Before I start a notation. I’ve been reminded that the Elise 111 Sport was a harder core version of the Elise. Track Oriented as it were. The prose below are my personal views of the vehicle I had. Each to their own. I liked many elements of the car but at the wash up at the end of the day, for the roads in Tasmania, for the reasons I specifically wanted the car for it didn’t do what I, personally, wanted it to do. Others will have different views, will want cars for different reasons, drive different roads and thats all good. I appreciate that, but this is my view.

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Some things take time to realise their qualities, and perhaps such is the case with the Lotus. Life has meant that the time to realise and appreciate these qualities was limited. The Lotus is sold.

A change of residence meant that storing and using the car became difficult and finally someone offered me cold hard cash for it, so it had to go. I haven’t missed it. Here’s why.

A vehicle like this is not a practical item. Its all about the heart, all about the feeling: the Lotus just didn’t do it for me. The looks, right down to the colour were there. The interior while basic and not exactly special was okay. The brakes were really quite lovely. Steering, good though for all those who wonder at the feel and feedback I say drive an old car with manual steering and you’ll probably get the same. It was noisy… but with some soundproofing again okay and it is after all a sports car and there in fact is my issue.

The 111 Sport has/had ‘upgraded’ suspension with harder springs and this simply ruined the whole experience. Those tight twisty roads that the light nimble Elise should lap up are inherently rough and as soon as the tempo rose and the road deteriorated the car was hugely unpleasant to pilot, bouncing around all over the place barely a wheel in contact with the surface at some points. Then when the road opened up and smoothed out it was actually quite brilliant but ultimately sorely underpowered.

The underpowerment also came via a nasty little engine, loud and rautious when pushed and embarrassingly rattly at tickover. Combine this with a gearbox that while quite satisfyingly pleasant and snicky when driving normally suffered from some premature synchro wear between 2nd and 3rd. With little low down grunt one thing an Elise requires is quick changes at high rpm and a tendency to graunch through the most common change meant the quick changes became slow and deliberate.

And thats is it. It was in fact a sports car that when asked to be one was flawed. I can live with flawed, I own a KTM Duke. All the things on a Duke work in harmony to devour such roads. Many of the things on the Elise actively worked against it.