blue5
07-09-2006, 09:29 PM
From time to time, we here are asked by others, what it is like to own and drive an NSX compared to their own/their friends/or cars they fantisise about etc.
Well after 9 years of NSX ownership I have "gone the other way" and bought the "next" most beautiful car i have ever seen: a type 49 Elise S2.
I thought i take this opportunity to post my initial view on what its like to NOT own an NSX.
Externally they are both similar in size, inside the Elise it is amazing how much space there actually is, none of it useable and still nowhere to put an A-Z or a bottle of water! But the view throught the windscreen has the same panoramic quality.
Getting in, with the hardtop on requires an element of origami but once in, the seat hugs well, its just a shame i dont have fat buttocks but i am sure the pain will subside in a few miles but in the meantime and just to be on the safe side i will be buying a cushion.
Its amazing how little is contained within the confines of the elise, there is an engine,a tiny gearbox and in the front a radiator, thats about it, or at least all i can find as at the moment i am finding it difficult to bend and actually after a few hundred miles i dont like standing up much either.
Seated inside the car we are off on our first trip around the block. The cockpit is filled with noise which i later discover to be the engine, i am immediately compelled to fit my Jonathan Palmer ear plugs, these reduce the "noise" a little so i resort to turning on the radio. I have to have it up quite LOUD because of the earplugs.
I can still hear the engine.
Ignoring the pain i turn a few corners, past some parked cars, avoid a bus, stop, turn around, return to the start and do it again just for the hell of it. This car really can steer, and that engine is soooo smothe.
I fill the tank, £33, and drive to the seaside. I now have both windows open because of the lack of air con and proper ventilation.
I can no longer cannot hear the radio as a result.
The journey is a voyage of discovery.
I discover that in the NSX, Whitstable is only an hour and a half away, in the Elise after an hour and a half i look at my watch (there is no clock in the Elise) and find I have only being travelling for fifteen minutes.
like the NSX the Elise just eats the miles but unfortunately it chews every mouthful 20 times, (which could account for its light weight).
With the wife at the helm i can watch our progress reflecting in shop windows as we perambulate Whitstable high street in the traffic.
In the NSX grown men would observe the passing with a botoxed look, and maybe, just maybe the imperceptable nod in salute to from one "head" to another in recognition of the choice of wheels.
In our Elise the passing was signalled by the screaming and mass pointing and tugging of parents, by children, jostling to get a better view as we pass. The attention was overwhelming, we both put on our shades, it made no difference, but at least we looked "well" cool.
I had just discovered what it is like to walk down a busy hight street in thigh high boots and a mini skirt. I can reccomend it. (I think my wife already knew this)
Back home again with £31 of fuel remaining and bodwork tattooed with dead flies and the sticky paw prints of our admirers, we struggle from the car and collapse into bed choosing "foetus" style as the preferred "position du nuit".
As i drift away I can still hear that bloody engine,but my tinnitus has gone.
And so for future reference to those who wish to know, my considered comparison between an Elise and an NSX is thus:
THERE IS NO COMPARISON!
Can anyone reccomend a good ostepath?
Well after 9 years of NSX ownership I have "gone the other way" and bought the "next" most beautiful car i have ever seen: a type 49 Elise S2.
I thought i take this opportunity to post my initial view on what its like to NOT own an NSX.
Externally they are both similar in size, inside the Elise it is amazing how much space there actually is, none of it useable and still nowhere to put an A-Z or a bottle of water! But the view throught the windscreen has the same panoramic quality.
Getting in, with the hardtop on requires an element of origami but once in, the seat hugs well, its just a shame i dont have fat buttocks but i am sure the pain will subside in a few miles but in the meantime and just to be on the safe side i will be buying a cushion.
Its amazing how little is contained within the confines of the elise, there is an engine,a tiny gearbox and in the front a radiator, thats about it, or at least all i can find as at the moment i am finding it difficult to bend and actually after a few hundred miles i dont like standing up much either.
Seated inside the car we are off on our first trip around the block. The cockpit is filled with noise which i later discover to be the engine, i am immediately compelled to fit my Jonathan Palmer ear plugs, these reduce the "noise" a little so i resort to turning on the radio. I have to have it up quite LOUD because of the earplugs.
I can still hear the engine.
Ignoring the pain i turn a few corners, past some parked cars, avoid a bus, stop, turn around, return to the start and do it again just for the hell of it. This car really can steer, and that engine is soooo smothe.
I fill the tank, £33, and drive to the seaside. I now have both windows open because of the lack of air con and proper ventilation.
I can no longer cannot hear the radio as a result.
The journey is a voyage of discovery.
I discover that in the NSX, Whitstable is only an hour and a half away, in the Elise after an hour and a half i look at my watch (there is no clock in the Elise) and find I have only being travelling for fifteen minutes.
like the NSX the Elise just eats the miles but unfortunately it chews every mouthful 20 times, (which could account for its light weight).
With the wife at the helm i can watch our progress reflecting in shop windows as we perambulate Whitstable high street in the traffic.
In the NSX grown men would observe the passing with a botoxed look, and maybe, just maybe the imperceptable nod in salute to from one "head" to another in recognition of the choice of wheels.
In our Elise the passing was signalled by the screaming and mass pointing and tugging of parents, by children, jostling to get a better view as we pass. The attention was overwhelming, we both put on our shades, it made no difference, but at least we looked "well" cool.
I had just discovered what it is like to walk down a busy hight street in thigh high boots and a mini skirt. I can reccomend it. (I think my wife already knew this)
Back home again with £31 of fuel remaining and bodwork tattooed with dead flies and the sticky paw prints of our admirers, we struggle from the car and collapse into bed choosing "foetus" style as the preferred "position du nuit".
As i drift away I can still hear that bloody engine,but my tinnitus has gone.
And so for future reference to those who wish to know, my considered comparison between an Elise and an NSX is thus:
THERE IS NO COMPARISON!
Can anyone reccomend a good ostepath?