Bare-bones Lotus a natural born thriller

Brent Fraser, the former road test editor of British magazine CAR, gets first drive of the lightweight Lotus 340R, which will soon sell in New Zealand for $105,000.

For those not yet familiar with this stunning piece of design, the 340R is based on the highly acclaimed Elise, but has less bodywork.

It's essentially a racing car for the road, and has only a little more in the way of weather protection. Which is why, for the moment at least, rain has stopped play.

I don't mind (too much) getting wet, but the 340R is a unique car and in a couple of days' time is being put back on display - the paranoid part for me is imagining the car sliding off the road, or filling so full of water it suffers flood damage. The Lotus design team would never forgive me if I hurt its protege.

I'm testing the 340R (so named because 340 is all Lotus will make) at the world famous Prescott Speed Hill Climb near Cheltenham. It's an appropriate location, because many owners will use their cars for amateur motorsport. And on days when it is not tipping it down, Prescott is a fabulous place to drive a car hard.

Lotus admitted that public opinion helped it decide to put the car into production. And the people who have come out to see the 340R go through its paces are pleased Lotus gave it the green light.

Sue Ward, who runs the hill climb on behalf of the Bugatti Owners Club of Britain reckons the minimalist Lotus is "absolutely wonderful" when it makes a brief outing from its trailer between rain showers.

Other employees and visitors to Prescott are equally enthusiastic, while later in the day a group of schoolboys is transfixed by the wild-looking Lotus and is in danger of not making it home in time for tea.

I'll keep looking at the 340R too, because it's beginning to look like that's all I'll be doing with it today. But then the cloud breaks - or to be more accurate, it thins out a bit - the light levels increase and the rain stops. Conditions are still far from perfect for an introduction to this incredible machine, but if I don't take this chance there probably won't be another.

Like a motorcycle, the 340R has body panels only where they help the aerodynamics, serve as protection for mechanical components, or are a legal requirement.

The car stands thigh-high to the average adult and looks compact enough to pick up and stuff into your pocket. Its styling and dimensions give out a clear message that this car is a great entertainer - get close and you can almost hear it crying out, 'I'm fun and fast - drive me.' But before you can drive it you've got to get into it, and that involves stepping right over the top of the bodywork and into the cockpit. The 340R has no doors, so clambering in Dukes of Hazzard style is the only way to get aboard.

Firmly embraced by an excellent competition-style seat, and strapped in tight by the four-point racing harness, it's time to check out the 340R's cabin before we set off.

It's a mixture of the familiar and the fresh. The familiar is due to the 340R's Elise-based underpinnings, which mean you sit low to the ground, your bottom right down on the floor and your legs stretched out almost horizontally. All around is bare aluminium, the Elise hallmark.

To the sides and ahead, things start to look somewhat different to the standard Elise. The 'bodywork' adjacent to your elbow is opaque perspex, and although you can't see objects outside the car clearly through it, you are aware of shapes and movement.

In front of you the standard facia has been replaced with a boomerang-shaped cross-spar, on to which are mounted a pair of Stack race-style dials.

In addition to information about road speed and engine revolutions, these instruments have digital readouts for the fuel level, water and oil temperatures, and warning lights.

One important part of the car is the push-button starter. I can't really explain why starting a car with a button rather than simply twisting a key feels special but it does. Doubtless it's something to do with the fact that racing cars start 'on the button', and there's something heroic about racing cars.

The starter button in the 340R is mounted at the top of a slender aluminium spar running from the middle of the facia down to the gearlever casing, and when you press it the engine kicks into life.

The 340R is powered by a special 125kW version of the Elise's 1.8-litre Rover K series engine, and even at idle you can sense the extra potential. It's even readier to rev, and thanks to its Motad exhaust system it has a crispier, rortier sound. Lotus put me under strict instructions not to go too quickly. The idea of the first drive is to get a feel for the 340R, rather than wring the maximum from its engine and chassis.

Besides, when the Prescott Speed Hill Climb isn't being used for competition or testing it is a private driveway, so caution will be required.

Another stricture on my drive is that the tarmac is extremely wet and in places smothered with a super-slippery mulch of rotting leaves.

None of this is going to spoil my day, though. One of the features of the 340R not mentioned in any of its literature is the perma-grin it fixes on the face of anyone who drives or rides in it. Rain and restrictions be damned - I'm enjoying myself.

Through the windscreen you can see almost nothing of the car except for the pair of raised creases running up its nose. Peer around the side of the screen and past the exterior mirrors and you can see the top of the mudguards covering the front wheels. The mudguards stay aligned with the wheels, so not only do you get a very positive feeling through the steering wheel of which way the wheels are pointing, you can actually see the direction.

The other thing you can see on this grotty day are great plumes of spray thrown up by the 340R's sticky Yokohama tyres. Then again, the 340R is designed to be a fair weather machine, a weekend track-day racer or sunny day funster.

Anyway, the whole point of the 340R is to put you in closer touch with both the road and the elements, and even after just a few minutes driving you establish an intense relationship with both.

Remove that piece of perspex at your elbow and you could reach out and touch the road as well as see it, although thanks to the sensitivity of the steering you get a detailed account of what it's like to just be holding the steering wheel.

Ettmore's Bend, a constant radius corner about a third of the way up the course, is a great place to experience the 340R's phenomenal roadholding. Firmer than standard suspension means that the body hardly rolls at all, and with the abundance of force generated by those Yokohamas, I'm glad I did my harness up tightly.

It takes huge amounts of restraint not to floor the throttle coming out of Ettmore's Bend on to the long downhill straight to Pardon Hairpin. The engine is just so willing and sounds so potent that I just want to obey its entreaties - but a promise is a promise ...

Pardon Hairpin is carpeted with so many decaying leaves it might as well be Teflon-coated. Despite my restraint, the back end of the 340R kicks out of line on the uphill hairpin, but the steering is so quick that the slide is easily corrected.

Because the Prescott track is more driveway than race place today, I'm advised to not go further than The Esses. Just as I get there the rain starts again.

I dash for shelter, somewhat frustrated. But even if I'd spent all day blitzing up and down the hill, it still wouldn't have been enough.

Just from such a fleeting acquaintance, it's obvious that the 340R has enormous potential. It's a natural born thriller, a road car as close to a single-seater as you can get.

It's a car that demands you're fully involved in the driving experience, a car that puts you in such close touch with the road that you're in danger of getting gravel rash.

The fact that the 340R is also likely to be monstrously quick is a fantastic bonus. Lotus founder Colin Chapman would be proud this car carries his initials.