mynickers

The waiting is over! After months of rumour and speculation, Lotus has finally pulled the wraps from its new Toyota-engined Elise - and Auto Express is the first British magazine to get behind the wheel.

Powered by the Celica's 190bhp 1.8-litre VVTL-i unit, the car will appear at the Geneva Motor Show in March, before going on sale in the UK next summer. Designed as a flagship for the Elise line-up, it will sell alongside the Rover K Series-engined version and is expected to cost £30,000.
For the moment, Lotus is concentrating on getting this more powerful, more luxurious newcomer ready for the company's push into the US market. However, this version is likely to have an equally big impact here, so we had to try it out - and brought along a current Elise for comparison.

Expectation is high as we head out on to Lotus's private test track. We've been huge fans of the Elise ever since it was launched in 1998. In our opinion, each evolution of the car has improved the design and driving appeal - so can the latest machine maintain this reputation? In short, absolutely. But the new Elise is a very different sort of car to its Rover-engined brother. Although it's more powerful, the Toyota unit adds weight, as do the twin airbags, anti-lock brakes and six-speed gearbox.

In fact, the newcomer is 90kg heavier. Lotus says this won't matter, as it's targeting a different breed of driver. To prove this, climate control and a Blaupunkt stereo feature, while the floor has been carpeted and there's a start button to the left of the steering wheel. The instruments are all different, too, reading bright white in the day and streetlight amber by night, instead of cobalt blue. Fuel capacity is up, and there's a half-leather interior and remote locking.

Fortunately, all this doesn't seem to have slowed the Elise's pace much. Dashing round the test track at Lotus's Hethel HQ in Norfolk, it feels responsive and lively. Under hard acceleration, the VVTL-i is extremely exciting. Thanks to its hi-tech variable cam technology and 8,500rpm red line, it's more versatile than the lower-revving Rover engine. It's also smoother at idle and cruising speed.

Another welcome change is the six-speed gearbox. However, the additional kerbweight is noticeable, particularly under braking. The suspension is far softer, too, although Lotus says the Elise we drove was a US-spec model tuned for uneven roads. When the UK car is finalised, the double wishbone set-up is expected to have been revised.

Ultimately, the new Elise represents another significant step forward for the British company. We look forward to trying one on the open road. Matt Davis

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/



Nickers

[Edited by mynickers - 11/27/2003 6:36:52 AM]

SCOSaltire

excellent!
lets hope that they make a non-luxury version - so less weight

K-series sounds nice... throaty.. hope the toyota engine sounds good

stevencotton

I'm confused .. has the Sport 190 ceased production then?

Tractor

A necessary move for Lotus, but a compromise on the original concept. Lets just hope they make loads of money off it. Oh, and Auto express are ignorant if they think the Elise was launched in 1998...

what would scooby do

hmm.... well our roads aint exactly glass smooth are they

SCOSaltire

sport 190 was using alot of exige stuff

exige is to be using the toyota engine - probably tweeked

so maybe the sport 190(or higher?) will be using a similar spec to the exige

SCOSaltire

wheres the exit for the exhaust?

Mega

Who the F*ck is going to pay +£30,000 for a not very well built MR2 when you can buy :- RX8 for £22,000 or ZED 350 for £24,000!

Oh Yes, lets buy a crappy Elise for Boxster Money!

Crash&Burn Lotus!
Mega

Type R

The Exhausts sit under the rear diffuser very tidy IMHO.

Type R

RX8 is pants, Boxter is well ur good if you buy the 42K S, and the Z is lard on wheels, Elise aint the best but hey.

carl

Even better if, like old F1 cars, they output the exhaust into the bottom of the diffuser giving more downforce when you're on the throttle

Scoobybits

an improvement but still would never buy one personally ..better cars out there for that kind a cash...30k tospend if it had to be a british(ish) sports car..tvr tuscan thanks...

SCOSaltire

aye
and id get the Elise

cletterridge

Not the first time this has happened!

A long time ago (well, back in the early eighties) Lotus wanted to make a high performance mid-engine sportscar. At the same time, Toyota wanted to improve their somewhat staid image, so a collaboration was born. Lotus said they would provide the best handling design they could, so long as Toyota were able to cough up some money to help with the development costs and allowed them to use the twin-cam 1.6litre 4AGE, which was at the time (and still is) one of the best small performance engines in the world. It was to be called the Lotus X-100.

The project was going according to plan, but then some political and financial difficulties got in the way and Lotus had to pull out. But Toyota still wanted the car, so took all the designs across to Japan and started building it. The only thing they changed was the name - to MR2. So there you are, the Mk1 MR2 is just an eighties Elise. Er, with a better engine. And reliability. Leather seats, all the toys. Um, build quality....

Somebody please remind me why I sold mine!?

Mega

The Zed 350 is being made into a stripped out version, chat is that it will be called "Clubsport" like the old 968. Carbon Brakes, Body parts,seats, lighter glass etc. Sold for £23,000 at a guess.

Bye Bye Lotus ........and you very **** poor build Q!

....And don't forget Toyota might up the MR2, they are planning a fast GT car themselves to tie in with their GP effort!

Porsche Boxster Coupe as well, its not looking good for Hethel!

Cheers
Mega

Type R

Quite easy to strip down a 350Z, but aint gonna strip it down to 800 Kilos, and you need a Nismo bodykit to seperate yourself from TT brigade.

Boxster coupe = lots of £'s

MooseRacer

Mega - you've been banging on about the end of Lotus for ages now when's it going to happen then?

Bas

Where did you hear this?

MooseRacer

Bas, at a guess the voices in his head told him

mynickers

How terribly un british, you have to support Lotus, it's one of the few things of our great motoring heritage we have left to be proud of, even if it's not brit owned.

Anyway this one is for the US market, and their perception of European cars, and high UK cars is slightly exotic and special. The trouble with pricing a product, is that if you price it too cheaply then people will percieve it to be inferior to the competition.

I think one of the main reasons to get the Toyota engine is one reliablity obviously, but two Toyota is almost sub-branding it, it brings some familiarity and confidence to a buying market who probably never even heard of Lotus, well when I was in the US most people thought I was Australian and asked me where the UK was? "Hey is that near Eur-rope"? "Come speak Australian to my kids".

I think the Elise rocks, and yeah they dont' have the build quality, but they don't have the massive R&D budgets, plust the cross platform sharablity of parts that the big boys have to play with. Personally I like the underdog socking it to the big boys. Elise is fantastic drivers car, and the build quality has been getting better, I hope they manage to refine this one, cause everyone is jumping in this market VW even Subaru.


Have you also seen the PTP conversion - 238bhp per ton (with torque to match) PTP converstion turns standard Elise into a VX220 turbo rival.

my00scooby

iTrader: (1)

Is nobody else worried that this is going to ruin the Lotus.
They are using the VVTI engine which like all variable valve timing engines only really struts its stuff after 6k revs, which means unless you are on the limiter its going to be harder to control on the throttle in the corners coz the power offered from the k series engine down low in the revs won't be available?

Type R

No I think it will enhance the experience much like the Honda conversions.

The car is relatively light, so the low down torque is not as noticable IMHO>

bumcrack

The elise needed more power, but the VXT is miles cheaper(25k ish) and has more power (200BHP). It's just the badge that would put me off. Not 5k worth of putting off though

SCOSaltire

VXT - its a turbo tho...
thing that was a pain with the scoob was the bit-of-a-sec time to get the power on - u had to be on it to control it

Mega

Lotus wants £30,000 for it here......£22,500 in the US..a rip off?....Lotus rape their own history everytime they brought out an "Elise model" with a Senna paint job, or Gold leaf or JPS........Same crappy, badly built, underpowered car!

Yes their build will be better, but only just better than KIT CAR. Can't wait for the Yanks to start the law suits!

Cheers
Mega

Type R

Yawn, have you ever sat in one let a lone driven one.

mynickers

Mega: Crappy underpowered cars?

Lets see now, what do Evo say about Elise:

S2

"For: one of the worlds great drivers cars Against: precious little"

S2 Sport 135

"For: Best Elise yet Against: breaks need more bite and pedal feed"

Original Elise

"For: A modern classic Against: a tad impratical?"

Original car 118bhp, which works out 164 per ton 0 - 60 = 6.1

Sport 190 (obviously 190bhp) which works out 272 per ton 0 - 60 - 4.7

It's all about power to weight ratio, fantastic weight distribution, aerodynamics, legendry lotus suspension set up chassis nad general handling.

I can't remember how much the original was price wise, but lets say it was around the price of an Impreza WRX as an example.

WRX: 221bhp - works out at 161 per ton 0- 60 = 5.1

Elise might be underpowered, but that doesn't stop them being a very rapid car, and it's all about the bent and twisties. And anyway how many people don't mod their scoobs? You can never have enough power, and you can mod a Elise too! Sure even the most loyal scooby fan that does track days will give respect to an Elise's ability on a track.

Think you're being pretty harsh Mega, they cannot get the same build quality as the Japansese and European companis, because they're a tin pot company, they don't have the buying power to get the parts as cheap as the big boys and achieve the same economies of scale, and they don't have anywhere near as much money to through at R&D and testing.

I think Lotus is something to be very proud in the face of massive competition, with way more money, they still managed to make a motoring icon.. Just like a scoob is!!



Edit, if you didn't guess the source of those stats was my trusty Evo.




[Edited by mynickers - 11/30/2003 7:28:50 PM]

Mega

Had 2 Elise drivers drive my CTR, Both agreed that they couldn't keep up with one expect round a VERY tight track like Angle sea. Both told me of **** poor build, both sold their Elise after a never ending problems..like HGF's.

One Has a Boxster, the other a Scooby STI...Both DON't Miss their Elises!

I have beaten 2 Elise on the Queens highway...And YES both were trying, in one race the Elise pilot out braked me.....and himself and almost spun it!

Their total ****E!
Mega

Type R

Mega the EP3 breadvan is not exactly built well, as for being quicker, can't say I really care, but I know which is better to drive. Shall I list the catalogue of poor qualitys the EP3 has????