Changes to the chassis were even more aggressive and necessary given the Fox platform's age. The R packs huge 13-inch Brembo rotors and four-piston calipers in the front-enough braking power to stop anything short of a moving house. Bilstein shocks and Eibach springs at each corner help the cause as do the four 265/40ZR-18 BFGoodrich g-Force KD tires.
Functional aerodynamic additions include the wind tunnel-proven front splitter and huge rear wing. In other words, this Mustang is a far cry from the ho-hum GT model.
Testing
Both of these cars offer performance worthy of their high-dollar price tags; still, it's the little Lotus that out-accelerates, out-brakes and out-slaloms the Cobra. It also achieves higher lateral acceleration on the skidpad and bests the mega-Mustang by a significant margin on the road course. Does this make it a superior performance car? Sure, if all you care about are the numbers (and we're sure many do). However, putting words between those numbers is why this magazine exists.
We'll begin on the 1-mile, 11-turn Streets of Willow road course where both cars showed an aversion to the heat of the California desert. Our test day peaked at 108 degrees ambient and produced track surface temperatures in the neighborhood of 140 degrees-not an ideal climate for highly stressed cooling systems. We gave each car ample opportunity to produce quick laps by driving slowly after several hot laps. When the fluids and brakes cooled, we'd go for it again.
This method worked for a while, but after three rounds, the heat was just too much for the Cobra. The Lotus was even less tolerant, which was no surprise. With a cooling system designed for 118 hp and an engine making almost 200 hp at the wheels, we had just one shot to get it right in the Elise. And one shot was all the car needed.
In those few laps, we established the Mustang as one hell of a track car. Its acceleration and dynamic performance bears no resemblance to its production-line brethren. It's a capable, extremely fast and incredibly tough piece of American iron. Most striking are its acceleration and the sounds that go with it. It's easy to get lost in the intoxicating rasp of this engine note-and we're not V8 guys. What's more, the Cobra's massive Brembo binders are capable of stopping this freight train time after time. And, they do so without fade, on the racetrack, in 100-degree heat. Impressive stuff.
So completely different and capable are the two cars, getting the most from each takes serious concentration. In the Cobra, restraint is the name of the game. The temptation to exit every corner in a huge powerslide and look like a hero has never been greater. In the Elise, success is measured in millisecond-quick reactions. Every squirm and wiggle is relayed through the chassis, amplifying every input. Mistakes are obvious and embarrassing.
Without the appropriate answers to its many questions, the Elise will get ugly instantly. It produces a huge pucker factor at the limit, but when driven well, rewards with very, very quick lap times. When all was said and done, the Elise had its way with the Cobra to the tune of 2.75 seconds per lap.
Hard Numbers
Truth is, we expected the lightweight Lotus be quicker around a road course. After all, winding roads are a Lotus' home turf. At the dragstrip, however, we thought the Cobra would turn the Elise into a smoldering pile of fiberglass and aluminum. It wasn't to be.