I’ve noticed that during heavy braking on my recently acquired Elise 220 Sport, I seem to have to use a lot of pedal pressure in comparison to an Audi TT for example. Just wondered if this was a characteristic of the Elise?

I also notice that after washing it, the brakes appear not to work for a few yards before eventually biting.

Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts

The Elise isn't that servo assisted so the pressure required will be more. I remember jumping out of my Elise S1 (no servo at all) and into a Mercedes and the lightest touch of the brake pedal (I thought) nearly had the airbags going off! Lots of modern cars are very heavily assisted on the brakes to make stopping a zero effort affair. Lotus want you to be more involved and feel more of how much braking pressure you are applying hence the harder pedal.

With regards to the brakes after washing, theirs either a very small amount of surface rust which appears incredibly quickly on wet Lotus discs that you're clearing or a little bit of water. As you say, it's gone in a few yards so nothing to worry about. 

Thanks Bibs, I did wonder if the servo was very limited, but had no way of knowing, so thank you again. Still loving it!

Same with mine pedal pressure and washing. I have had to go back to cycling to build my leg muscles up! 😅