nelly111s
Emira Fanatic
I "should" be picking up my car tomorrow (31st July) at Hethel, so I thought I'd start a journal now.
Firstly, a bit of history
My first Lotus was a silver Elise series 2, 111 S with a stage two exhaust. I used to do a bit of salmon fishing in the Scottish Borders and did a regular trip of 150 miles each way. 90 miles of this on the motorway and 60 miles on A and B roads. The A and B roads were great, but the 90 miles on the motorway was a bit of a chore with only a five speed gearbox and a stage two exhaust - too much drone at motorway speeds.
I sold the 111S for a 111R, which had the Toyota engine and a six speed gearbox. This was much more pleasant on the motorway and despite having about 30 hp more wasn’t really that much faster, especially on the twisties. It also had the VVTi engine and revved to 8000+, with the “cam change” at 6250. The cam change was always a bit of a giggle, but since I dailied the car, having to rev the tits off it to get it to go anywhere was a bit of a bind.
I then sold the 111R, with the intention of getting an SC (the 111R engine, 2ZZ-GE, supercharged). Went to look at one, but Lotus were having a deal with 50/50 finance over 2 years at 0% (how times have changed), so I bought the S Club racer. 2ZR-FE engine, with 218HP. This revs a lot lower than the 111R, but in daily driving is much easier / more pleasant to drive - it'll easily do 30mph in 5th gear. Pressing on, in the great roads in the north of England, it's a real hoot, but I'm still not sure it's faster than the 111S with 60HP less. Just more grunt coming out of bends. Which is nice.
I thought about getting an Evora, but they never appealed somehow. The original N/A and S seemed OK and the 4xx seemed to me to be a larger Elise - just the same compromises, just more weight and power.
So,
So on to the next chapter. A red Emira, V6 manual.
Firstly, a bit of history
My first Lotus was a silver Elise series 2, 111 S with a stage two exhaust. I used to do a bit of salmon fishing in the Scottish Borders and did a regular trip of 150 miles each way. 90 miles of this on the motorway and 60 miles on A and B roads. The A and B roads were great, but the 90 miles on the motorway was a bit of a chore with only a five speed gearbox and a stage two exhaust - too much drone at motorway speeds.
I sold the 111S for a 111R, which had the Toyota engine and a six speed gearbox. This was much more pleasant on the motorway and despite having about 30 hp more wasn’t really that much faster, especially on the twisties. It also had the VVTi engine and revved to 8000+, with the “cam change” at 6250. The cam change was always a bit of a giggle, but since I dailied the car, having to rev the tits off it to get it to go anywhere was a bit of a bind.
I then sold the 111R, with the intention of getting an SC (the 111R engine, 2ZZ-GE, supercharged). Went to look at one, but Lotus were having a deal with 50/50 finance over 2 years at 0% (how times have changed), so I bought the S Club racer. 2ZR-FE engine, with 218HP. This revs a lot lower than the 111R, but in daily driving is much easier / more pleasant to drive - it'll easily do 30mph in 5th gear. Pressing on, in the great roads in the north of England, it's a real hoot, but I'm still not sure it's faster than the 111S with 60HP less. Just more grunt coming out of bends. Which is nice.
I thought about getting an Evora, but they never appealed somehow. The original N/A and S seemed OK and the 4xx seemed to me to be a larger Elise - just the same compromises, just more weight and power.
So,
- Having had a car with a loud exhaust, I know I don’t need one (well, for 5% of the time, maybe)
- Having had a car with high revs, I know it's not for me (well, for 5% of the time, maybe)
- Having had a supercharged car, I love the linear performance and low rev torque
- Having had a silver Elise, I'd say that driving a small, grey car with rubbish headlights at twilight in England is the nearest thing you can get to an invisibility cloak
- Having had many people shout nice things at me with the roof off in my cars, even though I'm an introvert, it makes me smile.
- Having got to the age (60) where my wife's had a new hip and I'm due one "soon", I know that getting into and out of an Elise is getting more ungainly.
So on to the next chapter. A red Emira, V6 manual.
- Red is the fastest colour.
- More cylinders are better.
- Automatics are for washing machines.
