Just how good is the Elan?

[rip]

You can get FWD cars up to & over 250bhp these days. Has anyone driven any to compare them to the Elan regarding the way they pull under heavy acceleration?

A friend of mine broke his Calibra Turbo & fitted its upgraded engine into a Vauxhall Nova. It is good fun but is a real handful when you plant your right foot because it tries to wriggle all over the place. I am sure that on a twisty road, the Elan would be quicker simply because it is happy to go where you point it.
It really made me appreciate the effort Lotus put into the M100's design.

[Rob P]

I have only expeienced a John Cooper Works Mini (Running 211 BHP) and whilst there are some similarities the one big bonus I found with the Lotus is the lack of Torque steer, the JCW was a pain for Torque steering and certainly felt less planted whilst cornering.

The proof being that I sold the JCW shortly after buying the Lotus Elan as the experience of th Elan was better

[theelanman]

Saab 2.8 v6 turbo.....280bhp.....
daily driver.....comfy....economical...understated.....
goes like a scalded cat when booted.......
will happily keep up with a lot of the 'sportscars' of today....

the elan is a completely different drive......
in a straight line the saab has it...in the corners the elan.....

the saab is for 'a' to 'b' direct (via motorways)
the elan is for country road and seeing how much further you can make 'a' to 'b' become

[dapinky]

When I was working, we used to get all sorts on test from the manufacturers.....

....the first of the Mondeo ST220's was a real handfull! - even with everything that Ford had played with it still tramlined like a ba5tard, and accelleration in anything other than a straight (and flat) line was downright dangerous.

...the T5 Volvo was another one - brilliant on a motorway (except in the 'danger zone' of 90 - 120 mph) - anything over or under was great, but put it on an Urban road and drive it in a hurry and you'll be all over the place - more power than traction availlable.... Ideal in the 4x4 version, but 'the firm' were saving a few quid with just FWD!

We didn't get any of the 'small' cars to play with, so I can't comment on any of them, but the 'bigger' ones weren't really that brilliant (unless as Gareth says, you just want to cruise the Motorway at reasonable speeds).

[trig]

My daily is a Saab 9-5 Aero Estate FWD 250-bhp this has way more mid range punch than the Elan but has a similar time around castle combe track , mainly I because feel safer in a tin-top on track so push harder ,, tyres are destroyed on heavy saab but hardley touched on Elan ,,, Elan quicker on twisty saab faster on straights .........I would love to see which was quicker off the lights , I suspect the Elan just

The car I sold to buy the Elan was a saab 9000-Aero FWD with 340-bhp now this was about 5 seconds faster around Combe track and would be quicker than the Elan in everything including the twistys but it was a handfull to drive but massive fun it would spin wheels in 3rd gear .........this is were the Elan impresses me the most, even modded to 200-ish bhp it does not spin its wheels and has no real torque steer even on old rubber , such a great set up for a 20+ year old car

[ColinB]

Back in the 90's I had a couple of Peugeot 309GTE's. The steering response and handling was first class. 130 BHP gave them fair performance. The 16valve 160BHP
must have been pretty good. My current 1.8 diesel MK1 Focus handles better than my Elan and has fair performance with all that torque.
The Elan's handling has worsened since I put the Toyo's on the back.

Colin

[Joe]

After my red elan died I bought a focus ST 225 then got carried away tuning it to well over 350bhp. Still a class act with zero torque steer and went like the clappers of hell. But on a tight twisty road where all that power is not usable a well sorted elan would still be a very tough car to keep up with.