The Esthi

Holy cow! Check out the Esthi: An Elise witha bi-turbo V6 :-O

Modern cars are boring

Really interesting thread on FChat about how modern cars are boring becaujse of all the electronics and comfort. I second that! That's why my car collection includes only street legal race cars.
On a side note, Ferrari lovers are not without wits. Check out this statement on that thread:

"The more I drive, the more I believe my next weekend fun car will be vintage. I love Dinos, and I like early 911s. Drivers still had to be better than cars at the time, and the relationship between engine and driving dynamics was clearer -- because the cars didn't weigh 4000 lbs. In a way, I think the Lotus Elise is the last pure sports car you can buy now, while heavy gadget-laden computerized rides like the BMW 6 show how far off-course we are -- for sport driving (for a daily driver, I'd bet a BMW 6 would be fast, comfy and safe)."

Family holidays

Now family holidays don't mean time away from your sportscar. I could fit my Elise in one of these! ROTFL

My crappy car is back

La Bomba Rossa, my red 1990 Toyota Corolla Boomy is back from the garage. I haven't driven in a couple of weeks... I'll post a couple of pics soon.

New car blog

I just created a new blog CarsOnDiet to keep a list of the street-legal cars where light weight is a significant element of performance. Be sure to check it out. I am aiming for bi-weekly updates.

New car lineup

Well, I've been thinking about how i simply cannot get excited over a 575 M or a DB9. I mean, I totally would not wake up at 4 am to take them for a drive like the Liz. I am a true 'lotus driver and minimalism is paramount', so I want my collection to feature roadlegal race cars. So here's the current lineup:

1. Lotus Elise R (Premium pack in Elise Sport colors)



2. Alfa 159 (Family car)



3. Ferrari F430 (Comfortable supercar)



4. Ferrari Challenge Stradale

Whichever one I can get my hands on. Right now the only available one is the 360 CS, but there's a Challenge version of the F430 (hopefully that means a CS version soon) and the new 599 GTB is running the Panamerican race, if they do a challenge stradale version of the 599, it would be equivalent to an Enzo in power, so maybe not.

5. Other cars

Other additions may include the Ariel Atom, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and the Caterham Super 7.

New color choice on the Lotus

I saw a picture of a Lotus Sport Elise on Elise Talk and I totally fell in love with the color scheme (see pic below). So I am getting on with the Premium black leather interior. If it's too expensive, I'm going to get it in yellow and get it striped later.

Great roads in Portugal

My purchase of a Lotus Elise is coming closer. To celebrate it, here are some of the best twisties in Portugal.

1. The Sintra tour: I still haven't figured out the best circuit here. The goal is to keep to N247 as much as possible and then taking a secondary road on the east side of the mountain to avoid the large straight created by N8. My suggestion, just by looking a the map is to exit N8 just after Linhó.

2. The Fátima tour: I have only done the Fatima-Ourém part of the trip. It's really twisty, although it crosses some small towns. Again from looking at the map, my suggestion woukd be to take 349 down from Ourém and then taking the 357 to Boleiros and back to Fátima, going through the border of serra do Aire.

3. The Abrantes-Tramagal quickie: This is an insane bit of road with a quick succession of hairpins and sharp turns. It will only entertainyou for 15 minutes, but you'll get out of the car at Tramagal with your legs shaking.

4. The Constância tour: This circuit integrates the Abrantes-Tramagal quickie described above. Start from Constância heading north on the 358, take the Martinchel exit and follow it to Andreus and then Sardoal. Follow the 358 southeast to Mouriscas, then follow west to Alferrarede and Abrantes, take the quickie from Abrantez to Tramagal and then back across the river to Constância.