ALL NEW AUTO CARS: Lotus Elise

Friday, February 18, 2011

New Lotus Elise 1.6 Club Racer Sheds 24 kg / 53 Pounds

True to its heritage, Lotus has unwrapped a new lighter version of its entry-level Elise 1.6 called the Club Racer. Even in stock form, the Elise is one of the lightest production sports cars in the market tipping the scales at just 876 kg or 1,931 pounds, but the company's engineers put the open top model on a crash diet and managed to shed a further 24 kg or 53 lbs.

Lotus says the engineers behind the Elise Club Racer took a stripped-to-the-bare-bone approach and while the company did not reveal all the details, it did mention the motorsport derived lightweight battery and the deletion of noise insulation.

In addition to the weight savings, the Club Racer is the first Elise variant to come with a Sport setting for the DPM (Dynamic Performance Management), which according to Lotus, "allows even the less experienced sports car drivers to feel at the top of their game, while the ability to switch it off completely will please the more established track orientated drivers"

The British automaker's Chief Technical Officer, Wolf Zimmermann, commented:

“The traditional Lotus approach of reduction and purity has lead to one of the most zeitgeist and contemporary sports cars around. For over 15 years the Lotus Elise has become an icon in the sports car market, carving out a niche market with a dedicated following of lightweight fans. The new Club Racer will definitely give these people something extra to get their teeth stuck into. This car epitomises everything that’s cool about the Elise – it’s fast, raw, responsive and a huge amount of fun to drive.”

Power for the new Elise Club Racer is provided by the standard model's 1.6-liter four-cylinder unit delivering 134HP at 6,800 rpm and 160 Nm or 118 lb-ft of peak torque at 4,400 rpm.

The Elise Club Racer is offered with a choice of six colors including Sky Blue, Saffron Yellow, Ardent Red, Aspen White, Matt Black and Carbon Grey, and features some bespoke design elements such as the body colored seats.

The new lighter version of the Elise is priced in Europe at £27,500 / €34,450 / CHF48,900, which makes it the most pocket friendly model in Lotus' range.

Friday, October 1, 2010

2015 Lotus Elise Appears in Paris - With Live Pictures and Video

0 comments Posted by Unknown at 6:37 AM

The new Lotus Elise jumps into entirely new styling territory, not so much evolving from the current model but fully reinventing itself as a baby Esprit. The only similarities are the mid-engine layout driving the rear wheels and 2-seats around corners.

Below, Lotus has been kind enough to provide a nicely-designed chart for your convenience instead of spreading all the car's stats across a 15,000-word press release.

The new baby Lotus will get a standard 6-speed manual (with an optional 7-speed DCT) and be powered by a Toyota 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine putting out 320-horsepower.

If the Elise is putting out that kind of go for a £35,000 [around US$55,500] base price, this is looking to be a bargain basement killer. To make that 320 ponies extra green, it will also offer mild hybrid tech and an optional start/stop system when it comes out in Spring 2015.

By Phil Alex

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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Lotus Presents Akio Toyoda with Special Elise to Celebrate Current and Future Partnership

0 comments Posted by Unknown at 8:57 AM

Clearly, it's good to be the boss. How so? Lotus CEO Danny Bahar recently made a trip to Japan to thank Toyota for their companies' long - and soon to be longer - partnership. For those new to the game, Lotus has been sourcing its power plants from Toyota for a while and currently all Loti use one form of Toyota mill or another.

Bahar handed Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda the keys to a Lotus Elise powered by the very last 2ZZ-GE VVTL-i built, saying, "The presentation of Toyota's last 2ZZ engine in the Elise is a symbolic gesture of our continued respect and deep appreciation for our partner not only acknowledging our past but also looking forward to our future together."

Proton-owned Lotus will soon unveil its Toyota-powered Evora S and Evora IPS models in Paris, while the 414E is apparently still in the pipeline and waiting for an investment from the British government.

As for the oft-discussed Esprit, rumors suggest that Lotus's flagship may be powered by Toyota's 1LR-GUE V10. While the Esprit may still be a ways out, we could be getting some information about it as soon as the Paris show, so stay tuned.

On using his company's engines in Lotus cars, Toyoda said, "A Toyota engine in a Lotus car creates a completely unique drive feeling – a special blend featuring the best of Lotus and Toyota that we hope many car lovers continue to experience and enjoy." That, and they're reliable as hell, so you know your car won't spontaneously combust...

By Phil Alex

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Paris Show: Lotus Unveils New Esprit, Elan, Elise, Eterne Sports Sedan and Concept City Car

0 comments Posted by Unknown at 11:04 AM

Possibly one of the biggest surprises of the 2010 Paris Motor Show, was the unveiling of six new models from Lotus. Aside from the Elite GT (see here) that we've already told you about, the British sports car maker revealed not one, not two but five more new models and concepts!

We'll bring you more details and pictures of each car separately, but here are the key highlights:

2015 Lotus Eterne: Following in the footsteps of other sports car makers, Lotus is getting ready to enter the luxury sports sedan segment with the Eterne. Scheduled for a possible release in 2015, the Eterne will rival the likes of Aston Martin's Rapide. Like all future Lotus models, the four-door sedan will make use of a Toyota/Lexus sourced engine, in this case, a 5.0-liter V8 unit supercharged to deliver around 620-horsepower.

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2013 Lotus Esprit: The firm's flagship sports car will make a return in 213 and will be powered by Lexus-source 5.0-liter V8 producing 620-horsepower. A less powerful base model with 550-ponies is also said to be offered.

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2013 Lotus Elan: A new mid-engined sportscar that will be available as a two-seater or optionally, as a 2+2. Aimed at Audi's R8, it will feature a 4.0-liter version of the Evora's Toyota-sourced V6 with output ranging from 400 to 470 horsepower, depending on the version.

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2015 Lotus Elise: Set to replace the current Elise in 2015, Lotus' new lightweight and compact-sized sports car will benefit from a Toyota-sourced 2.0-liter four banger helped by a turbocharged to deliver somewhere around 320-horsepower.

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Lotus City Car Concept: Alongside its sport coupes and sedan, Lotus also showed a concept for a small city car based on Giugiaro's Proton EMAS study shown in Geneva earlier this year. There are no current plans to introduce a production version of this car - at least not yet...