1 x Storm Titanium and 1 x Burnt Orange...

[Bibs]

Anyone on here?

Pics to follow

[Simon350S]

I'm not jealous, honest.

Have fun with them boys!

[Beady]

it doesnt count if they are in the factory...

[Andrew]

Good to meet up yesterday. What a day what a car look forward to you posting your photos .

regards Andrew

[Bibs]

Very nice to met you and you're pa too Andrew, nice car(s) btw!!

Here are a few pics of the day. 'Look East', EDP and some guys producing a very interesting 'Evora Story' documentary were present amongst others for Matt picking up the first customer car. Both Matt and Andy were treated to a few laps of the famous Hethel test track in a solar yellow Evora with sports exhaust (sounds very fruity, great noise!) driven by my hero, Roger Becker.

Matt was given the keys by Lotus Operations Director Luke Bennett and shown around the car, I wasn't jealous at all! After some interviews with the press and documentary crew Matt was handed some goodies and I got a lift with him to the visitor car park, too cool for school! On the way back to Sport we meet with Andrew and his father and his beautiful Burnt Orange Evora, a stunning colour on the car, it looked fantastic.

Congratulations to you both on your new cars, they are amazing and I hope you have many, many miles of happy motoring!

EDP Story - http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24/news/...3A38%3A14%3A160

[Mischi]

Congrats!

[Bibs]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/norfolk/hi/peo...000/8233910.stm

A few more pics for you

[Guest matt]

Well, I had a great day yesterday at Lotus and a very careful, comfortable journey back to West London in my fantastic Evora. Keeping it under 4,500 rpm and approximately at the national speed limit....actually didn't even get it into 6th gear....only temporarily in 5th because it was a bit boring in 4th all the time.

Even taking it easy during running in, I could feel the effortless pace of the car during overtaking, even on a really light throttle - I need to get those miles done in a hurry so I can start to make the most of it. For anyone considering travelling long distances on big roads (and i know this has been said on a few press reviews) the car makes such an easy job of covering the miles - very different experience to my now traded-in Elise (which I loved, but not on the Motorway) - but I have no doubt given a twisty road it will be as much fun - and I fully intend to find out...

I'll post some pictures and make more comments over the coming weeks when I've spent more time in the car.

Bibs - good to meet you yesterday - do you think we should start a separate category for owner experiences - I'm sure others will be adding their views soon !!

[Simon350S]

Wonder why Luke is looking at Matt's willy?

Burnt Orange..... YUM YUM!!

[mail@stefan-boehm.de]

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s111/Bi.../IMG_5743-1.jpg

erm... what are these two cars parked at the wall ?

BTW Congratulations to Matt and Andrew !

[Wimbledon]

Congrats to both Matt and Andrew! Nice photos Bibs!

[bingoking]

Enjoy your new cars guys.

Looking forward to seeing your car Andrew.

Will you be bringing it to the Bo'ness hillclimb and showing it on the Club Lotus stand?

[Al]

2 great looking cars guys. So jealous having just had to travel out to Brazil yesterday. Must say the Burnt orange is even better than I had expected and I was thinking highly of it before Andrew. Can't wait until return home and collecting my car on 25th. These 3 weeks will be slow!

Matt I see you have oyster and have noticed one of the changes from earlier car photographed is a much larger part of the instrument binacle is now black with only a thin rim of Oyster. As my combo is Aquamarine/Oyster (I see at least 2 in the background of the photos) will be interested to hear how your experiences are in everyday, less critical than a test drive, type use are.

Did you guys spec the sport or normal boxes? It would be good to know when you or anybody else are writing about experiences which box people have.

BTW I hope to have mine day before Doune Hillclimb and have offered it to Graeme to have on some stand there as I will not be using it as will be on the hill marshalling

Edited September 2, 2009 by Al.

[TomE]

Nice to finally have some actual owners on the forum

Looks to have been a really special day for you and for Lotus - great pics. Chuffed for you both and more than slightly jealous!

[pfoster@fiberbyte.com]

Congratulations guys. Enjoy your toys. More photos of the burnt orange when you can...

[alan]

Congratulations guys - it must be one of those experiences you will remember for a long time.

Enjoy the cars and when you have a chance let us know what its like !

Alan

[Guest matt]

Al, the Aquamarine cars look really great, I'm sure you know that already - but no harm in reaffirming that...

I have the standard gearbox - i could be wrong but pretty sure all the launch edition cars have the standard box. Can't really comment too much yet on the gearbox as have only done 140 miles and won't drive again til the weekend - and the 140 miles i did i was pretty gentle on the car.

Re the extra black on the instrument binnacle - this was one of the changes made following press comments about reflections - my experience of it on the way home through very bright sunshine and some dark skies & rain was that reflections were not a problem - yes, if you look for reflections you can still see some, but i don't think i would have noticed them if i hadn't been aware of the criticism. I wonder how different it is from any other car?

Bright sun shining on the left hand side instrument panel (the red bit at the side) didn't really affect the visibility of the data - the red background does take on a bit of a blue tint with direct sunlight but it really wasn't a problem....and i did spend a few minutes flicking through the different views of alternate speed (km/h) / fuel economy / trip distance / range - all perfectly visible.

The right side of the panel has the tyre pressures - which initially had me panicked when i first noticed them as i was bombing along the road - read something like 2.3/2.4 and 2.6/2.7 - i initially thought they were in PSI as 23/24/27/28 and therefore a bit low until i realised they were in BAR.

Satnav i was actually pleasantly surprised at - i haven't really used it in anger and didn't have any music or radio on - but I didn't really feel it looked that low budget - and it seemed pretty quick and accurate on the guidance, recalculating the route quickly when i chose not to go the way it wanted.

Other press comments about windscreen wiper noise and indicator noise have been dealt with - windscreen wiper was whisper quiet, slight ticking from the motor i guess on each sweep and the indicators were fine from a noise perspective - they even have a lane changing feature - quick flick makes them blink 3 times - quite neat. I did find the stalks a bit too far back from my fingers but could be something to do with the steering column reach which i adjusted quickly in the factory without much care.

MPG for the trip home was something like 26.8 - but i had A/C on nearly all the way.

SPORT mode, even driving in a very laid back way made a clear difference to throttle response.

oh - it's a bugger to parallel park - even with reversing camera - but i guess i will get used to it.

will post more when i've driven more !

If anyone has specific questions, let me know and i will try and answer them.

[TomE]

Interesting info Matt and good to hear that Lotus have addressed many of the niggles from the press reviews. I'd noticed about the stalks being just too far from the wheel too - would be interested to know if the column adjustment changes that gap.

I was chatting to Ken at Frosts over the weekend and he was cursing the sat nav on his demo car - kept losing the GPS signal when he was under some tree cover. A think several of us are debating about the tech pack and whether instead to get the basic audio fit then do an aftermarket satnav/CD/reversing camera, so impressions from your real usage rather than journalist tinkering would be handy.

[Guest matt]

ok - will check all that at the week end along with the sound system - I have a 6 year old Lexus RX300 as my family car - that has a Mark Levinson hifi package so we'll see how it fares against that.

Also will be able to report on 2+2 ability - family trip of about 100 miles (2x50 mile journeys) with my 7 year old twins in the back - although a bit nervous about that given tendency for daughter's travel sickness.

watch this space

[Guest EBORA]

Matt congratulations on being No.1! These opportunities are once in a life time, the next being the release of the new esprit which will definitely be out of my budget! Can you enlighten me as to how you managed to get at the front of the queue also does the car have a plaque/certification of any sort?

Cheers

Bo

[x6gas]

OK so very jealous now!

Well done guys.

Trust Bibs to get the word 'physics' in a one line quote...

[Beady]

now i am really counting down the days, another 6 weeks at least, its driving me mad!!!!!!!!!!!

enjoy the cars and keep posting notes / piccies to keep us all drooling

[Guest matt]

Bo - it was complete chance to be honest being #1. My story is I went to the British motor show last year after work one evening on a cheapie

[TomE]

Well done to you (and Guy!) in getting slot #1. Hadn't realised you'd only put a deposit down at the Motor Show - hope you don't get lynched by the folks who had deposits down 6+ months earlier!

[Al]

Matt, thanks for the update re- oyster and other bits and bobs. I think you are correct on hindsight about all LE cars come with standard g-box. Very interesting to hear your thoughts on the instrument reflections which mirrored mine on another recent test drive. I was driving wfe's 4x4 the other day and commented that all I could see in windscreen was dash top yet I had never noticed before in 3 years ownwership so I think you are correct as overstated by press. Like Tom I also commented to dealer on the drive about the distance of stalks and/or my short fingers! I had played with the stearing column quite a bit before driving as dealer is different shape to me and I think the stalks went up and down and in and out with column so therefore do not change relative distance. Your confirmation will close the doubts.

Sound system I also played with last time and it is a great sound. I am no hi-fi buff and probably overpriced but it was very rich and as car is so quiet to drive you are not drowning out a screaming engine on the motorway.

Have they improved the glove compartment arrangement? I was horrified to press the sexy little dash button and then find the glove box dropped open on a old bit of bungy cord it seemed like, neatly depositing contents onto floor - especially if heavy. Not what you expect at the price. It is taking weight saving to extreme.

Good luck with the worry of a technicolour yawn down back of neck/seat. One of mine was pre-disposed to do this every time I pushed on in a Celica I had years ago. I used to nick aircraft sick bags! It was of similar proportions in the back and with small side back windows. It was also Aquamarine and has been commented on by now 21 year old, how similar syle of car is and how the celica was his favourite car out of all the toys owned pre Porsche.

Looking forward to more updates from all who receive cars. You would not believe how logging onto the Forum from ship in an evening after a day of stress is good for the soul!