think I must have been grieving for nearly 10 years.. the last 8 of which included Elise ownership.
Ashes to ashes has not helped either.
A few weeks after I got the elise and the first decent bit of weather, I went off for a drive, four hours later I found myself on a mountain road in Kerry (Ireland) and I proceeded to fling it up one side and down t'other and every corner I chucked it at it just seemed to cry out for more. Faster than I ever believed a car could corner, and all the time communicating every ripple of the road to me. Its been love every since.
Really hope we get a decent summer this year
Really hope we get a decent summer this year
Edited by patmahe on Friday 14th March 11:31
Scuffers said:
Boggy said:
Did you win then Simon? Which race were you competing in? That's my dream! If I could win a class A race in the Trophy I'd be a very happy man
Boggy
Nope...Boggy
it was the first Britcar 24H race (2005), bringing the Elise home 2nd in Cup class...
Boggy
Philygumbo said:
When I picked mine up from Milton Keynes, and drove all the way to Poole with a stiffy.
Yeah, the hard seats will do that ... 
I fell in love with the Elise in 1997, which happened to be my first year of secondary school. A Norfolk Mustard Yellow S1 pulled up outside the school gates to collect a girl who was in my class ... Everyone crowded around in awe ... The design was so radical (Well it was to an 11 year old!) in comparison to the other euroboxes parked beside. Roof down n' all - It was then I promised myself I'd own one at some point in my life!
Im the Elizabeth Taylor of car owners.
I fall in love with a car, eat the wedding cake, enjoy the honeymoon and then it goes pear shaped and i fall in love with another car and the cycle continues.
Biggest downside is that when i divorce my cars i dont end up with a big fat wedge like Elizabeth Taylor does.
I fall in love with a car, eat the wedding cake, enjoy the honeymoon and then it goes pear shaped and i fall in love with another car and the cycle continues.
Biggest downside is that when i divorce my cars i dont end up with a big fat wedge like Elizabeth Taylor does.
I know it's the cop-out answer that you didn't want, but I first fell in love with the Elise S2 111S when I test drove one at Bell and Colvill just over two years ago. I was after another car and had a clear idea of what I wanted: practical for everyday but natural to drive with excellent ride and handling. Up to the day that I walked through the door of B&C I'd driven a myriad of other cars: NSX, S2000, Noble M400, Elise S1, 350Z, Boxster S, various BMWs, an MX5 and an S15 200SX. Nothing had really hit the spot though; I knew I hadn't found what I was really looking for. My first test drive at B&C was in an S2 sport 160 that the salesman suggested I might like. It had only just come in, and the tracking and tyre pressues were a bit out. It was nice, but not quite what I was after. Then, the salesman walked towards a 111S and suggested that we went out in that. I jumped straight into the driver's seat, started it up and pulled out of the dealership onto the road. Within about 5 minutes I knew it was the car I wanted. It was as if everything I wanted in a car had come together at once at a resonate frequency and everything had suddenly become crystal clear and obvious - this car was perfect! The exact moment that thought entered my head was on a bumpy 40 limit near Bell and Colvill - I could feel everything coming through the seat, the steering feel was delicious, the ride perfectly judged, and all the controls felt natural and well weighted. Plus, I was having a calm conversation with the salesman next to me without undue noise in the cabin. That car wasn't for sale, it was just a demo, but we swapped details and I went home and poured over different colours. I wanted a discreet colour, and fancied blue, but I decided that Laser Blue was too light for me and midnight blue was too dark... Hmm! I decided it might be an idea to test drive a 111R, but that failed to interest me, so I continued looking for a 111S. I found a mint Atlantic Blue (halfway between those two colours I'd rejected) 111S at Wilson's Lotus, went to look at it on a Saturday morning and left a deposit after a ten minute drive confirmed the same magic that I'd experienced a few weeks earlier at Bell and Colvill was present in 'my' car.
I suppose the true answer to the question came later on. About this time last year, I'd already used the car to drive to work and back everyday, a few weekends away and a long trip to Germany. I'd driven it round the Nurburgring in the dry, and in a downpour at Bedford Autodrome. It just gradually dawned on me that everything I had thought that day at Bell and Colvill was right, and was still right a year on. This was the best road car I'd ever driven, and for various legislative and market driven reasons was the best I was probably likely to ever drive. I never want to sell it
I suppose the true answer to the question came later on. About this time last year, I'd already used the car to drive to work and back everyday, a few weekends away and a long trip to Germany. I'd driven it round the Nurburgring in the dry, and in a downpour at Bedford Autodrome. It just gradually dawned on me that everything I had thought that day at Bell and Colvill was right, and was still right a year on. This was the best road car I'd ever driven, and for various legislative and market driven reasons was the best I was probably likely to ever drive. I never want to sell it
RobM77 said:
This was the best road car I'd ever driven, and for various legislative and market driven reasons was the best I was probably likely to ever drive. I never want to sell it
Oohhh it was hard enough reading this as it is, thinking how much I like my car, and then you point out all that's great about S2 111S.As I need a 3rd seat, mine's going up for sale in a month's time daggnammit.
mahju said:
RobM77 said:
This was the best road car I'd ever driven, and for various legislative and market driven reasons was the best I was probably likely to ever drive. I never want to sell it
Oohhh it was hard enough reading this as it is, thinking how much I like my car, and then you point out all that's great about S2 111S.As I need a 3rd seat, mine's going up for sale in a month's time daggnammit.
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