Lotus Elise Roadster 2000 - Present

The Lotus Elise is a refreshingly good car to drive.  A large part of this appeal comes not necessarily from it’s stunning performance, but from the way that it achieves it.  The main thing that the Elise uses to achieve it’s great performance and handling is it’s weight, or it’s lack of weight.  The light weight of the car enables relatively modest engines to obtain supercar performance.  They are a great example of how uncomplicated machines can be made to work, and work well.

From the base model up the Elise offers great levels of fun, so much so that the more expensive options can have trouble justifying the expense, so much so that the higher models struggle to exert any premium on the used market.  The Elise is a small car by anyone’s reckoning and offers very little in the way of practical usage.  That’s not why you buy one though.  The engine range all work really well and as the car is so light and small they all offer reasonable fuel consumption figures.  With a worst consumption across the range of 32 mpg and a best of 40 mpg, you could be forgiven for forgetting that you’ve got supercar performance under your right foot.  0 -60 times come in at anything between 4.9 and 5.9 seconds with top speeds between 125 and 150 mph.

The dynamite performance is accompanied by sensational handling and stopping ability.  The suspension manages to offer incredible levels of grip when throwing the car into corners, while at the same time smoothing the road out as it tried to invade the cockpit.  It really handles like a go cart but with the comfort of a family car, albeit a low down model.  The grip is also felt when looking at the way the power is delivered to the road, transmitting the acceleration info forward motion rather than a cloud of burning rubber.   The feeling isn’t as substantial as that of a Porsche Boxter, but the car’s much smaller and lighter, though it does offer the same level of grip and more importantly confidence in the cars ability.

The Lotus Elise has little room for luggage and offers little in terms of practical motoring, but that’s not the reason to buy one.  It’s a fantastic car to drive and will thrill you every time you take it out.  The finishing is sparse but you bought it to drive not lounge around in.

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