The Lotus Elise: A Tribute
– by Evan Weiner –
Oh Lotus Elise, how you will be missed. Your power to weight ratio was the envy of all your competition and the source of giddy adrenaline rush for all that occupied your leather-lined bucket seats. In fact, you were arguably the reason Lotus stayed afloat as a viable sports car brand through the new millennium. How could you leave us like this, and so abruptly! Okay, okay enough of this sappy eulogizing. The Lotus Elise is a car that encompasses the idea of a ‘celebration of life’ rather than a passing away. On that note, let’s celebrate the Elise by going all the way back to its inception within the British racing house that is Lotus. Born as a bug-eyed little roadster back in 1996, the Elise, like it is to this day, was a strikingly attractive small coupe. Often times it is hard to take stumpy length and make it sexy, hence why the most mouth watering supercars have sizable length to them; if not in terms of actual measurement, in terms of design scheme. The Elise, though, came in at about 150 inches, which is a whole 20 inches shorter than today’s Porsche Boxster. Something has to be said for the fact that this little roadster was being formed by a marque that represents British racing legitimacy and supremacy so well. Large hood scoops, seamless curves and an aggressive yet subtle snarling grille made this little guy quite the petite powerhouse.
In addition, the insistence on feather-light proportions was made clear right from the beginning. The first generation, or Series 1 Elise weighed in at only 1,600 pounds. And while the Elise was known throughout its run as a car with low weight and low power ratings, the Series 1 had only 118 bhp; that’s economy car material. Again, although power was seemingly low, when mated to its 5-speed and sporty reflexes, a sub-6 second 0-60 is achieved in all its zippy and high-revving glory. Eventually Lotus dumped the 1.8L 4-banger from Rover for a more powerful 1.8L from Toyota in the Series 2 Elise, the Elise that we essentially know today. Performance and styling naturally progressed for the better with our 2005 Elise sporting an even more exotic, windswept look that still encompasses the scoops, headlight arrangement and aggressive grille found on the original. Power to weight ratio remains high, but with 190 horsepower, our Elise has graduated to true enthusiast levels of performance, providing exceptional handling coupled with a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds and a top speed just shy of 150.
When it comes down to it, there is little to no doubt that the Elise was one of the most exciting lightweight sports cars available, offering exotic style, exotic prestige and exotic performance. And although no more Elises will roll off the Lotus production line soon, there is no doubt that she will be survived by an exciting new lineup in the next few years. So as long as our Elise in sitting comfortably in our paddock, the model is immortal to us, and once you get behind the wheel you’ll see that a halt to production will never take the soul out of this sports car.
