Elise

The Lotus Elise is recognized as one of the world's greatest sportscars. Having had praise heaped upon it for years in Europe, the Elise is now available in a new U.S. version.

The Elise is an extraordinary combination of light weight and handling precision that is unique among today's sportscars. The Elise offers an almost ethereal connection between driver and machine that's truly memorable, leaving you with not only incredible handling and poise, but the control necessary to enjoy this performance.

The Elise benefits from development by some of the finest handling and ride control engineers in the world from Lotus Engineering. Lessons learned and skills honed developing some of the world's finest performance cars have been applied to the Elise in such a way as to produce a car that is truly in its own class.

The U.S. will be the most powerful ever offered. The engine is a Toyota-supplied 2ZZ-GE 1.8L 4 cylinder generating 190bhp. This engine features VVTL-I technology, controlling variable camshaft timing and lift. This results in a wide, flat torque curve throughout the rpm range. A matching Toyota 6-speed transmission will be utilized.

Vehicle weight is just under 2000 lbs, and the Elise covers the 0-60 run in under 5 seconds. The chassis is one of the lightest and stiffest in any road car, weighing just 150lbs. This rigid aluminum structure is built by bonding extruded panels and castings together to form an extremely stiff, strong unit similar to those used in purpose-built race cars.

Two main packages are available, along with a series of other accessories. The Elise is available is "Sport" trim, or "Touring" trim. The Sport package includes wider wheels and tires, along with a track tuned coil-over suspension. The Sport package wheels are forged, as opposed to pressure cast, which lowers unsprung weight and sharpens handling. A specially designed Yokohama A048R tire is offered with this package, improving grip and performance.

We're pleased to offer the Elise in 2004, a true drivers car with the technical innovation one expects from Lotus.