For me it would have to the Esprit that’s the car that made me a lotus fan.

My opinion may be unpopular, but I absolutely adore the proportions and looks of the S4 Esprit. I'd love an Esprit V8 someday.

Had a great touch and see event with a Europa in my teen years. 57 now. Just purchased my 70 S2. First love. Everlasting love. Chalk up one vote for the Europa.

Evora gt

Elise for me. The S1 in theory because it saved Lotus but I much prefer the looks of the S2 so that's what I bought. Saying that, the S1 looks have grown on me a lot in the past couple of years.

The Lotus Carlton/Omega did 0-60 in 5.1 seconds, the Ferrari Testarossa did it in 5.2 seconds. The Lotus was an utter demon dressed in a business suit. And the absolute epitome of Lotus ethos, not the “add lightness” one but the other one where they stuck 2 fingers up at the competition and went toe to toe with the Italians and everyone else and often beat them.

Putting that much power into a sedan to get it competing with super cars is one of the most bad ass stories in the history of cars. In the UK it was a scandal, all over the news they tried to stop it being made.

I think it's 3.6l straight six. And at the time, the m3 was a natural 2.3l i4 lol. The lotus made basically twice as much hp power and offered a 6-speed when 5-speed was the norm.

Once saw it described as the “millennium falcon of saloons” and thought it was just perfect. 

My local drug dealer had one.

It was my dream car as my dad had a regular Omega 3000 and I thought that was a rocketship. And since we lived in a different world back then without Internet all you heard were rumours about there being a Lotus version of it and it was almost mythical. I remember seeing it in a magazine for the first time and it blew me away. Porsche, BMW, Mercedes had nothing on this! I'd have one in a heartbeat today.

S2 Elise is timeless

Evora GT with carbon pack

Esprit, not sure about S1 or S2, probably S1 in “the spy who loved me” white. Also really really like the Emira,

S4s Esprit

Emira

Discord Server for content creators! https://discord.gg/FcSZRDEjur

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

https://youtube.com/shorts/51suDrLrYQM?si=GeJAk5Pdmtk-jSD9 Please like, subscribe, watch, comment, share. Thanks

What a great color for a +2

Mrs. Peel.......we are needed!

Oh that is beautiful.

They are so cool! I want one, but I'm not sure if I can afford to keep it going or not. I also have put myself on hold from buying any new cars until all the current ones are put back together and running.

It has always been my favorite car. Well, in the 2 months I've been on the service it's been my favorite car. To me it's the best sounding car on the service that I've tried.

Tomorrow's r/iracing top post: why is the lotus 79 too fast after the update?! I set a time 20 seconds faster than real life?!?

Yes!! I have 6 of the 12 tracks for it this season and I’ll sure be racing it every week I’m able to.

I’ve been training on Road Atlanta and it’s amazing (Even if I’m bad and stuck at 1:13:X) 😂

My favorite car by a long shot since the update

I thought the tire model was only updated on the GTP and LMP2 class?

I'm always team fun AS LONG AS we are SOMEWHAT close to real life. Like even now with the GTPs, what 5 or so seconds faster at Spa? That's still fine in my book though the devs should clearly look at getting it closer to irl. The cars are much more fun to drive now.

I felt that yesterday with mx5 at lime rock. They felt so grippy and i did beat my best time lol

I think a DD lotus is called a porsche cayman.

The Elise was my ideal car, but not livable. The Cayman/Boxster was too big. It's a great act, but really not a Lotus.

I ended up buying a zz30 MR2 Spyder. 2003 is the ideal year, but 03-05 is good. Clean examples can be found for 10k if you ignore miles. And you should.

Then talk to Brandon at Mitch's Auto Parts (MAP). He built a K swap kit to drop a Honda K20 or K24 into the MR2. A good build with bolt ons is about $15k (he'll even do it for you). I am pushing over 200whp at 8500rpm in mine, in a car weighing almost as little as the Elise (and a lot less than the Boxster). Power to weight is incredible.

Addco front sway bar, Godspeed rear control arms, a front strut tower brace, a breast plate, and a good set of coilovers (KWv3 if you want comfort and performance, BC BR for budget performance).

Lightweight 15x9 +35 wheels with 225/45 front and 245/40 rear 200tw tires gives you all the grip on the world keeping unsprung weight down. Stock brakes are fine as is unless you are doing HPDE days.

A rear luggage rack finishes the build.

You get AC, a radio, a big frunk (large carry on fits), room for golf bag behind the seats, and a rear luggage rack that can haul a lot. In a car weighing under 2,200lbs with 240hp.

It's insanely fun, and I put 18k miles a year on it.

Parts are cheap and plentiful. Repairs are easy and low cost.

My total build including purchase price is well under $40k.

At the local autocross I've yet to lose to a Lotus. And I even traded cars with a guy driving a 2016 911S and we were both 4 seconds faster in my car than his.

If your ego won't let you drive a Toyota, well, that's a different story. But for the money, it's an amazing car that does it all.

Depends on you. I find 2006+ Elise is ok for DD.

Thanks! I couldn't find the car I wanted so figured I'd build it. Lo and behold there's about 300 of us with K swapped Spyders. Quite the active community, lots of support. This was my first project bigger 5han an alternator. It's surprisingly accessible.

Technically an Elise / Exige can be daily driven. The question is if you like torture? Driving something that feels like a go kart is fun when it‘s actually for fun. Driving a go kart (small, hard as a rock suspension, loud) to work every day is torture.

60k miles or 60k monies?

Either way, you can get Evora's to meet both criteria.

Yup, also sort of depends on your commute! Stuck in stop and go traffic for an hour in an Elise on a hot day sucks for sure 😂

Back road commutes on the other hand used to be epic to old job location!

I drove an Opel Speedster Turbo (Elise S2) for nine years (with nitron dampers and semi slicks). I‘d do 3000 mile road trips with it that i‘ve absolutely loved (in the summer without AC)… but those were holidays. I‘ve driven it to work for a few days from time to time (one hour each way including traffic jams in the rush hours)… usually around the third day i would get so sick of it and switch back to my daily with normal seats, quiet tires, AC, good sound insulation…

Feel free to message with any questions. And if you're in NC you're welcome to come give it a drive. I've owned some great cars and this is by far my favorite.

Do you go into Starbucks and ask…what coffee shop is around that’s better than yours?

But jokes aside I would think McLaren is the high price high performance version of lotus. Still very much lightweight and drivers car. But it’s like 4x the price because of diminishing returns for what I think is not 4x the car.

And check out Radford if money is no object. I think it’s exactly what you’re looking for.

If you mean light and direct, caterham, Ariel atom, bac mono, motorcycles. Dream car stuff though, McLaren f1. Incredibly light for having a v12

Currently made there’s the BRZ twins and the MX-5 at the other end of the market.

Also the Mr2

I picked an S2000 as my alternative to a Lotus. So much fun!

EVO IX and Beetle are quickest 0-60.

Buddy you're higher than Buzz Aldrin on July 20th, 1969. The Exige is one of the best corner grip cars in the game and an absolutely terrible drag option.

Put rally tires on it and max track for the rest. It cant be beat, grass, gravel or blacktop.

So all this time, I could've had a really good car, but didnt?!

I agree Yesterday I bought this beast and maxed it just for fun It is the best car in handling and acceleration from my point of view I used rsr, f1, M3 gtr, and beetle and then I maxed this beast What a car