With that stellar horsepower to weight ratio, quickness is simply a matter of course. I timed the Lotus to 60 in just over four seconds. Even though the Elise is only running a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, with the supercharger, the Lotus pulls like its packing a V8.
- With that stellar horsepower to weight ratio, quickness is simply a matter of course. I timed the Lotus to 60 in just over four seconds. Even though the Elise is only running a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, with the supercharger, the Lotus pulls like its packing a V8.
- The Elise is agile like a racing car too. I mean seriously, how could it not be? Its portfolio includes a mid-mounted engine; an exceedingly low center of gravity, a brilliantly sorted suspension system, and a set of low-profile Yokohama Advans so sticky you could use them to remove lint from your trousers.
- Accelerating hard from a dead stop, the Lotus spit backfires on overrun every time the throttle snapped shut for the shift from first to second. As the revs swept past 4500 RPM and the variable cam timing switched over to deep breathing, the engine note took on an intensely determined snarl, and the little car literally lunged forward in its more than successful quest to gather great heaping gobs of velocity.
- Before I knew it, I was at the braking point for a corner.
- With the pedals so perfectly placed and the throttles response the veritable picture of ideal, blipping the throttle for the heel and toe downshift felt so natural, it could have been packaged and sold with an organic label.
- And thats when I also got acquainted with the brakes. With so little weight to arrest, the Elises braking system took speed back so quickly it might as well have been the U.S Government eyeing an Indian treaty on some land recently found to be rich in petroleum, gold AND uranium.
- The crisp-shifting gearbox brought the downshift home, and the little car screamed into the curve so perfectly balanced I could get back on the throttle early to bring the rear end around. As the revs started climbing again, and that insouciantly determined snarl asserted itself again, and the accelerative forces started rapidly building again, and it all felt so good...so right...so...intoxicating AGAIN, all I could do was scream G...!
- Well, I shouldnt write that here.
- But the word God, combined with the word for a structure designed to hold back water with like twelve exclamation points behind it pretty much sums up the verbalization and tone of my enthusiastic outcry.
- I sincerely love my job!
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