There are those who bemoan the lack of cup-holders in Lotus cars. "And where are the full leather electric memory heated seats," they will bluster while clambering out backwards over the high aluminium sill with all the elegance of a hippopotamus playing Twister.
The poor deluded souls, sight clouded in a fog of cheap trinkets such as parking sensors and automatic wipers that tempt one off the path to true motoring salvation.
But we've been blessed with a vision of how motoring should be. The scales have been lifted and we have seen the light. Verily it is a yellow (non metallic - that's extra) light. And it goes like (???) s***e off a chrome shovel . . .
Okay, so Mondello isn't exactly Damascus but it's as good a place as any for your automotive epiphany. Years of trawling press releases from car makers, listing new stuff that makes the latest Watson Zubberator, or whatever the last word in motoring excellence is that week, tends to clutter the mind.
So, lets reboot the system with a few laps in the latest offering from Lotus, the no-frills, maximum thrills Norfolk maker represented in Ireland in recent months by Linders of Chapelizod.
After the success of the Elise, Linders have brought in the Exige, a tweaked Elise which is the latest "must have" vehicle in the world of track days, the phenomenon that has swept Britain in recent years and has blossomed here.
There were more than one hundred cars at last Monday's Mondello track day where enthusiasts had the freedom to fully explore their vehicles' potential without worrying about penalty points or court appearances.
This is the most accessible form of motorsport and the proper outlet for increasingly powerful modern cars which face the paraphernalia of the nanny state - cameras, bumps and other "calming" measures.
Mondello, and Kirkistown in Co Down, provide the perfect stage for would-be racers. Track day racers come in all shapes and sizes, from rusty old Corolla Twin Cams to Porsche 911GT3s, but the king of the track day for some time has been the diminutive Elise.
It's not the cheapest car out there but it's far from the most expensive. Its bang-for-your-buck factor is about a million.
It's pretty unfair of them, really - Lotus built a racing car and then made it usable on the road, the aluminium monocoque chassis providing levels of stiffness and lightness of which other makers could only dream.
Lately it's been powered by a sweet Toyota 1.8-litre motor putting out 189bhp. Amazingly, it's enough to help the Elise pick up its lightweight skirts and scoot up to 100km/h (60mph) in under five seconds.
The Elise has been winning accolades for its handling for years now and Lotus has subtly tweaked and refined it so that it remains a wonderfully fresh machine.
However, Lotus-owning track day specialists in Britain are a voracious lot - they've demanded more performance to stave off low volume offerings from the increasing number of small car-makers that are reinventing British motoring as a cottage industry.
The Exige is the result, a vehicle of which the late Lotus founder Colin Chapman would surely approve, focusing on development of the car's nimbleness in the twisty bits just as the firm's Formula One cars always did.
The addition of a back wing, a front splitter and a hump-back boosted downforce by an incredible 100 per cent, while work on the suspension and some very tasty Yokohama, road legal but track orientated tyres helped make the most of the extra aerodynamic grip.
THE Exige is, to our eye, marginally less elegant than the Elise, but which is just five per cent more expensive and, crucially, which is good for about two seconds a lap around the 1.1 mile Mondello national circuit. In other words, a lifetime.
Linders provided examples of both cars for us to test at Mondello last Friday and the grin is still fixed like tetanus . . .
A few laps in the Elise confirmed that it's a wonderful driver's vehicle, a short-wheelbase ball of fun that will flip from comfy understeer to chuckle inducing oversteer at the merest provocation.
Jump into the Exige and the experience is amplified rather than altered. Turn in is more crisp and mid-corner breakaway requires a heavier hand but it's the same lightning quick transfer from straight to straight, just more so.
The Exige is an enhanced version of an already wonderful motor car. And praise, be, no bloody cup-holders!"