Greatest Ever Drivers' Cars

[davidbravo]

I love my 2022 Ford Fiesta ST and plan to buy it after the lease ends. It’s fun to drive, has a great engine, but the ride is rough and tyre costs are high. I’ve driven 110,000 km without issues, except tyres. My next car will be a simple Kia Picanto manual.

[vstibbard]

Great read, I remember reading old road tests of Elans before buying my first an S4SE DHC yellow reg MJY740J (maybe K reg) the drive home was fantastic and more than lived up to the expectations, I used it to commute from Petts Wood to Manchester and the Lakes District weekly, often leaving early to avoid the motorways. Made some good friends Tony Lamoury (sprint dhc red) and Bob Cooper (sprint fhc yellow over white) with many blasts down through Kent. Graeme on this forum was introduced to my Elan at waterpolo from memory.
I’m lucky enough to have an Elan 26R S2, and S1 Elan never owned a Sprint, I often think about finding a lagoon blue over white fhc Sprint. I also owned a 911 for 30 years and whilst very different to an Elan it’s an incredibly satisfying car to drive with amazing feedback and now also a gold star investment!!

[alan.barker]

Hi Vaughan,
Like this
Alan

[vstibbard]

Absolutely Alan, I’m sure I shared that with you when we caught up in Sydney

[JasonJ]

This is a great thread…

I have never been fortunate enough to drive an Elan Sprint ( the blue over white looks fantastic)
My love of Lotus started when I was an apprentice and we had one in the garage for a resto, we had a lot of nice cars through. My journeyman hill climbed and few of his friends had twins in the escorts, the sound was music to my ears
Hopefully one day I may get the chance to own an Elan, at the minute I’m very happy with my Plus2 the driving experience is nice and pretty rounded.

There is no mention of the e30 BMW ( I understand there from different era)in this thread which I have owned 2, one originally started as a 320 which ended up as 2.7 I went down the route that Alpina use 325 engine with the crank changed….. this car kept pulling
The other was a e30 M3 Evolution 2 , number 367 of 501 I still regret passing this car on it felt fantastic on the road and I could hammer this engine and it never missed a beat, the road feel was so connected. I great drivers car and a strong car.

Jason

[alan.barker]

Hi Jason,
Funny thing i'm just going to move over to a BMW Z3. 6 cylinder of course.
Alan

[McFast]

HI,

The 924 is a front engined transaxle car. The 924, 944, 928 and finally the 968 were the front engined transaxle cars. I have a couple of 968s and they are superb cars. Great balance with the engine in the front and gearbox and transaxle gubbins gives you nearly 50/50 weight balance. Much heavier than an elan but as a spirited Sunday driver or a daily the 968 is a great car.

Douglas

A very interesting read, thanks all!

I've had a Plus 2 S130/5 and I'm now restoring an S4. Never been in an Elan apart from the Plus 2 so I don't know what to expect from the S4, but if the Plus 2 was anything to go by, it will be special. My view was it handled well but you could feel the weight in the bends. That said, I didn't put new shock absorbers on it so I will never know how much it could have been improved by. The S4 is a different proposition and will have all new suspension. It has Strombergs but I am not concerned. As an S/E it's got a high compression head and Sprint cams, so it'll fly. Plus, I can swap out the Strommies for Mikunis easily enough...

I've always wondered how the rear engined 924 could be so highly regarded as a driver's car. The engine at the rear screams "imbalance" to me. I think it must be very tail happy, like a pendulum in the bends, but again, never been in one.