Supercharger

Base Price: US$ 39K (est)

0-60mph: under 5 s

The Elise has received many industry awards and accolades for its unique mix of design and performance. It showcases the Lotus design philosophy of achieving performance and efficiency through lightweight. The Elise chassis is extremely strong, yet very svelte (under 150-lbs!), due largely to its extruded and bonded aluminum construction.

Lotus has officially announced the engine choice for the Federal Elise: the 1.8 liter 4-cylinder 16-valve Toyota 2ZZ-GE engine with the VVTL-i (Variable Valve Timing and Lift-Intelligent) system. The Federal Elise's 2ZZ-GE motor is based on the engine used in the Celica GT-S, but has undergone Lotus' own special brand of tweaking and will produce 190 HP and 133-lb/ft. of torque in stock form.

The engine is sure to be a spicy little screamer, with a 8350-RPM floating redline (8000 sustained RPM redline), and will be mated to a 6-speed close-ratio transmission from the European-only Celica T Sport. (Note: this is NOT the same 6-speed transmission from the U.S. Celica GT-S.)

The Elise will come with Lotus' world-famous attention to corner-gobbling handling. From its very beginnings in racing, Lotus has concentrated on its handling capabilities and not just on straight-line performance. This is one of the major reasons for Lotus' history of racing victories. In tests of the European Elise, it has out-handled everything this side of a Ferrari costing five times as much, besting the best the world has to offer. The U.S. Elise will be primed to meet or exceed that mark.


http://www.roadfly.org/milemarker/9/...preview.1.html

http://www.lotuscars.com

http://www.lotuscarsforum.com

mikeb

its cool but the headlight is HUGE

bwayout

Maybe some one can answer a question I have: I know that way back, Ford use to have come kind of controlling interest in Lotus, but do they still?

I'm sure that Toyota and Ford do NOT have any working relationship together ... or am I wrong?



Very nice!

wakeech

*stunned silence*

wakeech

on a more verbal note, i love the engine, love the chassis... what's the difference with the Euro tranny and the NA tranny?? ratios, or what??

P00Man

thats a pretty sick car
________
The Cigar Boss

chinx

ford no longer has any controlling interest in lotus. lotus has been in financial trouble for quite some time, got tossed around, and for a while now has been under ownership of a malaysian company called proton. as you surely know, its main venue (for a long time) is no longer racing, and relies for a large part on engineering contracts in addition to being a car manufacturer. the esprit, been around since the 70s, is finally going out of production after this year, leaving the elise the only car lotus makes. it had to shelf the m250 concept, slotted b/t elise and esprit, due to financial reasons recently. but they sell tons of elises, and many variants like the 911. i for one am very excited about the us-spec elise, though i'll probably never get to own one

revhappy

Well...they are bringing out a couple hundred Exiges, but not in the US.

red_rx8_red_int

Nice, but does it seat 4 adults?

chinx

it barely seats 2 adults, unlike our fair rx-8 :D

zerohour

God i love lotus!

Gord96BRG

Ford never did have any interest in Lotus - back in the late 80s, GM had a big interest, maybe even controlling interest, which is why the Elan M100 (the front wheel drive car) ended up in production with an Isuzu Turbo engine rather than the Toyota engine that the prototypes had. When GM bailed, Lotus hooked up with Bugatti (which at that time had been resurrected by some bigshot with Mafia connections), and when Bugatti began to go under Lotus was sold to Proton, the Malaysian company, who still control it.

m477

An excellent alternative to the Z06

paul810

Oh yea baby! My uncle has two options on the Elise and is definately getting one......guess who will be able to drive it?:D

350S2k

There was a black elise at this years auto show in Houston, stunning vehicle!
I spoke with the dealer extensively about the car, as he got to personally drive the car to the show. His dealership was getting to keep the car in its showroom for a week after the show also for customers to see before preordering. He told me the first ones should arrive in June of 04'. I want to put a deposit on this car so bad, and would have already, but I think my first kid will be on the way very soon. I may have to say good bye to my 2 seaters for a few years.

Thanks to Mazda for the 8, a 4 door that I actually enjoy and still have kids!
Will I need a second 8 if the kid happens?

RobDickinson

Elise is a great car, sticks to the road like glue, unless is wet

Will be a culture shock to most yanks tho, no electric windows, power steering, abs etc, I guess it'll have airbags for US tho.

UK elise is powered by a 118bhp rover k series 1.8 standard, but that weighs 110llb less than the toyota.

AFIC the new exige gets the 190 toyota engine, but normal UK elises keep the rover-k.

Lotus make most of their money from engineering, most motor manufacturers have work done for them by lotus ( ford with the new AM ali cars, GM's ecotech engines etc).

Shame the M250 was shelved, and Esprit canned ( damned renalut ! Worst part of the car causes its ultimate death).

When other UK companies like TVR have several models, and new ones each year, lotus only manage the elise in 1996 and nothing since?

bwayout

Thanks





Thank you too!

:D

Gord96BRG

I believe chinx is incorrect - Ford did not have any interest in Lotus at any time. It was GM that did - if in any doubt, look under the hood of the Elan M100 at the Isuzu engine, or inside the Esprit at the Pontiac steering wheel. At about the same time that GM owned Lotus, Chrysler owned Lamborghini. Ford does own Aston Martin and Jaguar (and Volvo and Mazda).

Regards,
Gordon

SPDFRK

Hey guys, how is everyone enjoying their cars? Hope all is well. I haven't been on here too often lately for I have a new love in my life. I put a deposit on an Elise on 9/08/03 when they made the official press release on the motor (I apparently like torturing myself by preordering cars and waiting). I did want to throw in my .02 cents on this cars' handling in the wet though. See link below.

http://www.cpdserver.com/elisetalk/video/topgear_s2.mov

It's big so hopefully your high speed equipped!! (58 megs)

SPDFRK

Oh yeah, If you would like to find more info go here:

www.elisetalk.com

p.s. You will be surprised how much at home you will feel.

RobDickinson

For real elise enthusiasts try this bbs :

http://www.british-cars.co.uk/cgi-bi...t&subject=2001

Its realy a great car, but on UK roads it gets overlooked sometimes, as its so small.

In US most 4x4/RV/SUV drivers will probaly drive straight over you and not even notice...

I'd have an Elise but need some rear seats + decent boot as it'll be my only car, this the RX-8.

Sad thing is the exige S2 will be 900kg (with the toyota 190 lump) which gives it about 190hp/ton, standard elise w rover k series 118bhp is 181hp/ton. Weight realy messes with the numbers - supposedly the 4pot toyota is only an entry level, and will be getting v6 soon.

chinx

oops my bad :D i was thinking of way back when they ran lotus chassis with ford engines in the formula cars...

Kawi

I got to sit in a demo in the spring at an auto show. Talk about your bare-bones type vehicle. It feels pretty much like a go-kart. I hope you're flexible, or at least without a bad back, because those huge box sills make it tough to get in and out. I also hope you're good friends with your passenger because the seats are snugged up right next to each other. However, if I were given an opportunity to drive it, I probably wouldn't mind a bit. :D

bwayout

I must have been thinking the same thing ... because some how I had a strong impression that if Ford did anything with Lotus, it must have been back eariler, during the 60's & 70's.

Gord96BRG

Well, Ford did have some production car business dealings with Lotus back then - Lotus was contracted to produce the Lotus Cortina in the 60s, and Ford sold engine blocks to Lotus for the Elans and Europas. No ownership position, though.

On the racing side in the 60s and 70s, remember that the Cosworth-Ford DFV engine powered everything in F1 except Ferrari - Lotus, McLaren, Tyrell, Brabham, etc all used the Ford powerplant.

Regards,
Gordon