I think the Elise would have been a decent car for the small, tighter courses, but with also including the GT3 into SS, they just put the Elise in a situation where it's not better for any reason.
Give it more development time, and give it to one of the development specialists... see what it'll do then. As of right now, it's just a really cool street car.
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-93 MR2, #129 ES