Has anyone had the opportunity to drive the Series 1 and 2 Roadsters back to back?
IIRC on paper the new Roadster has less bhp than the outgoing model; however, torque is up, which should mean they perform quite similarly.
Was wondering whether anyone has had the chance to compare the two?
Mr. Roadster 2... aka Rod, have you?
Simon, I think that anyone in this situation of having to make a choice might be more swayed, first by finding a Roadster which ticks most of the preference boxes, and then by considering the dashboard. Although I didn't particularly like the ivory guages back in 2008 when I bought my S1, I really did like the speedo and revcounter ahead of the driver, with the four auxiliaries across the centre of the dashboard. OK the bright coloured push switches are an acquired taste, but can be changed. The S2 dash reverts to black gauges, so much more traditional, but I really don't like the revcounter dead ahead with speedo & tri gauge in the centre. And that's what you look at most of the time. The other factor is that the shallow S1 dashboard allows more upward adjustment of the steering column, and I also think that was the time when the tapered wooden batterns under the seats were removed to compensate.
So against all that, minor differences in performance, or perceived performance really don't matter that much. I would always go for whichever car ticked most of my boxes.
