Lotus

Lotus Elise SC (supercharged) test drive

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I popped into Rick D’s the only official Lotus cars dealer for NSW Australia today and took the just arrived fresh Elise SC in Isotope Green for a short drive this afternoon in the lovely hot weather we had in Sydney today. I will try and cover off a lot of the points that stuck in my mind after my 25 minute drive.


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Isotope Green, hmm maybe not my frist colour Choice.

Engine/driving
– From the overall feeling I felt immediately the car was so VERY similar to my Elise R in so many ways it was uncanny.
– From engine idle to around 5000rpm or there abouts both cars (my Elise R and the Elise SC) felt identical in power delivery, above 5000rpm the Elise SC felt like it started working and acceleration was very slightly faster
– when I say slightly I mean it, if you put these 2 cars side by side there really would be nothing in it, a couple of cars lengths at the end of a long straight.
– The engine didn’t feel so torquey down low compared to the Exige S
– You can not hear the supercharger whine like it does in the Exige S, only very slightly in the higher rev’s but you really have to listen out for it.

elisesc3.jpgEngine exactly the same as in the Elsie R but with
the supercharger bolted on for extra fizz.

Other area’s
– The new 08 instrument cluster does look a bit classier than the 07 cluster
– The rear wing even though is only a couple of cm’s higher than the normal rear ‘lip’ at the back, I found rear visibility from my height was reduced by a third. Reversing was much harder visibility wise.

Overall
I have to be honest but I found myself really not that impressed with the Elise SC today, it felt like really a tiny step up in the package over my Elise R and I was absolutely amazed by how simular they are, in fact the first few minutes I asked if “this WAS the super charged version right?”

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Small rear wing is pretty much the only visual
clue this is the supercharged Elsie varient.

Maybe the reason I was not so impressed as a step up from the Elise R is a testament to just how bloody good and fast the Elise R is. It felt exactly the same where down low it was a respectable easy to drive potter around town car and then when the revs rose it all goes a bit crazy, ditto on the R was going through my mind, just a slightly bigger push from behind as we full throttled down the road.

That said though, I think with its price at only 10k difference between an Elise R and Elise SC and for bragging rights to your mates you have a ‘super charged Elise’ there is no reason if looking for a new high-end Elise why someone should choose the Elise R over the Elise SC.

Unless you hold a torch for Naturally Aspirated engines, the Elise SC is the new king of the Elise range. icon_cool.gif

Photos Courtesy of Eric & Alvin )AussieElises)

Lotus

Lotus Exige 240bhp models finally come to Aus

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Ok this news is officially nearly 2 weeks old now but Lotus cars are dear to my heart owning my own Lotus Elise so I have to post this better late than never. For months and months now in the UK and US, pretty much the rest of the world around our large island of Australia, the Lotus Exige S has been available in 240bhp form labelled the ‘Performance Pack’ now it comes to our shores.


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No apparent visual clue’s when the Perf. pack is fitted.

The only ever criticism of the Lotus Exige in motoring press around the world has been that it is the most capable sports car ever made in modern times but it just needs a bit more Power! With my own car the Lotus Elise R, just those extra few horse’s would drop the car from the very fast 5 seconds 0-100kph league to the 4 seconds pants staining supercar league.

This is exactly in a nutshell what the factory fitted optional ‘Performance Pack’ for the Lotus Exige S really does all for a fistful of $11,000 of your Australian $’s. So what do you exactly get for this most expensive of all the options on the current Lotus ‘Upgrade pack’ menu?


exiges2.jpg                                240bhp & 940Kg’s equals a whole lot’er speed!

Firstly and most importantly you get an engine power upgrade from 218bhp to 240bhp and torque rises from 215Nm to 230Nm of torque, not much it sounds, but in a car weighing just over 900Kg’s that’s a very noticeable extra punch I can tell you from my Lotus driving experience.

Other parts of the pack are not so noticeable initially but will be from the sum of their parts no doubt, like the larger 308mm front discs with AP Racing four piston callipers, the Full length wider mouthed roof scoop to allow more air to reach the mid-engined mounted intercooler, up rated clutch to handle the extra power and torque and lastly the Lotus Variable Slip Traction control System as found on the Lotus 2 Eleven. I have played with this Lotus Variable Slip control on the 2 Eleven twice before and it really is intuitive and easy to master after a few laps of play.

 
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Interior pure Lotus, function over style.

What is the main selling point of this new option for the Exige S and warrants talking about is that really this the first time officially a 240bhp Lotus has been available to buy in Australia, well excluding the super limited edition Lotus Sport 240 where only 6 will be built for and sold in Australia. This means you are getting your very own version of the rare Lotus Exige Cup 240/Lotus Sport 240 for the price of a normal Lotus Exige S plus a little bit extra.

Basically now us Australians have been granted it, you’d be mad to order a new Lotus Exige S without ticking that option box staring up at you labelled ‘Performance pack’, it’s even more of a performance bargain.

Source: Lotus AU

Porsche

Porsche Cayenne GTS – another gender confused car

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Porsche Australia recently unveiled their new Cayenne GTS Prestige 4WD, adding to the existing lineup of Cayenne, Cayenne S and range topping Cayenne Turbo models. Im still wondering who actually goes out and buys these things in Australia though. I mean no one I know actually admits to wanting to go and buy one of these no-man-land 4WD’s stuck between the world of prestige and a raw 4WD off-roader but I see more and more of these things driving around the state capitals of Australia everyday.

The new Cayenne GTS sits between the top 2 models of the range between the S model with its 4,8l V8 and 405hp and the range topping massively expensive turbo model with its 4.8l twin-turbo V8 creating a massive 500hp and 700Nm of torque, enough to haul Tasmania back to the mainland Australia!  


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Turbo nose and mouth lifted from the top spec Turbo model.

At $153 thousand dollars incl. GST it sits well below the price of the Turbo which costs an unimaginable $215k for a 4WD SUV, but for an extra $19k over the Cayenne S model what do you get extra in the Cayenne GTS.

Well V8 power plant has been tweaked, the engine now generates an extra 20hp but torque remains the same at 500Nm ?? (is that a typo in the press release??) acceleration from 6.8 seconds to 100kph is down to 6.1 seconds and top speed is raised from 250kpm to 253kph, all this from a revised intake manifold and engine management system wow! hmmmm not.


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Twin Rear chrome tailpipes taken from the Turbo model.

Porsche say in designing the Cayenne GTS:

“Developing the new Cayenne GTS was an exercise in what we do best: more performance, more agility, a more immediate driving experience. In short: more sport – both visually and technically – and designed exclusively for the road.”

What this translates to is the optional Cayenne sports exhaust system, 24mm lower steel-sprung sports suspension with PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) and 21-inch Cayenne Sport wheels all fitted as standard. On the looks department the Cayenne GTS has all the visual trimmings of the Turbo model so if you ‘de-badge’ the car you could pretend to owning the Cayene Turbo model if that gives you one up on the Jones’s. A free optional roof spoiler on the roof tail edge adds the ‘bling’ for this new faster models looks too.


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Interior doesn’t get any real highlights over the S model.

Back to where I started with this though, who actually buys Porsche Cayenne’s? If you want practicality you go for an old tough as boots Toyota Landcruiser, you want ‘cheap’ luxury you go for the ever more popular in Australia Ford Territory.

Who buys a Cayenne and actually takes them off-road like a 4WD is meant to? It seems only Porsche in their own motor journo driving PR adventures around the world to end up in various beautifully crafted Porsche sales brochures in showrooms around the world, certainly not the ones in Sydney.

Source: Porsche AU

Cars

More track time at Eastern Creek

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Last Friday I managed to make a visit to a Eastern Creek racetrack Twilight session, it should of been called a twi-lite session with the amount of lite-weight Lotus there. Lots of the forum members from the AussesElises.com group came to have some fun from 5pm after work to sun down at 9pm.

I dragged my dad down to the track after a hot hour long drive to get to the track in 30+ degree heat, it was too hot for even the air-con to handle with the roof on.

 


dadandpetertalking.jpgDad and Peter from Aussieelises by Rob240’s Lotus Exige Cup 240

I managed to convince a friend at work, Sarge to bring his new VW Golf R32 to the track also. At just 1 month old he wasn’t worried about running it’s V6 in smoothly obviously. Also a friend from work Murad came too, it was his first time he saw a whole group of Lotus cars before being more a Ford/Holden V8 fan and he said he was very impressed with them he said.

Sarge strapped a Video camera to the inside of his windscreen and at 8:30pm as the sun was setting this video was recorded. It was Sarge’s first ever time on the track so he was following my slightly more experienced lines on the track as best he could. He did very well for his first outing on a race track, I was very impressed with his quick learning and speed.

Anyway sit back and relax as we see a brand new 2007 VW Golf R32 chasing down a 2007 Lotus Elise R at Eastern Creek raceway, Sydney AU.

After the Track session work was all over I took Murad for a blast to a couple of the roundabouts outside the racetrack and back. I think it blew his socks off 🙂

Cars

Elise R – explanatory walkthrough video

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Damien and I filmed an explanatory walkthrough of my car today in the National Park and he was the cameraman. I edited it all together in Adobe Premiere Pro, I haven’t done any video editing or a while so I as quite pleased with the results! I filmed this for a certain audition Sanna and a couple of friends said I should be going for early in 2008, more on that at a later date. Anyway for now it’s up on YouTube for everyone to have a watch of.

Cars

Deposit down on the GT3 RS

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I did it! I bought the GT3 RS! Well pre-ordered it, number 5 in Australia 🙂

I took the Porsche Careerararraaara S out and it was frankly a bit ‘boring’, on paper its as fast if not a tiny tiny bit faster than my Lotus Elise R but it felt really un-interesting, not what the sports model Porsche 911 should of felt like in my mind. Surges of power with precession it wasn’t, it was well planted on the road but not what I was expecting from the ‘daddy’ of all sports cars Sport model. Then came test driving the Porsche GT3 5 minutes afterwards for a true ‘back to back’ comparison and it was a marked improvement to say the least.


Porsche997_front.jpgEverything was instantly better, the seats were more snug and safe feeling, the steering wheel was smaller, more comfortable to grip and gave a more direct ‘attached to the road’ feel, the suspension also gave this feeling too, Yes I can ’feel’ the road again, and when setting the PASM active suspension to its hardest setting it felt nearly as stiff as the Lotus, great!

Next came testing out the 3.6 litre heavily tuned Porsche motorsport  engine the GT3 is fitted with. It was a savage beast up behind me with a good shove of accelerative power when pushing the throttle in all areas of the rev range so very usable in any gear. The car felt like it was sucked onto the road when you pushed the accelerator hard and with the car going EXACTLY where you pointed it, I gained confidence driving this $300k supercar in the matter of 10 minutes. Still at this stage I wasn’t blown away, not to the extent of having hairs on the back of the neck move and not making me want to shout “how do I buy one”.
 


997 GT3 RS.jpgWe put down the windows, pressed another clever button (there’s a lot of technology in this car) that opened the flaps in the exhaust, and from then on every prod of the accelerator came a roar through the windows. It seemed that all the song and dance of this car comes from it shouting outside the car not inside, the sound coming through the windows now was just AMAZING! The best experience of sound I’ve ever had from any car. This thing driving though a main street of shops sounded like a race car straight off of a race track with everybody straining to see what this thing WAS.

That was the moment I had to set this as my next petrol headed goal in life to work hard and one day be proud and excited to bring this back to my own garage.

Uncategorized

Next trackday 6 days away- im excited

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My next track day is at Eastern Creek, Sydney in 6 days away now and im excited to get back on the track. Will be my third time on the track at Eastern creek so I have learned a lot of the track now in memory. Cant wait!

My dream car the Porsche 997 GT3 RS will be there, Porsche told me on the phone the other day the owner will be bringing it along like last time, cant wait to see it in person again as they are so rare, I have since found out there are about 5 in the country in this colour which is the most popular colour it seems. They are currently selling for slightly more :Porsche GT3 RS in Orangethan they were new 6 months ago.

Cars, Holidays

Aussie Elise’s Trip to the Victoria alpine region

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Well the title says it all really, this was a long time planned trip to the beutuful alpine regeion in the state of Victoria which in the winter time is Victorias main skiing area. The trip was organised a good 3-4 months beofre it happened and was planned ot be one of th elarget trips the Aussie Elises group had ever arranged before. A total of 17 cars, 14 couples some of the best alpine driving roads in Austrlai and a round trip of some 3000km’s so this was a REAL trip and was goinf to be some REAL fun 🙂

A comeritive psoter and car stricker was made up for the trip by group member Zed which he obvuildy spent some time on, it looked great!

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The plan of events was to drive from Sydney early morning to Bright on the Friday, all couples to take part in a treasure hunt on the Saturday and then to take a leasurely drive back home on Sunday at your own speed.

Friday – The drive to the Alps

9 of us had arranged to drive from sydeny togther and we met up at 5am down at the Sydney Opera house, im not used ot being up that early at all so hence I look pretty tired in the photo.



 

I was glad to report we had started and the odomete had been reset to 0km’s 🙂

 

 


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Our 2nd meetup location was a service station up the motorway where a few more members joined us, the weather started to improve so a lot took their roofs off their cars too.

 

 


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My Elise and my friends Banzi’s Elise parked together, he has made a few extra modifications to his and it looks almost like its a Lotus Exige if you look quickly at it.

 

 


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The guys still debating roofs on or roofs off

 

 


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A few hours of drviing in and we reach the Murray river which seperates as the border between New South Wales and Victoria. We in Victoria the state of smoother better looked after roads, which is sports cars drivers love. Here we are following a older Lotus 7/Caterham 

 


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 Our poor friend Zed had a bit of a crash and we stopped ot come to the rescue. What happened was he stopped to take photos of us all aand hundreds of ants manged to crawl into hs car. He started driving again and they were all over him and he paniced and came off the road going pretty fast! You can see how far he came off the road in this photo!

 


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It was all a bit of teamwork to get his poor Lotus off the rough stuff and back onto the tarmac. His low car struggled to get through the long grass acting as a lawn mower. It took quite a few of us and some smooth throttle control to just about get him out! It was hot and we were sweating and all brething in exhaust fumes but we all laughed. Zed’s poor car under the skin was pretty badly damed though 🙁 All from having ants in his pants 🙂

 


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 627 km’s in to the drive to Bright and we were only three quarters of the way.

 

 


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Sanna did some of the driving too and she stayed up to speed with the guys well. I am very happy with my new union jacks under the indicators which Zed gave to me as a present.

 

 


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A fellow Aussie Elise’er, Morris as we were having a chat driving side by side through one of the country towns’ 

 

 


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 We arrived in bright after around a 800 km drive and driving all day. It was arranged that we took over the Bright Brewery for a ‘Beer Apreciation course’. We were so tired form the drive and had a real fun for beer and having a relaly good time. Everyone was so friendly and great fun. The girls had their own seperate area stocked with wine’s to keep them happy.

 

 

Saturday – The Treasure hunt

Saturday was the main day and and a large teasure hunt with clue’s and objects you had to find and people you had to speak to. It was very well organised by my firiend Ashton he has put a lot of homework into making it a great day in a 150km by 150km playing area.


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We all stayed in seperate lodges/B&B’s as there wasent anywhere big enough to take 20 lotus’s and their owners. We stayed in the Arcadia motor lodge and here we are warming up the engines before we meet for breakfast.

 

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Breakfast was in a lovely cafe right out the back of the Bright Brewery where we were all until late the night before. Over breakfast the rulkes for the teasure hunt were explained, the clue packs were given out and some hints at the prizes.

 

 


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 This was Sanna’s breakfast, pancakes and icecream and fresh berries, her favourite.

 

 

 

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All the cars lined up at breakfast, just before we jumpe din them and the treasure hunt started. All the locals had never seen so many Lotus’s in such a normally quiet village.

 

 

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We didnt have time to take many photos during the tresure hunt as it was so franic trying to work out the clue’s and driving to where we could find the answers. This photo was taken driving up one of the mountains, Mt Hotham which in the winter is a ski resort. The fog made for some amazing views during the drive on top of the mountains but in the valleys it was beautiful and clear.

  

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 We decided after looking at the map to go a back way via a short dirt track to save some time and get ahead of the others. It turned out the drirt track was infact 38km’s long!! and the map we were given wasent to scale! It took us an hour and quarter to do 38km’s and the car was sliding all over the place not being desinged to go on muddy soggy mud.

 


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After the dirt road the car was filthy on the outside, the new union jacks made it throgh alright though 🙂

 

 

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There was a prize for the best photo of the day so I did this to my car in the dirt and I came 2nd for it and made a lot of people laugh 🙂

 

 

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The dinner after the treasure hunt, everyone had a LOT of fun and it was one of the best things i’ve done. For making the mistake of driving on the dirt road for 38km’s for an hour and a quarter I was voted the w#$ker of the day award and received a wrist support band 🙂

 

 

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 The grand prize for the Teasure hunt with 600 odd points was my friend Peter who we worked closely with throughout the day. Sanna and me came 2nd out of 15 teams, thats not bad!

 

 

Sunday- The drive home

On sunday we all made our way home in seperate groups, me and Sanna went back with Banzi and Doc who were really good drivers and we had a amzing drive back through the scenic mt kosciusko national park. It was I tink the best drive i’d had in my life it was truely amaing all the way, like a 3 hour long rally stage, jsut amazing roads that felt were buitl for a sports cars.


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The final time most of the cars were together before we left to return to Sydney.

 

 

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The final photo, a brief stop next to this beautiful tree blossoming, the colours looked amazing next to Banzi’s car.

 

 

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