1997 Lotus S1 Elise
My love affair with Lotus Sports Cars started on a summers day in 2002. Having owned a Fiat X1/9 in my early twenties and what I can only describe as a mid life crisis, I convinced myself that I needed to restore a Fiat X1/9 to showroom condition. In my search for a suitable car, I visited a showroom in the Portsmouth area only to find they had just taken delivery of a Lotus S1 Elise in Aluminium Silver with one careful previous owner, with exceptionally low mileage. I had been a great admirer of the Elise since Lotus had launched it back in 1996 and knew that Lotus were onto an absolute winner but unfortunately with a big price tag. To my amazement this specific example was priced at the top end of my meagre budget. So a deal was swiftly negotiated, the X1/9 project quickly forgotten and a remarkable love affair started......
2006 Lotus S2 Exige
I saw my first S2 Exige in the late summer of 2004 and very shortly after decided that I just simply had to have one. The Elise by now was highly modified and required regular fettling to ensure it was in tip top condition and was eating, more and more, into my time and savings. The thought of a brand new Exige, sitting in the garage, which only required polishing and driving, was too much of a temptation. So a plan was concocted, approved by my better half and within a matter of days an order was placed on Wilson's Lotus Dealership. My Exige would be one of the first with the new face-lift and to coincide with this, Lotus had brought out a new range of colours, offering Laser Blue for the first time. Lotus was so impressed with the new Laser Blue that all their new face lift dealer cars were in this colour, so for the first few months of ownership it seemed as if it were the only colour available.