Me Slacking and some Pocket Rocket thoughts

I've been sick and kinda "out of it" this past week so I haven't had a chance to play with the Elise much or mess with the iPod situation much more. Hopefully this coming will be better and I'll get some more quality Lotus time.

The Garage Blog had a great post a couple of days ago about the state of current "Pocket Rockets" and how the US (or world in general) is currently lacking in what boomed in the 80's and early 90's as the entry level sportscars. Cars like the VW Rabbit GTI, Honda Civic Si, Suzuki Swift GT, etc all helped introduce and define a lot of today's current automotive enthusiasts. I'm one of those enthusiasts. My first REAL automotive passion was the Volkswagen Rabbit. I've owned probably 6 or 7 total and still consider those cars to be just barely a notch below the Elise. That probably sounds strange to some but when you strip away price, comfort features, numbers, etc and get down to the feeling you get while driving and the experience of driving it shouldn't be all that strange. Both cars are very nimble for their time, everything seems to be placed exactly where it should be, both are extremely good bargains considering the cars they hold their own against, etc.

Anyway, the point is that there really isn't a good "VW Rabbit" of today. There are some "almost Rabbits" in my opinion but they are just too pricey to even be compared to it. I wish automakers could go back to "the basics" and get the driving experience back. Lotus sure as hell accomplished it with the Elise but it would be great to see Volkswagen or another company deliver a competitve & very fun to drive little car for $10,000 or so. That probably won't happen for a while (if ever) though so for now I'll stick with the Elise and probably (in the near future) a G60 Rabbit (Rabbit with supercharged 1.8 from VW Corrado).

Check out the post on TheGarageBlog for the full article.