Lotus Elise

The Lotus Elise S1

We have it good, right? Cars come with heated this, cooled that, TV, satellite radio, and USB ports of varying shapes and sizes to power slabs that can display information, play music, or transport you to another world. Cars these days are great.

Except they’re not. They’re all awful imprecise lumps full of crap we don’t need. The reason we know this is because the Series 1 Lotus Elise exists, a car that does away with extraneous nonsense and keeps only the good stuff.
Flung at the world at the 1995 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Elise was something of a return to the purity of Lotus’ roots. The tiny car was based around a new bonded extruded aluminum chassis, with fiberglass body panels, new lightweight brakes, and a new lightweight motor. It showed that you didn’t need huge brawn and high price tags to turn heads. And, though both the concept Audi TT and Ferrari F50 were at the same show taking a large chunk of the limelight, the Elise grabbed headlines all over the planet.

As a package, it was pretty alluring, a simple handling-biased low-power sports car for the modern age.
As layouts go, Lotus got it right for the Elise: engine in the middle, drive at the rear, and a wheel at the extremes of each corner. The chosen motor, a 1.8-liter Rover K Series, was light out a modest 118 bhp and 122 lb-ft. Lotus said that was enough to get it from 0-100kph in 5.8 seconds and to over 190 kph. Now, while 5.8 seconds to 100kph is respectable for today, for a small sports car in the mid-Nineties that’s some solid grunt.

The shape, penned by design boss Julian Thomson, was wild for its time. Swoops, curves, and haunches everywhere.

‘If you haven’t owned a Lotus Elise S1 can you really call yourself a petrol head?!’

Wij verwachten binnenkort een Lotus Elise S1.

Momenteel is de Elise Right hand drive maar dat gaat veranderen. De heren van de werkplaats gaan hem van top tot teen restaureren en ombouwen naar LHD.

Als u verdere wensen heeft op of aan de Lotus Elise S1 kunt u contact opnemen met het sales team.

Kilometerstand - TBC

De afgebeelde Elise is gebruikt als voorbeeld.

Currently, Elise is RHD but that is about to change. The tech team of the workshop will restore it from head to toe and convert it to LHD.

If you have further wishes on or on the Lotus Elise S1, please contact the sales team.

The illustrated Elise is used as an example.