** let me first start by saying, i don't condone street racing but whats a little fun every now and then**

Had a 2nd gear roll on with a Lotus Elise tonight. Saw one in traffic and as he was stopped at a red light I was rolling up to a stop beside him. The light went green I was down to probably 15 or 20 mph in 2nd gear and he laid rubber out of the light I was maybe 5 feet behind him at that point. The stretch of road in front of us was 2 lane , no side roads or entrances and about 1.5 miles before a light that ended the road. I figured what the heck So I laid into in 2nd with a slight speed advantage because I wasn't fully stopped it worked out. He neutralized our speed in his 1st gear and We were side by side doing about the same speed when he grabbed 2nd. I figured it was over an elise should walk me. When I grabbed 3rd I had pulled a nose on him. When I grabbed 4th I had atleast 2 car lenghts. And at 7k when grabbed 5th it looked like a pretty obvious win so I let off. We both rolled up to the end of the road, I was turning right he was turning left so I wanted to talk to him make sure he wasn't short shifting and verify he was a decent driver. Older Gentlemen said he had run numerious track days in the elise and was astonished he couldn't catch me. He was dying to hear I had some sort of big power mod. I think i really disapointed him when I told him the car only ran a 14.0 @ 99 earlier in the summer.
So SCCA can eat your heart out the lotus is not fastest enough to be in Super Stock.... Move it to A-stock!!!

Good kill! Anything can and will happen on the street!

But even though he had many track days, does not make him good at drags.

0-60 4.7sec 1/4 in 13.4@101 is what they are capable of.

You really have to drive the piss out of those cars, taking it to 8500rpms is what it takes to net those kind of speeds.

Good kill, but drag racing is not what the Elise was designed for. The Elise doesn't have crazy power, but it is extremely light (1900 Lbs). They were built for cornering. If you both were on the track, it would be a different story. Good job though.

Hey Believe me, My M3 is no drag car either. I'm running close to 3 degrees of camber in the rear. It doesn't leave the line very well. The light weight of the elise probably allows it to get off the line better then my car but with a low 13 and only trapping 101 shows It really isn't that fast. I had a Stock S2000 that trapped 101. I've figured drag racing is pretty brainless once you get the car off the line. So long as he wasn't short shifting I can go home thinkin, Hey I don't need to sell the M3 for an elise. (which I had been concidering)
At the SCCA ProSolo in Oscoda Mi the winning Z06 mounted a camera on the roof looking sideways at the 2nd place Lotus Elise. It was entertaining to watch that the elise only lost to the Vette 50% of the time till they got to the first turn. (middle of 2nd gear for the vette). I'd always thought hey maybe they aren't slow and just have bad aero for that trap speed. But I was pulling him long before Aero was a factor, they really aren't that quick, or as quick as I thought they were.

And I have to disagree about being on a track, Elise in Stock trim, My car in STU trim. If we were both on equal tires i'm pretty sure I'd do em in. The only thing I can honestly say he's whip me in would be breaking, -3.5 degrees of front camber makes for a small contact patch to try to pull a 2900lbs car down from speed.

sounds like an excellent race. elises are very quick but if you can hold them off to 100 you should be able to pull on them. As others have stated they're very quick down low, but at speed the aero really kills them.

There are two Lotus Elise's that auto-x out here I beat both of them by usually a second or more and my suspension is all stock. I always think that even if the drivers do suck, how much do you have to suck to be beat by me?

I mean, those things handle like they're on rails, right?

Driver skill is probably the most important factor in auto-x events

It doesnt matter how fast or great your car is if you do not know how to drive it

Good kill!

I ran one and posted the results here about a week ago. My car is far from stock. We ran from about 80 into tripple digits and he was very strong up to 115 after that its all over. From a dig we would both lose with a decent driver :)

Driver skill is probably the most important factor in auto-x events

It doesnt matter how fast or great your car is if you do not know how to drive it


agreed. An elise in the right hands would decimate and e36 m3 at the autoX.

Nice run. those cars do look awesome, a little small but awesome.

Nice run. Again anything can happen on the streets. In this case you beat the driver :)

Those things are fun to ride as you sit so close to the ground.... but when it's time to go grocery shopping, all you can buy is a jug of milk, bread, veggies and some meat. :D

Hey Believe me, My M3 is no drag car either. I'm running close to 3 degrees of camber in the rear..
I feel you on that. I have over -3 degrees in the rear and I went drag racing for the fun of it. I was getting a 14.0 at 102 with spinning the tires through first, more than half of second and chirped in third. Camber is great for turning, but sucks for drag racing.

agreed. An elise in the right hands would decimate and e36 m3 at the autoX.
.

There's no making up for the weight difference.