American journalists thought that might be a modern Fiero. I can’t help feeling sorry with them because they seemed not realise how poor the Fiero was compare with the Speedster. In Chinese saying, "You cannot talk about them in the same day". Think in this way, the Speedster is featherweight sports car having a bit more user-friendliness and a decisively better engine than the Elise.

Let us look at its styling first. That is probably the only thing contributed by Opel yet the designer is also a Briton. The intention to distinguish it from Elise is clear, as seen in the aggressive edges and wrap-around head and tail lights which are in contrast to Elise’s organic theme. However, the Elise content is equally clear because the basic aluminium extrusion chassis tub and all the hard points are unaltered. In particular, you’ll see the shape and angle of windscreen mirrors that of the Elise. Dimension wise, the Speedster is more or less identical to Elise although it is 125 kg heavier because of bigger engine and more equipment, such as ABS and a driver’s airbag. Never mind, at 875 kg it is still 100 kg lighter than a tiny MR2 and nearly 400 kg lighter than Honda S2000 !

How can it be so light ? the aluminium chassis weighs just 71 kg, the also-aluminium Ecotec engine weighs 138 kg, glass-fiber body is lighter than conventional steel although build quality is harder to control. The cockpit is "more luxurious" than Elise but still spartan by any sense. As chassis tub is the same, you can also see the same narrow cockpit with wide sills. There is more black plastic covering the cabin, such as sills, door inner panels and the whole dashboard, but the beautiful aluminium tub is still exposed on the floor and at transmission tunnel. The thin sports seats are hard but supportive. A small steering wheel houses an airbag which is the only luxurious item over Lotus. Still no electric this or that. No air conditioning too. £1200 brings you an optional roof panel, otherwise weather protection relies on a manual soft top - call it a cloth may be more suitable. Normally it is rolled and stored behind the seats and whenever the driver sense raining, he’ll stop the car, take out the cloth, unroll it and fix its two struts to between windscreen pillar and rollover bar. Sounds complicated but work quite easy and quick.

What differs it from Elise most is the Ecotec 2.2-litre engine coming from Saturn LS and Astra Coupe. The long stroke engine pumps out a remarkable 150 lbft of torque at 4,000 rpm. Most important, 90% of that is available from as low as 1900 rpm. What a contrast to S2000 ! In terms of power, at 147 hp it is not very powerful but is already 27 hp more than the lighter Elise. Therefore the Speedster is as quick as Elise up to 60 mph (i.e., 5.8 sec) and then runs away until it tops 132 mph. Not only quicker than Elise, the Ecotec always feels far more flexible and even smoother, thanks to twin balancer shafts. Gearchange has a longer throw but still accurate.

To distinguish it from Elise, Lotus deliberately tuned the chassis to be less driver-focused and more user-friendly. Softer dampers leads to safe-inspiring understeer into corners. While the Lotus enter a bend with amazing precision and alert, the Opel feels stable and grippy but less sharp. Otherwise there is little to distinguish between them: same Bridgestone RE 040 tyres, same front and rear wheel and tyre size excluding that the front are 17in instead of 16 in. The steering is also unassisted (which is only possible for a car so light at front and having narrow front tyres), delivering very good feel and weighting up perfectly on entering a bend. Because of the suspension tuning and 225 rear tyres, it is nearly impossible to induce oversteer unless under severe provocation. In this respect it might be less fun to drive than Elise, MR2 and S2000 but its tremendous grip, uncorrupted steering and low center of gravity make it more capable and fluent than the latter two for most drivers. Besides, few roadsters can deliver a performance-to-price ratio so high - at £23,000 it is 5 grand less than the Honda.

That’s how good the car is. Don’t mention Speedster and Fiero in the same day.
 

Speedster Turbo

The conversion is rather simple. Opel supplies its 200hp 2.0 turbocharged engine from Astra OPC, Zafira OPC etc. This iron-block engine weighs 30kg more than the standard car’s all-aluminum 2.2, but it produces a decisive 53 more horsepower while its 184 lbft of torque spans across a very wide band between 1950 and 5500 rpm. In addition to other changes, the whole car now weighs 930kg instead of 875kg, still lightweight by today’s standard. Autocar measured the Speedster Turbo taking 4.9 seconds to accelerate from 0-60mph and 12.6 seconds to 100mph, beating all cars in its class, including Lotus Elise 111 and Exige, Honda S2000... well, Ford Mustang Cobra is faster, but you know how "quick" it is once entering corners. 

In fact, not many cars - regardless of price - can be quicker than the lightweight yet powerful Speedster Turbo in the twisty. We always say the standard Speedster chassis can cope with more power, therefore Lotus just need to install slightly stiffer springs and dampers and mildly tweak the suspension geometry. Even the size of wheels and tires are unchanged, so is brake. Other changes are limited to more effective spoilers, bigger side air intakes to cool the engine and longer gear ratios to take advantage of the torquey engine. 

The tuning compensates the weight and power increase and delivers very much the same characteristic as the normally aspirated Speedster. Ride is unusually supple for a sports car. Steering is feelsome. Cornering is stable and fluent, with mild understeer approaching the limit. It is not as sharp as Elise, but easier and more comfortable to drive. However, all these can be applied to the basic Speedster too. What separate them is that the Turbo goes faster, much faster. Evo magazine compared it with even a Ferrari 360 Spider and concluded that the Speedster Turbo handles better - feels lighter, smaller and nimbler, more connected to the road and more fun as a result.

Any trade-off? yes, firstly, the turbo engine is boring to the ears. Secondly, its flat torque curve feels somewhat bland and tends to fool you that you were travelling slower than you are. Lastly, although the Opel engine has virtually no turbo lag, throttle response is still incomparable with a naturally aspirated engine. Therefore, while the Speedster Turbo beats the Elise 111 in objective sense, it cannot match the latter in the more important subjective feeling.