Scottish Elises

A few pics of my SE style antics from last week.

Couldn't find an Elise...




Also some 'proper' driving...

Looks like fun - love the Union Flag and name plate

Wow, that looks magic ali! Cobra, Reynard and super hot sun sounds like a pretty damn good combo

Cobra as scary as people make out???

Reynard was great fun although detuned a bit. Huge grip from the slicks and aero but still able to slide it around a bit - lack of lock was the scary bit.
Killarny an interesting circuit, short and relatively flat but quite technical with one real fast double apex corner onto one of the straights. A bargin for the track time, £270 for the afternoon but unlike KH experience etc you got plenty of laps - they say 4 sessions of 5 or 6 laps but I probably did 35-40...


Cobra was a replica but great for touring around and fine on smooth corners. Big V8 (5.7 litre) with plenty of power but auto box limited the fun. Mid corner bumps hairy with huge scuttle shake.
The roads around the Cape Town and the peninsula are fantastic, 30 deg and sunburn despite factor 50, no roof - just a 340R esque tornau cover to keep the seats cool when parked up...

Ali,

Great Cape Town pics. Been there a number of times on business and it is a great place. I am sure you enjoyed the drive around Chapmans Peak in the Cobra. Was the picture take at the top of signal hill?

Always wanted to take the Elise across there, the Lotus garage is very small (shared with Bentley). Remember popping in to see the salesman after they had just opened and was able to give him a low down on the model line up (he had not done his homework then). However there are very little S1 elise's/exiges in South Africa (probably under 20).

Wish I knew you were popping out as I could have given you a list of great places to eat out

Cheers
DMW

Yup, car park at the top of Signal Hill.
In the background of 2nd pic is Lions Head (which we'd just climbed). I have some vid of the drive back down, Cape Town on one side with Table Mountain ahead...

Chapmans Peak Drive and the road up through Silvermine were fantastic, although Chapmans Peak was busy with cyclists. We were all round the Peninsula and generally found the roads pretty quiet with coperative drivers encouraging overtakes. Quite a few petrolheads around...

I didn't see the Lotus garage...did pass Aston Martin at the Waterfront.

I'm sure we'll be back at some point, long flight from the UK but we're half way! Once you're there it's cheap accomodation, food etc with really good quality.

I'd say make the most of it now - the commercial/economic/security could go either way in the next few years...

alicrozier wrote:I'd say make the most of it now - the commercial/economic/security could go either way in the next few years...

Did you look into property?

did nic buy any rocks?

Scotty

you b*stard!

Looks awesome - not jealous at all as i sit stuck at stansted!

GIT

Don't be jealous......

I have a theory that Ali was actually photographed in a Supermarket car park in Broxburn.........and that's a shale bing behind him!!

Scotty C wrote:

alicrozier wrote:I'd say make the most of it now - the commercial/economic/security could go either way in the next few years...

Did you look into property?

did nic buy any rocks?

Scotty

Just in passing, Sales Manager in Lagos has just bought a house. He loves it and plans to retire there.

Money goes a long way and it's a great place to live but not a safe investment...saying that, if you bought in the right place you could rent it out over the footie World Cup in 2010.

No rocks for Nicola...wouldn't want to bring back through Nigeria.

Ali,

I think the problem with buying property in SA is trying to get the money out if you want to which I hear can be pretty difficult.

Admit I would have a house across there in an instant but the real hey day or bargains is long gone. A lot of the property is owned by foreigners which means the prices have gone up substantially over the last 10 years. One of the guys went out there in the Apartheid era and thought about buying a property in Camps Bay for £15k !! Now you cannot get one there for less than 200K so he kind of lost out in a big profit!!

Talking to some of the S.Afrikans at work, based upon the wages they get, inflation + mortgage rate, they find it a real struggle to get onto the ladder on anything decent.

Cheers
DMW

My parents have just left Cape Town to move back to Aberdeen. Its a nice place to live and to holiday but you can't go wondering about on your own or you might end up somewhere dodgey and not come back.

If anyone does want a house in Cape Town my parents place at Atlantic Beach Golf Resort is up for sale http://www.atlanticbeach.co.za/properti ... s&ID=1113#

Shameless post hijack, i know

Kev.