congrats pchop on both cars! blu mirabeau looks beautiful on the 430! interesting that you seem to love the elise more....i assume its more raw and fun?
I went to Noah's Gotham Dream Cars tour today to help out. We did a rather spirited run via 9W to the Bear Mountain Bridge. This is a twisty route with a few blind corners. Danny (who's a racecar driver) was in front in a 911 Turbo, me and Emil were in the Elise, followed by a Gallardo, 430, Bently GT, Aston Vanguish and a Ford GT. All I have to say is that while I managed to keep up with the 911 (barely), I lost the gallardo and everything behind it after two turns on the twisty road.
for some strange reason i missed this thread. congratulations John, both cars are gorgeous and they look like lots and lots of fun. Enjoy!! hey, since you don't like the 430 that much, I'll be a good guy and take it off your hands, I'll even buy that "used" thing for msrp take care
Just found this thread - Mirabeau blue looks stunning on the F430. Also loving the Elise and the LR3. BTW, surely it should be quite easy to supercharge the Elise - the Exige is available with a supercharger in the UK direct from Lotus and I've also heard of aftermarket companies that do the conversion as well.
That's just plain awesome... nice choices! I wish I had that kind of disposable income... but then I'd need a much bigger (and nicer!) garage... My wife would be jealous of your Elise... though she'd prefer it in yellow or orange... me? I'm just jealous! congratulations!
Both cars must be fantastic but looks wise I think the 430 trumps the Elise, especially in that blue.
Thanks guys and gal. I really love the Elise...and yes slightly over the 430. I know the two are very different cars. However, the Elise is much more pure in representing a true race car. As for supercharging the Elise: mine is an 06 hence throttle by wire. The current superchargers/turbos will NOT work with the 06 model. Believe me, I'm working VERY hard trying to supercharge the Elise...the low end torque is just not there.
I can't help but feel sorry for your F430...she must be crying herself to sleep every night... PLEASE, TAKE IT OUR FOR SOME REAL ACTION, get to know her better!! It should've been the F430 blasting through that twisty route you were talking about! Anyway, nice cars, especially the F430.
I can understand why you'd love your Elise so much - I've driven a few, some on track and they are absolutely incredible - the only problem IMHO is the lack of low end torque that you mention, though overall I'd expect the Elise is a more pure experience than the F430 (I've not driven an F430), although maybe an F430 CS will redress that balance... but even so, the Elise is likely to remain more exploitable more of the time than an F430. I'll have a look into what performance upgrades that are available in the UK and let you know if I find anything that may be useful. I remember reading about an Elise a few years ago that had a turbo'd Audi V6 with IIRC about 440bhp!
