Lotus Elise Rival

[dakazman]

  Interesting read here.
 However not for me, I need A/C and a roof.
The thought of donor engines did come to mind for our Europa’s.

   The Renault Sport Spider was never officially sold in America, but a rare example is up for grabs in Virginia.
 Source: Road & Track
 
https://search.app/bDCbfhRUTpEnBue49

Dakazman

[BDA]

The frames for the Sport Spider and the Elise were made at the same factory. The Spider used more conventional assembly methods while the Elise frame was glued together. While the Spider area was a cacophony of banging and grinding, the Elise area was calm and quiet!

[GavinT]

I thought the Renault Sport Spider had a sidewinder engine arrangement?

A mate of mine bought an S1 Elise when it was first released in Australia.
We had a sprint event coming up at one of the local tracks and he and his wife were both competing in different cars but he also wanted to show off his newly acquired toy.

He asked me if I'd like to drive it up there, so I took my young son with me.
Suffice to say, when I got back into Fort's Europa on our return, the quietness of the Europa was remarkable by comparison.

[EuropaTC]

Suffice to say, when I got back into Fort's Europa on our return, the quietness of the Europa was remarkable by comparison.

Yes, the S1 is a bit on the noisy side. When I drove mine home from the dealers I thought the gearbox was coming into the cab but after a while it either quietens down or maybe you just lose hearing on those frequencies. 

Anything longer than a half hour drive and I'd use foam ear plugs, in fact I used to keep a couple of packets in the little coin trays on the sill.  Says it all really !