Lotus Reviews

According to the most recent monthly market bulletin, sales of soft-roaders are going off to an extraordinary extent, up by more than 40 per cent year-to-date in some categories in 2006.It would be pleasant to think the commercial success of vehicles designed to provide facility and comfort at the expense of any driverly satisfaction, indeed any sensation at all, was a temporary aberration.That we can't get enough of these cosseting, anodyne, soccer-mum mobiles marks us as self-obsessed, complacent and essentially disinterested in driving.We've had cause to expound on this grim fact of modern life more than once in the past week or so; as we came close to oblivion at the hands of yet another lane-barger automatically piloting the urban shopping vehicle.There might be some small excuse for an SUV owner (as opposed to 'driver') failing to see our low-slung and diminutive Lotus Elise S.But the bovine look on the dials of most we've been obliged to upbraid suggested they'd have been unaware of an Abrams tank.Wing mirrors, it increasingly appears, are considered useful primarily to assist reverse parking.If the greatest caveat to Lotus ownership in the automotive Sleepy Hollow of this metropolis is a very real danger of becoming a speed bump for an SUV, against that is the immense satisfaction of eschewing the prevailing decadence.A Lotus, especially the ultra-light entry-level Elise S, remains one of the most unadulterated, one of the purest, public road-going vehicles available. If you've the least sniff of petrol about you, you owe it to yourself to have a go at a Lotus at least once.Even if you're not so disposed, perhaps especially if you're not, then you ought to at least stick your head inside one. Then you'll see that it's possible to not only survive without the plethora of extraneous and distracting comforts with which most modern passenger vehicles are burdened, but to actually thrive in a way you've probably never considered.Not that Elise does without niceties. Unlike the hardcore Exige S, the rear-view mirror is made useful by there being a rear window you can see out of. There's also a stereo, twin Probax seats and even electric windows. It's just that there's no danger of mistaking the interior for a Mercedes-Benz SLK. Or even a Mazda MX-5. Unlike these, there's no push button to fold the roof away, it has to be manually disassembled and stowed. And, as with the most full-on Lotus, you lower yourself over a sill into what is a cockpit, not a cabin.The air of spartan functionality is relieved only by such inner door padding and dash materials that won't add to the weight. You need to be on good terms with your passenger who, if he or she is tall, will need to mind their knee and elbow so you can manipulate the gear stick freely.To look on it, the Elise is a desperately sweet little thing. Indeed, in the gleaming alloys shod in 16-inch Yokohama Advan Neon rubber at the front and 17s on the back, it's as cute as any number of buttons.If you're not beguiled by the Elise, you probably hate puppy dogs too. Turn the key, switch off the immobiliser and stab the start button and you'll notice that not only is there not much by way of sound deadening to mask the engine noise, but the engine is mid-mounted right behind your head. The impression forms that this is going to be a ride to make your normal daily conveyance seem like a Jason Recliner Rocker.The remarkable thing is that the engine chosen for this piece of relatively affordable exotica is actually derived from something so humble as Toyota's Celica. The 1.8-litre VVT unit delivers only 100kW/172Nm, but that is enough to get the Elise to 100km/h from standing in a Porsche Boxster S-beating 6.1 seconds. And the latter costs $140,000 ...This is what happens when extraneous items are discarded to achieve the lightest kerb weight of any car on Australian roads.At only 860kg the Elise is positively anorexic. Yet it's an almost benign daily proposition.For the rarefied nature of the beast in question, the combination of Eibach springs and Bilstein telescopic dampers is inspired.The Elise rides the worst the road can throw at it with, if not ease, then disciplined composure, without compromising those crucial Lotus values of intimate body control and utterly intuitive handling.The rigidly mounted rack and pinion steering is, of course, wonderfully unassisted and thus full of feedback.A 2.8 turns lock-to-lock, it's also instantly responsive and direct, so that when you're properly on the thing, changing direction seems to be a matter of osmosis. While maximum power, such as it is, occurs near top revs at 6200rpm, all the torque is at 4200rpm, making all the mid-range you need and even allowing for occasional use of fifth gear.There is no sixth gear, but you won't feel the want of it.To rev the Elise up past 5000rpm as the good Lord intended, though, is to reap a whirlwind of sharpened acceleration and shrieking exhaust note until the warning light flashes on just shy of redline.This surfeit of feel translates to the stop pedal which has just the right amount of retardation built in before the ABS threshold is breached. The Elise experience is visceral in a way that the cars we've chosen as ostensible 'rivals' have been plucked out of fairly thin air. Each are abundantly rewarding in their own ways, but none emulate the immediacy and rawness. Seldom has being so 'un-Australian' been so cool.If $70,000 seems steep, remember that you can also buy a hatch as well for getting the groceries and still have change from $100,000.

When most people buy a car, they think of a simple equation; practicality plus enjoyment equals a good decision. They look for space, comfort, storage compartments and features that will make them feel like they're getting a better deal than the next car buyer. But with a Lotus that equation is thrown straight out the window, as we discovered with our trial in the entry-level model, the Elise S.There's little storage space, it's squishy inside and you'll pull nearly every single muscle in your legs, back and neck when getting in and out of the car. If you're over 50, you'll moan and groan when attempting this near impossible feat. Because the Lotus is everything but practical.With its insect-like looks, the Elise S has an aggressive “I mean business” stance. The sweeping front is complemented by the more muscular rear. And it's a real boys' toy, proof of which comes when hitting the road.On three different driving days, the Lotus attracted the “thumbs up” from three types of boys; a 10-year-old, a 20-year-old and a more mature — but still kid at heart — 40-year-old. But don't fret girls, it's also one we can have plenty of fun in.At $69,990, the Elise S is the more affordable Lotus. But our test car was more expensive with the $8000 Touring Plus option pack. This added features such as leather touches to the interior, gear knob, and handbrake lever gaiter, noise-insulation panelling in the cabin and soft-top.As well as the impractical size, there are a few other things that aren't strong selling points, including the extra muscle required in cornering because there is no power steering. And with very few smooth roads in Sydney, you'll feel every single pothole.Safety equipment such as ABS and driver and passenger airbags make you feel more comfortable about your easily disguised position on the road. But it's still rather daunting as it's easy for other drivers to miss you, especially the ubiquitous city SUVs.But despite these downfalls, after a week in the car there was still something quite humorous about it which managed to bring a smile to the face.Crawl inside and the cabin appears to be almost stripped bare. There is a CD system, but the engine is so loud you really have to crank up it to hear anything.The Touring-plus pack offers an upgraded Alpine stereo with iPod connection, cupholder and embroidered mats, but without the pack, the Elise S has minimal features.There's no storage space, not even a glovebox, and it has a tiny boot. There is even a lack of carpet on parts of the interior, which gives the Elise S the real racing feel by adding aluminium as decoration instead.By excluding features, as well as using an aluminium chassis with a lightweight steel rear subframe, the car weighs just 860kg. To put that into perspective, a Barina is 1120kg.The Elise S is one of the lightest cars in the world, the weight advantage providing better acceleration, handling and braking. This all equates to better performance for the little Lotus.Powering the Elise S is a 1.8-litre 100kW Toyota engine which may sound small in print, but takes into account it's a car that looks somewhat like a go-kart and weighs a lot less than your average runabout.It races to 100km/h in just 6.1 seconds, which also feels faster than it might sound.In terms of performance, the Elise S produces 100kW at 6200rpm, although it's hard to push the revs to the top end of the tacho, as it urges you to shift up a gear earlier. In terms of torque, the Elise S produces 172Nm at 4200rpm.Performance is delivered through a lightweight five-speed manual transmission, which sounds rather clunky as you shift your way through the gears.But all the downsides are quickly forgotten when you let it off the leash.Throw it into a corner and the Elise S handles well, gripping tightly as you cling to the small racing-like steering wheel.Slipping into topless mode is an effort. Unlike other sports cars, this requires manual exertion to remove the soft-top.Getting it off was easy, but putting it back on took close to 15 minutes and drew a crowd.And while the car inspires lots of smiling, that disappeared when it wouldn't start, especially when one of the places it decided to stop was on an incline in a car park.A Lotus technician later said it could have been because the accelerator was pressed too early — you're suppose to wait 10 seconds between turning the engine on and accelerating, to let the car settle. The catalytic converter apparently needs the time to warm to operating temperature to comply with emission law requirements.An instruction on that quirk would have come in handy a lot earlier.The Elise S is fun, but hardly your average car. Having it as your daily driver could send you crazy and put your body into spasms.But if you have the money, it's the type of car you can take to the track a couple of times a month, show off in traffic occasionally or go for a longer cruise.Because there's no doubting the fun and attractive elements of the Lotus Elise S.

Not only does it go like a bat out of hell, but a Lotus of any kind commands attention like few other cars on the road. And the rarely sighted Exige is no exception.CARSguide recently took possession of the S version, and it didn't take long to discover there's no sneaking about unnoticed in this machine.A stop at the lights in George St saw tourists whip out their mobile-phone cameras for a quick snap. And filling up at the service station inevitably involved a “Lotus” conversation.The S, which is about a second quicker than the “normal” model, hits 100km/h from a standing start in just 4.2 seconds. And you feel every bit of the ride.The near $115,000 asking price is just one of the costs of driving a car such as the Exige.Because this car is designed for racing (and, in the case of Lotus, that's not just a marketing line), it has been stripped of almost every possible creature comfort.It has no rear vision whatsoever. It's loud, hard, rough, impossibly difficult to get in and out of, and is one of the most uncomfortable cars we've ever driven.It's also a hell of a lot of fun and, for a road car, one of the most thrilling driving experiences one could hope for.You sit so low to the ground it feels as though your backside will hit the road each time you go over a bump.Even a Holden Barina towers over you when you pull up to the lights. In fact, with doors open, it's not too much of a stretch to touch the tarmac from the driving position.And you notice every bump, with the worst of them coming close to taking the wind out of both driver and passenger.Really, it's a car that is best suited to smooth roads, which can be rather hard to find in NSW.Although stripped of most comforts, the Exige still comes with a reasonable safety package, including driver and passenger airbags, ABS braking and a traction-control program (which, naturally, can be deactivated at the touch of a button should the driver be in a brave frame of mind).Despite these safety features, the Exige feels very unsafe. Not only are you nearly completely blind to what's happening behind you, it feels as though nobody else can see you, either.And for those in larger 4WDs and SUVs, that's probably an accurate assessment. They simply would not know you were there unless they made a meaningful effort to look down.So defensive driving is the order of the day in a Lotus.For everyday use, the lack of comfort and the lack of sight make for a pretty demanding car and, in some cases, a downright stressful experience.Get into some tight corners, on the other hand, and the Exige is as involving a drive as money can buy.The small, 1.8 litre, four-cylinder supercharged (the normal Exige is atmo) Toyota engine sits just behind your head. So when you put your foot to the floor, you can barely hear yourself think. You can also feel the heat rising from the back once the engine really starts to spin.The (unassisted) steering is razor-sharp, throttle response is instant, and handling is, as you'd expect, superb from the grippy, semi-slick tyres.The trick to getting the rather small Toyota engine to propel the Lotus so quickly lies in the overall weight of the car or, indeed, lack of weight.You see, the Exige is one of the lightest cars on the road, at about 935kg. This gives it an enormous power-to-weight ratio and explains the tremendous acceleration and stopping power.The super-stiff chassis and very low centre of gravity, combined with the semi-slick tyres, are the reasons it holds on so well around corners.If you're thinking of parking an Exige in your garage, just make sure it's not your daily wheels. Over the week or so we had the car, we were well and truly sick of its harsh nature by day two or three.But it would be an absolute riot to drive on a track, or even for a Sunday spin up your favourite country road.Forget the Lotus for everyday use — unless of course you're willing to suffer for performance, and you have a very good relationship with a chiropractor. Fast factsLotus Exige SOn sale: NowPrice: $114,990Body: Two-door sports coupeEngine: Supercharged 1.8 litre four-cylinder, 2ZZ-GE VVTL-i, 162kw/215NmTransmission: Six-speed manualFuel: Between 7 and 9 litres per 100kmSafety: Driver and passenger airbags, traction control and ABS

You've got to be kidding I thought as the low riding coupe crunched its way over yet another irregularity in the road surface.The only thing soft about this car is the extra 5.5cm it concedes top and bottom of the doors that allows big boofheads like myself to squeeze in and out more easily.Nah, soft is certainly not the term I'd apply to this road going rocket.Softly, softly perhaps . . . because that's the approach newcomers need to adopt when slotting behind the wheel for the first time.It's a whole new world down there and unfortunately Lotus probably doesn't command the respect it deserves from other drivers.Yes, it turns heads and, yes, the Lotus badge is recognised for its British racing heritage, but beyond that the average driver has little or no respect for the car's capabilities.Priced from $109,900, like the rest of the Lotus family, the Europa S sits small, compact and extremely low to the road, with limited vision to the rear and sides.It's easy to feel vulnerable down there, even a little claustrophobic and the first steps are normally tentative ones.After you get the hang of it, however, it's simply a case of hanging on tight to the tiny non-power assisted wheel as the turbocharged tyro punches from corner to corner, with the ease of a slot car.Lotus freely admits the GM-powered Europa was designed principally as a road car (not for the track like other models) .In fact, it boasts the highest level of equipment of any modern day Lotus.But it makes no apology for the exceptional ride and handling which is still the principal insipiration behind the company's design philosphy.In fact, it claims none of its perceived competitors come anywhere near the car in terms of handling, boasts Lotus boss John Stretton.That includes Porsche's Cayman, Cayman S and the BMW Z4 M.Europa S is powered by a 2.0-litre 147kW GM engine, the same engine in fact that powers Holden's turbocharged Astra.But unlike the Toyota engine that powers the Lotus Exige that we drove recently, the GM engine retains its original engine management system.Lotus opted for the GM unit because its higher torque output was better suited to the Europa, but it reveals that retaining the system was part of the deal.Having said that, the 147kW engine is not limited in anyway which gives it a less linear torque curve.With 147kW of power and 272Nm of torque on tap, the 995kg Europa can sprint from 0-100km/h in just 5.8 seconds and on to a top speed of 230km/h.Modest figures perhaps, but there's nothing dull or boring about the way it drives or responds to the throttle.Bridgestone tyres are fitted which don't provide quite as much grip but they deliver a quieter more refined ride.Fuel economy meanwhile is rated at 9.3 litres/100km.Although the Europa S will appeal mainly to men, Lotus recognises the importance women play in the purchase process.Amd with Europa's concessions to comfort, it is hoping to kick a few more goals in this department.The original Europa (I remember one of my teachers having one) was built between 1966 and 1974, with early models powered by a Renault engine.

With its hardcore sportscar focus, the company's products are sometimes seen as too impractical for everyday use — too challenging just to get in and out, with little space for luggage and spartan comfort levels. They are weekend toys to take to a track.It's all true. There isn't a more awkward car to enter than a Lotus Exige, and once there, it's noisy and cramped. The ride is crashy and cargo space negligible. Features that would be standard elsewhere are options or unavailable. So whippet-like is the Exige, it makes even other sportscars look like Saint Bernards.However, what's surprising about this is not that few people go for this approach, but that more people do not. Lotus offers something unique among sportscars and all the attributes that are recited as drawbacks are exactly what appeals to us.We discovered this over a week with an Exige S, when our initial doubts about its suitability as daily transport were quickly overtaken by a delight in its raw, connected driving experience.The Exige S puts a supercharged version of a 1.8-litre four-cylinder Toyota engine within the existing Exige body shape, which is shared with the Elise.The loan car lifted the $114,990 starting price to $136,000 by fitting all three option packs. The Touring pack adds front airbags, some leather trim and carpets, while the two Sports packs add racing seats, traction control and roll hoops, plus lightweight alloys and adjustable dampers and front anti-roll bar.The Exige is tiny — at 3.8m long it's only a few centimetres longer than a Toyota Yaris — and very, very low at 1.16m, but with a dramatic shape that means it stands out like a true exotic should.From the driver's seat, the gawps of other road users are not always obvious because you are viewing the world from axle height. The wide sill, over which you must carefully step to get in, effectively becomes an armrest.The racing seats were a good fit, which was just as well because the only concession to varying driver size is fore-aft slide. A tiny Momo steering wheel, simple controls and plenty of bare metal give the cabin its special race car ambience. Only the garish and fiddly stereo strikes the wrong note.There is some luggage capacity behind the engine bay, in an awkwardly shaped 112-litre recess that is unconvincingly lined and has wires intruding. Two soft weekend bags would be your lot.The most obvious difference between this car and a standard Exige is the supercharger plumbing, which sucks in air from a vent in the roof and completely obscures the rear window. It takes a while to retune our normal reflexes in favour of the widely placed wing mirrors. They do the job, but reversing isn't easy.The basis for the engine in this car has already appeared in the Elise 111R, although supercharging changes it completely. It's a high-tech unit with trick valve timing and an electronic throttle, although it takes a little while to warm up.Even then, it can be rough and uneven at idle with occasional rev surges. It sounds raucous and a little highly strung, perhaps, but rasps and rips compellingly through its rev range, with peak power of 162.5kW at 7800rpm and the ability to reach 8500rpm in two-second bursts. The higher it revs the sweeter it gets, if a crazed bandsaw can be described as sweet. Peak torque of 215Nm also arrives high at 5500rpm, although there's enough above 2000rpm to make it surprisingly driveable at commuting speeds in high gears.Lotus is famous for achieving performance with small engines by keeping weight down, but this engine takes the Exige into another league. Flat out it will reach 100km/h in 4.3 seconds — as quick or quicker than supercars costing two or three times as much and boasting at least two more cylinders. With only four pistons, the Exige sips premium like a hatchback, averaging 9.1 litres per 100km.The Exige loses out only on top speed, which for a car this quick off the mark is a relatively modest 238km/h. This is despite obvious attention to aerodynamics with a front splitter, rear diffuser, flat underbody and prominent fixed wing. Oddly, the drag coefficient is a remarkably high 0.434.Lotus's aluminium skeleton can take much of the credit for keeping weight low — even fully optioned the Exige tips the scales at just 949kg. Nearly two-thirds of that sits over the rear axle, getting power to the ground with authority through 17-inch alloys and street-legal competition tyres.With 16-inch wheels at the front, this car delivers superb grip with cornering speeds limited largely by driver nerve.The Exige stays very flat and thumps its wheels down into any road irregularities, giving rise to — unwarranted — concern about the hardiness of the alloys.Encounter a big pothole through a fast corner and it can even throw the front wheels off line.However, the unassisted steering is so direct and precise the driver is never in doubt about what the road is like and how much to turn the wheel.It has drawbacks, such as heaviness when parking or a slight tendency to tramline, but they are a price we willingly pay.An unmediated connection with the car runs through all the Exige controls, with great brake, throttle and clutch weight from perfectly placed pedals. The gearshift can be a little sticky when cold, but has a no-nonsense mechanical character that makes it a delight to use.Lotus announced production cutbacks recently but also an intention to produce three new models between now and the end of 2009. These include a new flagship Esprit, a new mid-range car and a Lotus-Proton high-performance model.Meanwhile, the new Europa, which features a different body on the same platform as the Exige/Elise but with more equipment and greater claims to comfort, appeared at the Sydney motor show.One danger in a bigger model line-up is departing from core Lotus values, but if the Exige S is anything to go by, we doubt that will happen.The real challenge for Lotus will be to meet heightened safety expectations — with additional airbags, for example - without adding a lot of weight to its newer models.Meanwhile, as most cars get increasingly complex and impose a suite of software between driver and road, there is no disguising the bareback nature of a Lotus.As the company makes more models, then more people might rediscover the excitement of being behind the wheel.

But a supercar it is not; the Exige S literally does not fit the bill.There are few cars that offer the performance of the new Exige S for under $300,000, and none have a tiny supercharged 1.8-litre Toyota engine capable of supercar speed. But for $114,990, the Exige S is only fractionally slower than a Lambo, Ferrari and Porsche Turbo on the straight – and can whip all of them through the corners.This is the fastest production car Lotus has ever built, and oddly enough, it is the most refined on both road and track. Adding a supercharger and some mod-cons has heightened what was already a visceral, intense experience.There are only a few subtle differences in appearance between the atmo Exige and Exige S; body-coloured front splitter, LED taillights, a small S badge by the A-pillar, and a little mailbox chute to suck air into the intercooler, which is roof-mounted for direct airflow to the mid-mounted engine.Unfortunately, the intercooler blocks what little view there ever was in the rear view mirror, which now looks a wall of black casing and is only good for checking your own reflection.But vanity aside, the lack of vision is a compromise that many Lotus buyers will be willing to make for the performance. There is nothing quite like the wail of a Lotus at full welly, but with the supercharger sitting directly behind the driver’s ears, it now hisses and spits like an angry Amazonian python.Gone too is the long, loud wait until the 1.8-litre Toyota Celica engine comes onto its cams and picks up power.The usual surge at 6500rpm is almost imperceptible, replaced by low-down torque and a less peaky powerband. The increase in power is modest on paper: 21.5kW over the standard car at 162.5kW, and up 34Nm to 215. But add that to a car weighing just 935kg, and you have a missile that sprints 0-100km/h in 4.3 seconds. That’s faster than a Porsche 911 Carrera.The interior shows some more marked improvements over the Exige, with a focus on touring as well as performance. It is still an epic contortion process to get in and out of the thing, but once behind the wheel there is a more resolved, sophisticated air to the cabin.Air itself is kept out with more wind proofing and cabin damping, and surfaces once left bare are covered with felts, suedes and plastics. The funky sueded dash is replaced by a coarse plastic cover, but it hides the new standard dual airbags. Seating is improved for the smaller driver – not so much for the taller punter – with a new set of ProBax seats that sit higher in the tiny cabin, but provide more support in the lumbar area for longer drives.And while longer drives may seem like a masochistic proposition a car purpose-built for a twisty track, the performance add-ons actually make for a more liveable, all-round vehicle.On a bumpy country road outside of Goulburn for the launch this week – and far away from both the Wakefield Park track and smooth Hume Highway – the Exige S showed remarkable poise. And ironically, one of the test cars wearing hardcore optional Touring, Sport and Super Sport enhancement packs, rode better than the standard car.The three option packs are the only Exige options apart from metallic paint, traction control and a LSD.The luxury Touring pack ($8,000) adds leather, electric windows, driving lights, additional insulation, a second cupholder (small lattes only please) and an upgraded stereo.The Sport pack ($6,000) consists of racing ProBax seats, a cross-bar for racing harnesses, and switchable traction control, with the whol hog Super Sports pack ($7,000) adding one-way adjustable Bilstein dampers, adjustable ride height and front anti-roll bar, and lightweight seven-spoke black alloys.Both the standard suspension and the Super Sport suspension setting was the same on the day, but dampers alone made a huge difference to ride quality on the road.And while it still revs hard all the way to 8200rpm, and sounds like a bomb blast while doing it, the S is happy to cruise in sixth up and down hills at a stately 3500rpm with enough poise to enable a full conversation without even raising the voice. The track is another story.The Elise and Exige have always been the king of corner speed, with the tuned suspension and rack offering purist handling and the low weight of the car allowing speed and agility. Supercharging just makes it all happen a lot faster.Despite the traction control, the S will respond like a dog on heat every time you sic it on the apex, but too much enthusiasm or lingering on the brakes still produces lengthy slides. Get the balance right, and the amount of speed able to be held through a corner is simply phenomenal.Cornering in the Super Sport car was slightly more predictable, less twitchy in the rear if too much speed was applied. And when the tyres let go, it is catchable, controllable, and hilariously fun.So it remains in my mind as a track car for the road – but the Exige S is a car you would drive to, from and in between days on the track.Lotus Cars Australia expect a modest increase in sales from last year’s 60 cars to about 120, aided by both the Exige S and the upcoming Europa, which will feature alongside the S at October’s Australian International Motor Show.A grand touring version of the Exige, the Europa is the car to reduce the compromise between performance and livability, aimed more toward real-world performance while the Exige S stays focused on the straight and narrow track.But for the moment, the most hardcore, fastest production car Lotus has ever built is also the one with the least compromise.This review and much more will feature in The Sunday Telegraph CARSguide section on August 27, 2006.

Hamburgers, though only very occasionally eaten, were totally out. No pies, fish and chips, milkshakes and even the beer was looking redundant.The sacrifice worked. Like the car I was to drive, the fat — well, a bit of it — had been sliced away to mimic the automobile as a work of minimalistic art.Which is an art in itself, given that Lotus started with one of the barest cars on the market — its Elise — and then cut, lightened and simply threw away parts until it produced a mechanical ultralight.The 340R is so named because Lotus intended to make a sports car with a formidable power-to-weight ratio of 340bhp a tonne. It actually failed to produce that ratio from the factory, but pacified the critics by making only 340 cars — which was Lotus's original plan.Though conflicts between the stylists and the engineers from Lotus and the British transport authorities meant that alluring power-to-weight ratio did notmaterialise on the showroom floor, a few owners did even better.This car, with its subdued alloy and black skeleton, has 352bhp a tonne.It is rare, not only because it surpasses the manufacturer's aims, but also because it is only one of three in Australia.Brought in by Lotus Cars Australia to be the display car at the 2000 Sydney International Motor Show, it was the 337th made. But if Lotus didn't fulfil its desire to build 340 cars, it could even be the last.It was also the only one imported into Australia that was fully optioned with the 145kW kit, carbon-fibre mudguards, techno-magnesium alloy wheels, removable steering wheel, and six-point racing harness.Sold after the motor show to a Sydney dentist for $140,000, it was bought by a WA lawyer in 2003. It's now for sale again.Since its journey to Perth, there have been further upgrades such as boosting power to 160kW at the flywheel and 140kW at the rear wheels.Together with some weight-saving components, it's enough to get this 340R from rest to 100km/h in a tad under four seconds. In perspective, that's faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo (4.2sec) and the Ferrari 430 (4sec).But it's also lighter — the test car weighs about 610kg and was 658kg out of the factory — and loses a few creature comforts. Like the doors, windows, roof, sound system, airconditioning, carpets, and so on.You learn to live without all that. If it rains, go faster. If the sun is burning your pate, wear a hat. If it's freezing then you're a whinger and don't deserve to own a car like this.It also has no numberplates, saving even further weight though that can cause some angst among the constabulary.The 340R was never built to meet Australian Design rules, so this one gets around to motorsport events on a 12-month renewable permit.The modified Rover K-series 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine — also used in various stages of tune in vehicles including the Land Rover Freelander, Rover 45, MGTF, Metro and Caterham Seven — sits behind the driver and pumps away through a close-ratio five-speed gearbox to drive the 16-inch rear wheels.The driver sits within a bonded aluminium chassis topped by a composite shell shaped something like a wedge-toed shoe.The seats are lightweight composite racing units to hug the body, and the cockpit side panels are translucent polycarbonate sheet, giving occupants a surreal blurred view of the passing road.Get in by sitting on the side panels, swinging the legs over and dropping into the seat. The steering wheel is tiny, the 8000rpm tacho glares back at you, the view ahead is clear and to the side, completely unobstructed. I'm feeling very vulnerable.The six-point harness is a pain for driving on the road, yet I note it clicks easily into place thanks to the previous week of dieting.De-activate the alarm and immobiliser, press the central alloy starter button and all hell breaks lose.Every blip of the throttle vibrates up my spine, the noise tears at my ears and the blast of hot air burns my neck.Release the light clutch and plant the alloy accelerator pedal to the floor, and the engine burble swells to a roar, then a scream.Then, with the tiny tacho needle closing on 8000rpm, slam the clutch open and flick the longish gearlever back into second. It fires forward again, the tacho needle dancing and the need for third gear coming up real quick.Brake for the corner, feel how light the front of the car is and deliberately pick an accurate line through the corner. That, says the owner, is important because it's not shy about flicking the tail out.Faster and faster around the racetrack, the 340R gets to know its driver. The tail comes up a bit, the nose starts to slide a fraction, but it's all easily controlled.Stop. Breathe. Turn on "launch control" — a computer-controlled method of getting this little beast off the line even faster.Click into first gear, plant your foot on the accelerator — don't worry, the computer won't let you exceed 5500rpm — then drop the clutch.Your neck takes up the slack in the acceleration as the computer ensures that the engine delivers maximum power with minimal wheelspin. Brilliant.Can I have a beer now, please?