On The Elise:

You people who are coming down on the Elise better watch your words... there are some Elise enthusiasts here, too.

The Elise is the purest sports car on the planet. It has a 4 cyllinder engine by design, not by default. The original Esprit was a 4-cyllinder too, before its design got corrupted by power-hungry fools (mostly the american customer base) who associate 0-60 times with performance.

Lotus' philosophy is to design low weight, nimble and agile sports cars. They handle better than anything else on the planet. They are not designed for straight-line acceleration. You don't need a sports car for that - a sedan can tackle the task just fine (look at the M5).

The Miata is a true sports car. Those who don't believe that don't know what a true sports car is. The Miata has been the preferred sports car of autocross enthusiasts in the US for a decade.

Those who call the Elise a "copy" don't know a thing about automotive history. Lotus has been probably the biggest innovator in small, lightweight sports cars since it was founded. The Lotus Seven, one of the greatest sports car designs of all time, is still one of the best track performers today, as manufactured by Caterham and still in high demand.

Lotus is THE leading expert of suspension engineering, and has a big consultation business with other car manufacturers just helping them fine-tune the suspension of their cars. Remember the Isuzu Impreza? "Suspension by Lotus". That's called "bragging rights".