What is the best Lotus car make?

In reply to adrienne224 :

Without looking it up I'd guess one of the Exiege variants. 

"Best" in my opinion is all personal tastes.  Are you asking about Lotus since they started, or just early cars, or late cars etc...  I am lucky enough to own 66' and 68' Elan's.  And have built a couple 7 replicas for track use.  Plus driven a Europa, Elan Coupe, and an early Elise when they came to the US.  For me personally my favorite cars are the early ones, 7's, Elans, Europas, 1st gen Esprits.  My 68' Elan is so unlike any car I have ever been in or driven.  With the tiny little tires, 1400lb weight, and sheer tiny-ness(sp?).  It truly makes a miata feel huge.  The steering is light and perfectly weighted, shifting is beyond delicate, but amazingly precise, and the little 1600 twin cam feels way stronger than its rated 115-ish hp should be. 

The other early cars drove much the same.  My 7 replicas were just track cars and very harsh and focused.  They weighed just a bit less than 1000lbs with me in them on the track.  Both were built with Yamaha R1 motorcycle engines.  Acceleration was quite brisk!  Fast as heck, but only really good for what they were intended.  The Elise, just didn't wow me in any way.  Power was underwhelming, and to me it drove just like any other new performance car.  Yes it was light, and was fast, but it just left me without any sort of WOW factor.  I would love to drive and hopefully own an 83 to 87 turbo esprit one day.  As a kid of the 80's those are the posters that were on my wall.  That sharp edged body of the Giugiaro design is my favorite! 

If your looking to buy one, as always, go sit it, and try and drive them all.  They all perform way better than almost anything else. 

Good luck

Paul

I think i read that the newest top-spec Evora variant is finally faster around a track than any Elise/Exige variant?

Depends on what you mean by "best," but I am pretty sure the best Lotus is a Miata

Caterham makes the best 7.