Whats the only car more impractical than a miata?

[Evan]

must be why I bought one



2006 Lotus Exige, 12k miles. 1 of 600.
Track Pack (yay), LSD (why is that even an option?), Touring Pack (meh), 2 peice DBA rotors, harness bar, toe link bar, starshield

if you read my house thread you already saw a pic of it in the garage, here are a couple more pictures.




Originally I was going to buy something comfy and nice to drive to work everyday, but Ive never really felt the need to have my ass coddled in leather.
The Exige has been one of my more 'realistic' dream cars ever since it was released (and the elise before that). It tugs at my soul the way no overweight landbarge "sports car" ever could. I found a killer recession-time deal which prompted me to pull the trigger. Fabulously irrational and irresponsible.

This is going to be one of those cars where I either keep it for the rest of my life, or sell it after a year and say "well that was fun for a while"

I have a few small plans for the car, nothing major but Ill start a project thread when I begin.

[BLINGMW]

Nice! It appears that most of us on this forum, at some point in our lives, are destined to own one of these things. :lol:

[kcook]

damn new house, new car, whats next? new gf? lol

[ScottyB]

ah, damn you. i thought maybe it was yours from the other thread. argh...the jealousy! amazing car all around.

i got a ride in a krypton green elise a few years ago at The Mitty @ RA and it ruined me. i'd love to have one some day.

so how rough is it to DD? any plans to add power or is good for you as it sits? does it make driving the miata a downer nowadays?

[GQROB]

Sweet!
Congrats Evan!

[Steve85]

Fabulously irrational and irresponsible.

The best always are...

Congrats!

[Goodspeed]

Congrats on the fabulous pick up, I hope you keep it for a long time (at least until the car show!).

I think in keeping with the storm trooper and Darth Vader theme we should find a way to cram Evan into a Bruce Lee one-piece action suit

[WRXtranceformed]

Wow sweet pick up bro!! I'm so jealous.

[BLINGMW]

I think in keeping with the storm trooper and Darth Vader theme we should find a way to cram Evan into a Bruce Lee one-piece action suit

That's hot

[Ginger]

And here I thought he was going to give us his best Uma impression...

[Andy]

When are you taking out on track or have you already? Hopefully, you remember me gushing about how those cars are magic on four wheels. I had a group 2 student consistently do north of 105 on VIR's uphill esses and never once was the car ever unsettled eventhough he was late for every turn. Amazing, amazing amazing. Congrats.

[Hunter]

Jezzy Crezzy! Congratulations!

I've been planning on buying an Exige eventually. Absolutely amazing car.

[Madden]

nice! The exige is so much more mean looking than the elise, the only thing that held me back are blind spots on that thing are suicide for dd use
i love the sector11 front splitters on them...

[Evan]

so how rough is it to DD? any plans to add power or is good for you as it sits? does it make driving the miata a downer nowadays?

Well it doesnt even have plates on it yet so no DD experience. Suspension is pretty stiff but not unbearable. Door dings turn into extremely expensive cracked fiberglass. And then there is the whole lack of rear visibility...
the biggest headache is finding a shop that you trust to work on it. closest dealer is 45 min drive in MD. Of course I do most of my own work, but stuff like state inspection where the car is put on a lift or jacked up all of the sudden becomes a stressful situation requiring written explanations and supervision of the mechanic. Luckily a couple miles from my house there is a shop that specializes in British cars so I will probably take it there on the offchance I cant do something myself.
The powerband of the toyota motor means it doesnt feel dramatically faster than the miata. Once it hits 6k sure its a rocket but before then its only marginally faster.

A stupidcharger would be incredibly fun. Although I yearn to put a lightly built honda K series in it someday. Unfortunately would probably be cost prohibitive considering how marked up everything Lotus is.

When are you taking out on track or have you already? Hopefully, you remember me gushing about how those cars are magic on four wheels. I had a group 2 student consistently do north of 105 on VIR's uphill esses and never once was the car ever unsettled eventhough he was late for every turn. Amazing, amazing amazing. Congrats.

My first experience in an elise was on track with a student, and it gave me about the worst blueballs of my life. I wanted to do evil evil things with that car on a racetrack.
Would be a shame to not take this thing out on the track, but cracking a clam is a $10k bill, so an oopsie could turn way too expensive.
This is the great irony of this car. Its a purpose built racecar, that makes it very hard to afford to take on the track.

nice! The exige is so much more mean looking than the elise, the only thing that held me back are blind spots on that thing are suicide for dd use

yeah the mean look of the exige is really what was the deal sealer. The rear visibility does suck like nothing else, and having a soft top is nice on the elise. I may pick up a soft top if I can find one for not too much money.


[/quote]

yeah I hate the plate mount on the stock splitter. but it scrapes on my driveway anyway, so better to just keep it stock for now.

[Nis01]

Absolutely gorgeous. Great pickup.

[KPWSerpiente]

Evan officially ungay.

Nice Ride.

-T

[John]

Only took you how long to declare this thing official?

Door dings turn into extremely expensive cracked fiberglass. And then there is the whole lack of rear visibility...

The fiberglass isn't that fragile. Couldn't agree w/ you more on the rear visbility. Suggest you get a set of the convex side mirrors to help you out...

[Madden]

yeah get a set of the multivex mirrors.
I just bought some last week and they are awesome, 1000x better than the stock ones

[John]

LSD (why is that even an option?),

There's an interesting perspective from the Lotus Sport engineers about LSD, hence their reason to shy away from it. I have an open-diff in mine, and I have a big problem with the one-tire fire, then again, I also have a lot more torque than you do. Once my tranny goes, I'll likely throw in the TRD LSD, but will have to completely rearrange my suspension settings to counter the induced understeer.

[Feersty]

Amazing Evan. Much congrats.

I love the black wheels.

What, 3 MM Loti? now. Impressive.