I've had a passenger ride in an S1 Elise, 135 bhp, and it was upgraded with Exige suspension and brakes. Naturally, the roof was down too.
What a car. Difficult to get in and out off (particularly I imagine, with the roof up). The noise it makes is visceral. Performance wise, not as great as you'd imagine in a straight line. 0-60, the Elise would win pretty easily due to being able to leap off the line with RWD and rear engined advantage. However, above 60, and to be perfectly honest, I think the Clio would have it, the driver asked what I had and when I told him, he told me that he'd driven a 182 and loved it, and also remarked how he felt it would be quicker than the Elise overall in the a straight line.
Then he showed me what it was like on corners, and it was great, like a little go kart, zero body roll and fantastic agility, easy to provoke into a slide if so desired too.
In short, a lot of hot hatches may be faster in a straight line, but the Elise is definitely a lot more fun to drive. Actually, out of all the hot hatches I've driven, I'd say the Clio was as close in character to such a car as any, although obviously still completely different.
I love cars like the Elise and VX220, and that should go some way to explain why I dont like cars like the Focus ST / Astra VXR / Meg 225 / Leon CR, because they are all heavy, lard arsed cars. If I didnt need *any* practicality then i would have got an Elise or VX but as I do need to use my car for work, thats why I got the 182 to have at least some of the fun of cars like that without needing to go a zillion mph to have fun unlike the lard arses. However, if its just a toy, I say go for it. I dont know why people would choose any hot hatch over an Elise if its just a weekend toy.