Anyway back to the original question. I think Lotus are crap unless you want a road legal go-kart that weighs a bag of chips. Even then the Exige (spell) is the one to have for even more umph in a toy that weighs nothing.
Econ25 had an Elise in that purple colour and charged around after our mates Skyline like he was being towed on the country lanes with bends but just can't do anything on a flat out sprint. He has since traded up for a canary yellow R34 which Im pleased to say I whiped the snot out of every given oppertunity - He still states the Elise was for the fun factor and the Liner for the grunt and only disslikes Supra's as I have one and it's always fcuked !
Back to the Elise, I am hardly the Stig yet on my first track day when my Supra was TT I was killing everything in straight lines and normal bends including M3's, a Porsche, Cat 7 and Elises's but as soon as I had to 'drive' on bends ect that Elise would be like it was on rails and build such a lead not even the straight was enough to claw it back.
I agree with what one of the others said earlier - BPU TT, Evo's the wrong side of 20k mark for what you get IMO and Subaru's are mostly knackered. Skyline's I think are just minging (in general) yet they are great cars. I'd go Supe everytime hence why Im on here and own one