Hey Chopper,

Yeah, I had an S2000 for 3 years. I had the old 2.0 liter model. Little higher compression, little less grunt, but a better track car than the 2.2 if you ask me. It was very similar to the Elise in terms of performance, only more subdued. Same VTEC acceleration curve (basically, you have to keep it over 6k rpm at all times), same twitchy handling - pretty significantly less responsive, but you won't ever notice the difference until you drive an Elise.

The S2000 is a great car overall. I love the looks - probably one of the most beautiful cars produced in recent years, imo. A future classic design. It's the perfect track car for someone who wants to also get some comfortable road-use in.

The Lotus is not for the faint-of-heart or soft-of-arss. It requires a significant investment of commensurate commodity (literal and figurative) due to difficult (expensive) maintenance, perpetual discomfort, poor visibility, a literal headache on ingress (when you bang your head), and many other quirks that make it what it is.

If you're not sure of your other options, though, you may want to consider the Mini Cooper S, Pontiac Solstice, a used Porsche Boxster S, a used C5 Corvette Z06, or a used '05 Elise. All can be had in the 25-35k range, and all are decent-to-great track cars.