In Depth-ish... Lotus Elise, Evo VIII

[nthfinity]

well, its been too long since ive posted any cars... and nows cirtainly not the time of year to see much... thankfully, i have tons i have yet to post :)
the first set of pictures... at the time, i wasn't thinking, and left Zeljko's 'track care package' in front :oops: meh... next time.
i keep forgetting how much time post-processing takes :oops: and i've made a new watermark that im toying with. critisism is always welcome :)

http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/420/lotusandshevo1a1sm.th.jpg (http://img485.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotusandshevo1a1sm.jpg) http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/1092/lotusandshevo2a1oh.th.jpg (http://img485.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotusandshevo2a1oh.jpg) http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/6733/lotusandshevo3a8rf.th.jpg (http://img485.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotusandshevo3a8rf.jpg) http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/584/lotusandshevo4a5zu.th.jpg (http://img485.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotusandshevo4a5zu.jpg) http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/4103/lotusandshevo5a4rv.th.jpg (http://img485.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotusandshevo5a4rv.jpg) http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/4809/lotusandshevo6a7is.th.jpg (http://img485.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotusandshevo6a7is.jpg)
Evo in action:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/4238/evoviii1ca3jw.th.jpg (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=evoviii1ca3jw.jpg) http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/3528/evoviii1ba7ef.th.jpg (http://img451.imageshack.us/my.php?image=evoviii1ba7ef.jpg) http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/4787/evoviii1aa6ai.th.jpg (http://img451.imageshack.us/my.php?image=evoviii1aa6ai.jpg)
The Evo VIII is amazing fun, and has so much grip, and good straight line speed... the combination makes the car an awful lot of fun around a track. In the tiny amount of time ive spent in an Evo, i can say that hardly any understeer is detectable, the steering is decently weighted, and the shift throws are short... a tad on the notchy side, but still pretty good. Pedal positions are good for heel+toe downshifting. this car feels great :) its unfortunate... you absolutely have to keep it above 3500 unless you want to bog down out of a corner... embarrassing lol.
and, the Elise in action:
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7131/lotuselise1ea4ck.th.jpg (http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotuselise1ea4ck.jpg) http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4270/lotuselise1da0xd.th.jpg (http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotuselise1da0xd.jpg) http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6600/lotuselise1ca0ww.th.jpg (http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotuselise1ca0ww.jpg) http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7715/lotuselise1ba2gl.th.jpg (http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotuselise1ba2gl.jpg) http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8891/lotuselise1aa9gd.th.jpg (http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lotuselise1aa9gd.jpg)
the Elise makes the Evo suddenly feel like a giant SUV :lol: the track is where this car shines... fitted with the optional semi-slick tires... this car has just as much grip as the Exige, just with less d/f. Your ass is planted, and doesnt move left or right once seated. its louder inside, but the 1.8 toyota engine note is good ambiance IMO :) this car stops amazingly, turns better then it stops, and rockets out of the corners... its weird... and the owner shares the same view... but this car could be an awful lot more with the honda S2K motor... mabey one day.

what else can i say abou this car... its terribly exciting to get in, and out of :lol: anybody who's been in one will concur :) you have to step your right leg in, grab the top of the door... now you balance yourself on the leg inside, and lift your left to slide it into the cabin, as you sit down... lower than the chassis rail that you have to step over.

As low as you sit in this car, the seating position is very compfortable, and as much as the three pedals look like they'll break... they offer great resistance, however the brakes take some getting used to. Steering is simply the best steering ive ever felt! i cant describe it so great besides to say you know exactly what the car is doing :)

my only complaints besides the engine choice is the rear view mirror is nearly bigger then the rear window! its a blind spot out of the cabin, and a mirror 1/3 the size would work equally. also, the window is at such a steep rake, that at stop lights, its unnatural to lean forward to see the stop light. oh, and the blind spots are much much bigger then in a Jeep :lol:

[RC45]

I wondr how the Lotus would feel out on open B-Road sweepers and straight aways.. I imagine it would always seem out of breath.

Someone needs to come up with a throaty toquey high hp light weight EZlise like car.

Soemthing that will carve up the tighest tracks, yet still blast through the country side at triple digits without screaming to 10,000rpm.

I don't think an EVO has ever come out to the woods with us... but by comparison STi's seem to hold there own in sharper low speed cornrs, but really lose out on the long high speed sweepers - wonder how it does in high-speed cross country jaunts?

Nice set of light weights you played with there.

[TT]

Nice pitctures, must be fun to drive such cars on a track! Picture quality seems better than I remembered :good: and the watermark is already nice IMO.
What lense did you use?

I was passenger in both and for sure the Elise is much more impressive, even if the EVO's engine is stronger. RC, you are right, on a country road with long straights between corners the Elise will soon run out of breath, and same goes for the evo if compared to really powerfull cars, BUT I drove the Elise with the old Rover engine, 120 hp, on a mountain road and well, I can't really picture many cars beeing faster or more involving! On the same road the evo is as impressive (from the passenger seat) and both cars are better tailored for such roads or anyway for VERY twisty roads ;)

[MIHALS]

nice cars you had oportunity to drive :love:

the Elise is just astonishing little car, I always wonder, how can you fit in a such small cabin when I walk around blue one nearly everyday :lol:

the Evo is nice in this color aswell! once I took pics of silver Evo VII with JW plate and now he repainted it to this blue - looks much more better :D

thanks for your pics and small reviews, I'd like to sit in that elise one day :D

and the logo wattermark - it shouldn't touch the edge of the pic IMO :wink:

[nthfinity]

Picture quality seems better than I remembered and the watermark is already nice IMO.
last time around, I took those suggestions/observations to heart :) I'm not very good at doing logos, but im much more pleased with the new watermarks' look... of course, its not very logo-ish :lol:


What lense did you use?

For all the on track photos, i used a quantaray 100mm-300mm lense... as the canon 18-55 wouldn't be anywhere near as useful from those distances. for the close ups, the 18-55 worked great... it was an extremely sunny day, so i uped the f stop to get as sharp an image as i could, and set the focus to AI... it reallyworks great for moving objects :)

the cars were going fast enough to still have a relatively fast shutter speed, and still have the desired effect... the final image was done at:
Focal length 142.0mm (142/1)
Exposure time 0.008 s (1/125)
Aperture f/9.0
ISO equivalent 200

my only major complaint is the quality of the lense... going past 210mm, and the image quality starts going down noticably... and at 300mm... its like a filter for taking bad pictures is put on (for cars on a track... closer objects still end up looking quite nice). even at teh 150mm range i was shooting at that day, its still noticable :? By next summer, i'd like to have at least one new lense.... and perhaps even with anti-shake :)

about the elise' high speed breathing problems... this elise has teh 180hp toyota motor... and its great for tighter turn exits, but just as you, and RC said... its feeling athsmatic at higher speeds... i'd love to see a honda 2.2L VTEC powerplant fitted to one... You cant fit a supercharger in the elise' engine bay... but an exige you can (now theres an option with the 240R)... mabey not the high torque # RC is speaking of... but its definately what i think belongs in it.
the logo wattermark - it shouldn't touch the edge of the pic IMO thanks mihals, i'll definately keep thatin mind for the next round of pictures

[TT]

Thanks for the infos, and thanks for spending a couple of words about your 100-300. Actually you confirm what most ppl keep saying: alternative lenses often have some serious quality issues and it's better to spend some more money on a Canon lense most of the time.
till, on your pics at 142mm it is still ok.
I never tried AI focus, for action shots I always let it on servo mode

[nthfinity]

I never tried AI focus, for action shots I always let it on servo mode

:oops: im sorry, thats actually what i meant... AI servo continuously changes :oops:

[Wutputt]

Must have been a great experience and you took some nice pics. btw, it looks as if the EVO is flying in the second action thumb :lol:

[dingo]

Good colour choices for both cars, and great experience for you to be able to drive both of them. :D

Thanks for the pics and report.

[LotusGT1]

I wondr how the Lotus would feel out on open B-Road sweepers and straight aways.. I imagine it would always seem out of breath.

Someone needs to come up with a throaty toquey high hp light weight EZlise like car.


http://www.elise.ch/membres/Patrick/Esthi/gallery_1.asp

Aftermarket though, but close enough ;)

[Pehtren]

the blue evo is fantastic :D the elise could be better you said, if it would be a 240R i think it would be brutal, but better brutal than a shoping cart :mrgreen:

no no just kiding :lol:

thanks for indepth