hirev

A good friend of mine is a fellow carnut and loves lotus, his latest is a 2006 Elise Sport with 12,000 miles on it, bright yellow with silver stripes, he let me take a ride and here is what I thought.

Shades of my old 1974 914 2.0 mixed with a kit car. Low to the ground, bags of power (it is super lightweight), roll up windows, no power steering, linkage like my 2004 Acura TL 6speed, basic seats with no padding, no sound deadining, squeaks and rattles galore, rediculus entry and exit due to high sills, no grab handles anyplace, removeable hardtop and softop (bolts).

Car handles like on rails, has the mid engine swap ends tendency when hard cornering our cars have but it also has traction control j(mine is a 04 S and does not). brakes are great, but again the car is about 1600 lbs or so, very light. power comes on like our cars, with an on cam at about 6,000 that burst of power goes till 8400 where a shift light comes on. can is quick, sounds good, you feel every bump. tire size and wheel size are staggered with 16 front and 17 rear.

What makes this a Sport and one of 50 imported that year only, etc... is the factory brembos, factory roll up windows, little badges, standard hardtop(which is like a targa), factory adjustable suspension, and a few other minor gizmos. It has the massaged Celic engine with about 190 hp, again due to weight it feels like allot more....whatever torque figure it has is also magnified by the lack of weight.

The trunk space would not hold a carry on, it holds maybe a purse or gym bag.

I would not own this thing, or use it as a daily driver, it makes our Hondas look like luxury cars with our stereos, power windows and steering, electic roof, comfy seats and useable trunk space.

Gas mileage due to weight is about 24 to 30. guages are a joke, read outs show tack from 1k to 3.5 k in small space with rest of numbers spaced evenly and again no redline in sight. speedo, idiot lights, that's it. temp readout and gas shows are bars that go away sometime when they feel like it (remind you of any other car?).
interior light is behind the seat and useless, seats are setup for easy install of racing harness...watch out for the smallest driveway as it scrapes everywhere if you are not careful.

Lots of fun for a track day, period. You get the looks from everyone, especially cops .... I have been a member of the lotus club and been to track days with these guys, they are hard core, you have to be to like one of these.

omairtheman1

yeah that 2zz-ge is an awesome engine... and also greatly magnifies if you put alot less weight in conjunction with such a beautiful powerplant.

GateCrasher

pictures?

alex s

1600 lbs sounds super low. You sure about that one? I thought they were closer to 1800-1900 lbs.

rahul

I believe Elises in Europe can be had with 1500-1600lb curb weights, but in NA, I think we're right around 1800-1900lbs.

Either way, it's still a fun car. Although I'm not in love with that engine/transmission. It's good, but I think the car would be a lot nicer with a K20/transmission.

hirev

The Sport is super lightweight, no power windows, no sound deadening, no padding on the seats, etc...I am not certain about the weight, however it is lightweight comparred to the standard Elise, my friend told me it was about 1000 lbs less than my S2000 which I can believe. I oculd care less about being exact.

That car would be awsome with our engine, however the front drive setup turned around and mid/rear engine works very well...the power with the lightweight reminds me of my car on steriods, again lightweight is the key.

hirev

I don't know how to do photos here...just look at a regular yellow Elise on the net, add two silver stripes front to back, black wheels and that's it, almost identical to the standard car.

rahul

Given that your car weighs around 2864lbs., the Elise, at 1000lbs less than yours comes to 1864lbs.

The car, I don't think, dropped any noticeable weight compared to a standard Elise. They did give it adjustable Öhlins dampers, adjustable stabilizer bar and stripped it of the LSD.

Inside Line reported on it (and the 2006 Exige Cup).

But whatever, it's a great car. Your buddy should be thrilled to have it... Perhaps if I decide to move on from the S2000 at some point, I'll consider an Elise.

And the pictures...

Harpoon

Cosworth is making the engines for the Lotus F1 cars and is going to make more powerful engines for the street cars. Can't wait.

hirev

Rahvis,thank you, that could be his exact car!