Well I finally did it, I’ve finally ordered my new play thing the Lotus Elise R.
Last Sunday I woke up very nervous knowing I had booked to goto the dealer and finally make that decision between the Elise and the Exige. After countless bits of advise from everyone saying “if your living in Australia I have got to go for the convertible!” and that all starting to make sense I ordered the Elise R.
The car itself I specced during the week after going all over the net looking at photos and advice on the options for the car and in the end I have specced it with Polar Blue paint, Black wheels with Black rear under tray, Touring Pack and Sports Pack with the LSD. The light colour of the Polar Blue paint I thought looked really contrasting compared to the other darker colours when paired with the darker black wheels and Black rear under tray. It was this picture from a US spec Lotus Elise in Polar Blue that really stood out and made me realise it was the colour I wanted to go for:

As for the other options, well the Touring pack, add’s a better Stereo, full leather interior, electric windows and other more plush and soft to the touch friendly interior items.
The sports pack, well seeing as this is a race spec of the Elise hence the ‘R’ in its model name so has the Lotus tuned Toyota engine with variable lift and timing its designed to go on the track which of course I will be doing 😉 The sports pack, gives stiffer race suspension, an in-built rollover hoop, and the correct internal struts to mount a race legal 4 or 6 point harness.
Lastly the LSD (Electrically controlled Limited Slip Differential), well if you own a 4WD and you take it off road you’ll know exactly the benefits of a LSD, if you don’t, it’s a advanced traction device as part of the rear differential that maximises power to the road during hard cornering and is found in all race cars and serous off road 4×4’s. If you want to know more on how a LSD works here’s a good site on the topic http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm
So the long wait starts here! It takes approx 3 weeks for them to hand build the car to my chosen spec then 2 months to ship it from the midlands of England where the Lotus factory is to me here in sunny Sydney, Australia.
Oh the weeks will drag on, so I have decided to try my best to forget all about putting my order in until closer to the time it arrives, Yeah Right!