ChristiMarie

Some cars make you feel like a different person – Porsches make you sexy, trucks make you taller and Corvettes turn you into a drag racer – but driving a Lotus makes you see the world in a whole new way.

This is because you haven’t seen it from this angle since you were about four years old. The Lotus Elise is so low to the ground that the view out the windscreen is like the Land of the Giants.

Basically you are at eye-level with people’s crotches, and out on the road this means that cat’s eyes loom dangerously large, potholes look like moon craters and other cars tower over you. Trucks look more like skyscrapers.

What this also means is that you engage with the road in a particularly direct fashion – looking bumps and imperfections in the eye and avoiding them with alacrity.

This practice is also encouraged by the noises beneath you – every rock, pebble and twig hits the car’s floorpan with a resounding thwack, right beneath your butt – and the car’s rigorous ride.

Rough roads will rattle the Elise, but they will also rattle your ribcage.

On smooth tar, however, this firm feel is fantastic as it lets you bond with the road like few other cars.

Adding to the sensation is the steering, which has no power assistance. Being British, Lotus likes to do things traditional, like. The steering wheel is also laughably small and appears to have been stolen off a go-kart – and then shrunk down a few sizes.

This would suggest that the steering is unspeakably heavy, but it’s not because there’s nothing heavy about this whole car – weighing in as it does at less than the average linebacker – about 1850 pounds, unfuelled.

In fact, the steering is quite superb. You do need to wrestle with it a little but it’s an enjoyable tussle, offering more feedback than Led Zeppelin.

The real benefit of the Lotus philosophy of "performance through light weight" is best felt when you put the foot down.

It might only be powered by a Toyota-sourced 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, but it’s not like the ones you’ll find in a Corolla. This unit gets DOHC, variable valve timing and lift and four valves per cylinder.

It produces 190 horsepower at a ballistico 7800rpm and maximum torque of 138 lb ft at 6800 rpm.

Strap that engine to a car that weighs four-fifths of stuff all and you’ve got a very small rocketship on your hands – with a power-to-weight ratio roughly the same as the space shuttle.

This simple equation throws the Elise from a standing start to 60mph in a phenomenal 4.9 seconds.

Got no regard for your licence? Then you’ll be interested to hear it can go on to hit 100 mph in 13.0 seconds and will hit 150mph before it runs out of steam.

Those figures sound impressive, but nowhere near as impressive as it sounds from the driver’s seat.


The Elise does come with a stereo (there was a time when it didn’t), but you’d have to turn it up to 11 to hear it over the noise the engine makes.

The Lotus is not a car with a lot of sound deadening, but even if it had plenty you would hear this engine from a few suburbs away.

Up to 6000rpm it’s loud, very loud, but as soon as it breaches that point it seems to change gear, and tone, turning into a noise like an Indycar with a sore throat.

At that same stage the acceleration turns from impressive to damn near frightening – and the blood in your head turns around and runs away.

It’s a full-blooded scream and a pulse-racing experience, but it’s what the Elise is all about.

Very much a racecar for the road, Lotuses have always been low on frills and high on thrills, and this Elise is no different, but on a twisty stretch of road – or, preferably, a race track – there aren’t a lot of cars that can keep up with it.

To give you some idea of how tied down and terrific it feels mid-corner, consider this fact. At 100mph, the Elise has 93 pounds of downforce – the equivalent of a baby rhino sitting on your roof.

Of course, this doesn’t sound like a good thing, but trust me, it is.

The other benefit of the lightweight policy is that the brakes are far more effective. Indeed, they feel capable of standing the Elise on its nose, while offering good feel and progressive punch.

The only downside is that it would be a very difficult car to live with, day to day. Just getting into the cockpit requires the sort of flexibility that would get you a job as an acrobat. Getting out again is a process one feels might be helped by the use of a can opener – or a crane.

Oh, and unless you’re on the wealthy side of rich, I guess the $40,930 pricetag is a bit of a downside as well.

There aren't many harder cars in the world - except perhaps the Lotus Exige. Thus far, the fully stripped, fully insane Lotus is not on sale in the US, but those of us lucky enough to have driven one in foreign climes can tell you that it's louder, meaner and harder again.

Those with sensitive spines need not apply.

DrDirt

Guess you didn't see the vid of the Elise vs the Vette at Nurburgring. That was a riot. But yeah, they are a nice car.

ChristiMarie

Nope I missed that one. Oh well, I still wanna hump the paint off that car.

Toma

Stopped by the dealership a couple of weeks ago to check out the new Rolls, and saw a couple of Elises. They are wonderful cars if you like driving fun cars.
If their goal was to build a pure sports car they have succeeded.

Toyota build quality/reliability(engine) + British sportster engineered frame =

Orion ZyGarian

I'm gay over the Mk4 Supra. For years, I thought there was nothing better.

Then this POS came out...

It > all life

Rey

I drove it 3 months ago. The seats are non-adjustable CF and they are still comfy. It sounds like a Beefy AE86 upon the stpmp and it can corner like a minx...... Not bad.. . Radio ie extra and you can choose between a Alpine or Blaupunkt.

If I had the cash, I'd throw it in the garage

Rdline1

i agree......great car

jtoneil

I saw one of these last week on McMullen booth rd in Palm Harbor. Sweet car.....

John

ChristiMarie

I seriously creamed my panties when I saw this driving down 19 yesterday, that's why I had to post it.

Orion ZyGarian

There are only two major things I'd do to make it better (no, neither are remotely close to gullwing doors )

1 would be a good turbo. I dunno, maybe a T3/T4 bb.

2....A/C. I dont want the extra stuff from that package, but living in Florida, I'd need the A/C...