Drove a Lotus
Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 1:56 pm
A mildly tweaked Exige S to be precise. It was AWESOME. 
Sister-in-law's father-in-law (David) owns it and since no one in his family actually appreciates cars (they just see it as the mid life crisis car for him) he offered me a drive. Took it out for a run to the west of Canberra on some great roads (a couple have been used as tarmac rally stages in the past). It was pretty intimidating at first - having to crane your neck up to see Commodore drivers is a little different and having no rear view mirror, just the wing mirrors is a bit odd too. But it didn't take too long to start to settle in. The steering is amazing - unassisted, of course, so full of feel. Incredibly direct too - I only had to move my hands from 9 & 3 at the tightest of round abouts and the wheel itself is only about the size of my G25. And then there's the straight line speed - 180+ kw in 900kgs goes alright (around 4 seconds for the 0-100 sprint). The supercharger whine was unreal and power delivery really flat. The tacho barely has any increments before it shows 3000rpm (much like a lot of speedos don't really show much under 20 km/h) and that's where the engine likes to live. I didn't take it to redline but at 7000rpm she was still very willing and in no danger of running out of puff. Once the tyres were warmed up it just stuck. I stopped looking at the speedo and the posted corner speed recommendations and just went with feel and looked down after a while to see I was doing crazy things like 70km/h in 30km/h corners (I know you can go well above these but once they're that tight I usually slow down to at least 50!) without breaking a sweat. David just said that I was still taking it easy and it could go so much quicker. Sensible Mick wasn't too sensible for once with regards to speed limits but I've never driven a car before that felt so at ease so far above them. David has promised me another drive after he gets a new supercharger fitted which should liberate another 100bhp or so but it was really the handling that stayed with me (well, that and the manic engine noise). Can't wait.
Sister-in-law's father-in-law (David) owns it and since no one in his family actually appreciates cars (they just see it as the mid life crisis car for him) he offered me a drive. Took it out for a run to the west of Canberra on some great roads (a couple have been used as tarmac rally stages in the past). It was pretty intimidating at first - having to crane your neck up to see Commodore drivers is a little different and having no rear view mirror, just the wing mirrors is a bit odd too. But it didn't take too long to start to settle in. The steering is amazing - unassisted, of course, so full of feel. Incredibly direct too - I only had to move my hands from 9 & 3 at the tightest of round abouts and the wheel itself is only about the size of my G25. And then there's the straight line speed - 180+ kw in 900kgs goes alright (around 4 seconds for the 0-100 sprint). The supercharger whine was unreal and power delivery really flat. The tacho barely has any increments before it shows 3000rpm (much like a lot of speedos don't really show much under 20 km/h) and that's where the engine likes to live. I didn't take it to redline but at 7000rpm she was still very willing and in no danger of running out of puff. Once the tyres were warmed up it just stuck. I stopped looking at the speedo and the posted corner speed recommendations and just went with feel and looked down after a while to see I was doing crazy things like 70km/h in 30km/h corners (I know you can go well above these but once they're that tight I usually slow down to at least 50!) without breaking a sweat. David just said that I was still taking it easy and it could go so much quicker. Sensible Mick wasn't too sensible for once with regards to speed limits but I've never driven a car before that felt so at ease so far above them. David has promised me another drive after he gets a new supercharger fitted which should liberate another 100bhp or so but it was really the handling that stayed with me (well, that and the manic engine noise). Can't wait. 
