Moospeed's 2nd new car of 2010

[moospeed]

Some of you may remember my v6 elise I bought earlier this year, posted up here (http://www.petrolheadnirvana.com/torque/showthread.php?t=1303) and also it made it along to the Ace Cafe sat alongside Gem's shiny black exige putting my matt black rough beast to shame.

I won't go into the details but it didn't really work out that great. Probably the most succinct way I can put it is that the engine sounded so great that it opened and subsequently drained my wallet.

I promised to the wife that I wouldn't buy another Elise, so I didn't, I bought an VX220 Turbo instead. :sshh:

Picked it up about a month ago but with one thing and another only just got around to the first run out last weekend with my Lotus buddies. Surprisingly they didn't string me up from a lampost and beat the Vauxhall imposter into an aluminium and glassfibre pulp.

Comparing against the elise before last (the V6 being a unique irrelevance) I can happily say that it compares very well - the driving experience is nigh-on identical. Fears of it being an overweight softie definitely unfounded. Although standard (Larini aside) it actually went pretty well, proved easily capable of staying in touch with a new supercharged elise, which was nice :coolgleamA:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_jvKN4G6eHOs/TQU2XCyCsjI/AAAAAAAAFlc/KlL0nMkx5Fk/s512/2010-12-12_15.41.45.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_jvKN4G6eHOs/TQU2YnQpaGI/AAAAAAAAFlg/rVYoJUMGkTw/s512/2010-12-12_15.42.44.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_jvKN4G6eHOs/TQU2aDs9sjI/AAAAAAAAFlk/Iev4AcRBK_w/s512/2010-12-12_15.42.58.jpg

Pics of the run here (http://picasaweb.google.com/moospeed/20101212SelocChristmasRun#)

[verysideways]

Personally i think the VX220 (and especially the turbo) is a massively underrated car. And all because of the badge.

Congratulations!

[jumplead]

very nice, always wanted to add one of those to my collection.

Pete, the said badge have made/sold many underrated cars. There is one of them on my driveway and also appeared in your 'what car' list :)

[moospeed]

Personally i think the VX220 (and especially the turbo) is a massively underrated car. And all because of the badge.

Congratulations!
Thanks :thumb:

Yep, agree with that - the badge is the big hang up with most potential buyers that end up with elises. Fair enough if you don't like the looks and pick an elise due to that but that little silver disc definitely impacts desirability to some extent. I love both and can ignore (or remove) the branding. I am thinking of getting a tagline on the number plate "Built by Lotus. Tarnished by Vauxhall."

[Harsh]

Great cars....and i actually don't think that Vauxhall spoilt it at all, they turned an unreliable car with a great chassis into a slightly more user friendly, reliable car still with a great chassis.

so they kept the best bit and made the rest of it better.
plus Vauxhall do have a tradition of good sporting machines,

the Lotus Carlton, the Opel Manta and the MkII Astra GTE to name but 3

[Elliott]

When I was a kid, my best friend's mum drove an Opel Manta. If was a great car. Also, the steering wheel central hub stood proud of the wheel itself. Like an upturned bowl.

I thought that was a very cool feature at the time.

[chevy-stu]

My old 84' Manta GTE 400 replica I used to have about 1990.

http://inlinethumb13.webshots.com/43212/2869453230069136111S600x600Q85.jpg

[Sparky]

Nice car, massively underated by the badge snobs. Had a drive in a n/a one and thought it was fabulous, what driving should be about fun and involvement. If I wasn't getting a kit car as my next toy I would be getting a vx220 of some description.

The vx220 is a bit like the monaro and vxr8 in that vauxhall didn't build it but it has their badge on it. It was built by lotus alongside the elise but with very few shared components (fortunately they kept the ones that mattered). Don't know what other people think but for me having a vauxhall engine in it was a much more appealing prospect than a k series in the elise, and the road bias appealed to me more than the track bias of the elise.