[beware...this got longer and longer as I reviewed it, sorree!]
Around the time I left Uni, I was keen on the S2 Elan. They'd just launched the SE2 or whatever (essentially a runout model) but it was £25k or summat and way beyond my lowly means as a graduate programmer on £12k pa!! As it turns out, Lotus probably needed to charge a lot more than that for the cars, as they nearly sunk because of the losses.
In late 1996 I dropped by my Vx dealership in Aberdeen to get a couple of items for my then fairly new and much loved Tigra [if you have comments to make on this please start a different thread!!!]. Also happened to have a Lotus franchise at the time, and I caught sight of two vehicles in the corner of the lot - which I could only describe at the time as "alien fighter craft" ! I was intrigued and had to find out more. The Lotus badge was literally magnetic.
Like Robin, I too was given a seat in a customer car in the workshop and instantly felt like Nigel Mansell (he was pretty popular around early nineties if I recall!). I later dragged Lisa round to see them...she said "they are UGLY" (oh how she was mistaken...and admits that now, too!). I decided then that I had to get one, the salesman mentioned the sum of £20k "to get started" and I immediately budgeted £25k for the inevitable options list
A few months later, early 97 and I bought my brother a Knockhill "Race Driver Experience" for his 21st birthday. Naturally somebody had to join him, so I bought one for me too
First part was 6 laps in a racing XR2i for learning lines, feedback from instructors (Sasha was my guide...mmm, lovely!), then couple of demo laps on how (and how not) to do it from legendary Ian Forrest. Then 6 laps in Formula Firsts, essentially detuned Formula Fords. The closeness to the ground, the snickety gearshift, the engine growling behind your head were all new and exciting sensations, never to be felt again...or so I thought...
MMC had a customer car in for sale which was on condition they could use it for demos. I had just had a small pay rise which meant a savings plan could now be invoked to raise some further £5k to add to the value of the Tigra as a deposit...I said to Lisa "I am going to own one of these". I worked out a test route and blagged a 45 minute drive in the Inferno demo, with none other than Patrick Turnbull, now long since departed Murray for Toyota etc.
That feeling from the Formula First came back the instant I fired up the Elise. It was clonky and creaky (as an early car would be!) but I LOVED it and took it over some of my favourite local roads for a thorough workout. [Patrick never allowed a customer their own test route ever again, I believe!].
I started my savings plan early 97, paid my deposit in March 98, began surfing alt.cars.lotus shortly after, and stumbled across Robin, Del, Kelvin, Nick, Kevin Smart and several others from down south at which point Scottish Elises was born around April 1999, in the Star and Garter Hotel in Linlithgow! UJI turned up hot off the production line, on time, on 2nd July 1999 and I took out the biggest personal loan of my life to date - around £10k IIRC. I never looked back, I paid the loan within the planned 3 years, and felt proud on the day I could say the Elise truly was mine. It was a dream realised - even though I now recognise that £25k is nothing special to spend on a car these days
Again like Robin, I have had the course of my private, social, work and family life changed immeasurably as a result. It's good to be alive.
Footnote:
I just read the Evo Car of the Year article in the November issue. Their observations on the Elise S hark back to early views on the original 96 S1, which won Performance Car of the Year that year in fact. Whilst some lardy Ferrari won this year's, there is NO question that they all LOVE the Elise and I reckon deep down they all felt it was really a winner anyway! I found myself feeling proud to own such an iconic car which, in essence, has changed little in the 10 years since Tony Shute, Dave Minter and friends rolled it off the production line in Hethel with great apprehension as a make-or-break vehicle for Lotus. It's great to read mags like Evo, hear them rave about a car you'd normally only dream about, and then wake up and realise "I'VE GOT ONE! [and I ain't selling!]"
) I bought the 1st Turbo Esprit I saw advertised. It was in the small ads in the Dundee Courier!! 
Despite the rashness of that it never missed a beat and I sold it 2 years later for exactly what I paid for it. When Wendy and I got together she was on her second MR2 and I was on my 3rd Fiat X1/9. The elise seemed a good compromise 
however they then took 400 notes back! 
Feckers!
to their T5!!!!! 
