Ask the man who drives one

Sir,

I’ve cracked. I have finally had enough of journalists rubbishing the Lotus Elan I am at a loss to understand what it is you want from a roadgoing sports car. If it is the knowledge that you were “damn lucky to get through that wet roundabout because the boot tried to overtake the engine on that bend, you want something different from me and all the other Elan owners I know.

I have owned six Lotuses in the past seventeen years and the one that’s given the most enjoyment by far is my 1990 Elan SE. Travelling at speed on the wonderful French A and B roads in company with TVRs, Porsches, and Ferraris on the way to Le Mans, I cannot imagine they were having any more fun that I was.

As for your comments on not being able to steer the Elan on the throttle on or near the limit, I’m sure that few owners of latest generation Esprits get near the limits of that car’s grip. To go through a corner in an Elan, faster than in anything else you’ve ever driven, then faster still and yet maybe still faster that’s exciting. To do the same in an oversteering, ‘delicately handling’ sports car sounds more like heart-breaking.

Perry McCarthy said after driving my car round Donington Park, “This handles better than those bloody Ferraris!”

Leave off it it’s brilliant ask an owner!

I am yours, etc

Richard A Clifton, Wakefield, W Yorks