I had one 2002-2007, a 1995 1.4 Supersport. Rather battered. ;-) ISTR you from Blatchat. It was great fun, however a car designed without compromise is, erm, compromised. If you can live with those compromises, it's great. If not, it gets less and less use. I realised it was time for mine to go when life changed and my job took me from France back to the UK and in a year I only did about 150 miles. I did love the thing but I feel I did pretty much everything I wanted to in it. I don't want to go back. One thing that it did do was spoil me for all other sports cars. They're all a bit "meh" after a Caterham 7 has savaged every one of your living senses over the course of a half hour drive. These days I get my kicks on 2 wheels propelled only by me. It's the only way I know of going absolutely as fast as you possibly can everywhere without killing yourself or ending up in a cell.
Sports car chat
- Thread starter Whaleblue
- Start date
cutting42
Arrived at B4 Hacker Ergo
I know it wont be the new car event, but one of the later Evora 410 manuals would be an awesome car IMO. If it ticks the boxes obviously.
Even the last of the line 400s looks good value in comparison to the Emira
Lotus Evora 3.5 V6 GT 410 Sport 2dr Petrol | eBay
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2022 Lotus Evora 3.5 V6 400 Euro 6 2dr 2 + 2 COUPE Petrol Manual | eBay
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I don't like the Evora looks particularly and the V6 does not interest me either or I would have ordered the V6 originally and have got it over a year ago. I could also pickup a delivery mileage Emira V6 now for £10k less than the new price as well.
It really was the combination of the Emira looks, which I still love and the AMG engine that I wanted.
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cutting42
Arrived at B4 Hacker Ergo
I disagree on the looks, it looks absolutely stunning, punches well above its weight on looks. With a 600bhp V8 it would be a £200k supercar all day long. To get 400 bhp and those looks for £80k is a bargain. The Cayman is a brilliant car but no looker, the Alpine is also a bit odd looking and down on the power but it does the light weight thing very well.
It's not heavy, it is just heavier than what Lotus used to do. The weight comes with gentrification, making it attractive to a wider audience, the Porsche and BMW crowd ordered it in their thousands, way more that any previous Lotus could have dreamed of. They got everything right except for Covid and their piss poor execution.
I think it looks great
It is rather, which is a shame because I want to like it.
Certainly true, modern Lotuses look like finished cars. I remember drooling over a new elise S1 when they were new, about 2000. Rather I tried to, but it looked like a poorly executed kit car. The headlamp cowls were held on with Dum Dum putty. I kid you not. Think dark grey Blu-Tak, that's DumDum. I've done enough messing with old cars to know it when I see it and it has no place in the visible bits of a modern motor car. Even Morris Minors and S2 Land Rovers had the grace to hide it behind light fittings.
richardg
Admonishtrator
Were the front wheels not narrower than the rear?
richardg
Admonishtrator
Ok, fair enough!
richardg
Admonishtrator
How do they cope with being left out in the rain?
It's not a VW Golf, but they cope well with being outdoors. They suffer from some corrosion if not maintained, the levels of sealing and protection are low in order to minimise weight. Nobody is going to put 20kg of body sealing wax and mastic on a car that has its 500kg weight as a major selling point. That said I know someone who has had one for 20 years and it spent a lot of time driven daily and parked on the street. It did need a rebuild after 12 years/100k miles, but that's a long time in the life of any car.
cutting42
Arrived at B4 Hacker Ergo
Eyes of the beholder and all that. It is not a munter but the front is so generic and bland, If I am spending decent money then I need to love the looks.
The front is shared with the Boxster which doesn't help. Mind you, which of the 911 models is almost identical at the front? 996?
Jubal
pfm Member
No. Square setup. It was fine, in fact it was brilliant. Track tyres.
richardg
Admonishtrator
It was brilliant because it cornered as if on rails or it was brilliant becasue it still could slide controllable without spinning, even though people say it could easily snap out with the same wheels on the front?
cutting42
Arrived at B4 Hacker Ergo
Yup and it suffered because of it imo. The early 996 with the boxer front end is the least desirable 911
Practicality Shmacticality as Harry Nilsson once said. I know owning a VX220 is not quite the open wheel experience but I'm not worried about cramped position, ice on inside of windscreen, hotter than the devils thermos in the summer, smelly, harsh ride etc etc. It's an event, simple as that
gez
pfm Member
That's what I like about it. I'd never call it generic though, generic compared to what? Another Porsche maybe, otherwise nothing else looks like it. You could argue that the Evira is "generic" super car in it's looks (McLaren or later model Ferrari's anyone?). But then of course, that's the whole point surely?
I have to admit I'm in the "Evira is too flashy" camp personally, I prefer to fly under the radar. Especially so as I live in London, and attracting attention in a car in London is likely to result in your not owng the car for very long. Caymans are practically 2 a penny here in London, so not many people take much notice of them*. That would suit me fine.
*Well unless it's a GT car obviously.
I have to say though as far as Caymans go, the 718 is my least favorite looks wise. I think the 981 got the balance about right between the overly curved "911" clone looks of the 987 and the over squared 718.
gez
pfm Member
I've always thought of them the other way around. Who knows though, the Boxster came out first, but that doesn't mean it wasn't just the result of the planned upcoming 996 which must have been nearing design completion by then. They were both in design at the same time.
"Mr Lai reveals new details about designing the Porsche 996 Carrera, including how it was created alongside the 986 Boxster"
9WERKS - 9WERKS members interview Pinky Lai
The Porsche 996 designer joins 9WERKS members for a virtual roundtable chat to answer your questions in a new interview for 2022
9werks.co.uk
Ironically, people are starting to warm to the fried egg look of the 996 which was so loathed by Porsche cogniscenti at the time.
gez
pfm Member
Apparently, Porsche seem to have made a real mess of the turbo engines. There's quite a bit of talk about them having a lot of turbo lag. Now of course all low capacity turbo engines are going to suffer worst when it comes to turbo lag (and boost threshold), and also the critisisms seem to be coming entirely from those that either owned or had driven the NA engined cars, so it's not really possible to ascertain if the Porsche engines are any worse than any other 2 or 2.5l turbo engine.
This video in particular paints (and demonstrates) a pretty horrendous lag/boost issue. But as you can't see what revs the car is at, it's impossible to say if it's bad or not (after all if they're down at 1 to 1.5k rpm - any turbo engine of that capacity is going to take that long to come on boost).
NB: I'm not a fan of the channel, after listening to the main guy winge on about the service he (wasn't) getting from his Porcshe dealer, I couldn't tolerate the 1st world privilege arrogance being shown.
