After 20 years, the fastest ever road-going Elise moves the brand to a new price point.
Britain has had five Prime Ministers and England has had ten football managers since the Lotus Elise first went on sale. That’s how long (or short) a time it’s been around.
And here’s the most powerful version so far. The Cup 250 cranks 243bhp from its 1.8-litre supercharged Toyota engine – which, in a car weighing in at just 930kg, makes for a claimed sprint time of just 3.9 seconds.
But this is no dragster. The Elise has always been about handling, and with loads of carbon fibre helping keep its weight down it’s built to stick itself to corners.
So it wants to grip. And the combination of a mid-mounted engine, Eibach race springs and Bilstein shocks means it wants to corner like an absolute weapon. Get it on the track and it’s in its element, its race tyres simply glueing it to the road as you work the weighty steering through lightning fast corners. Best of all, the stats say it can actually out-brake a Porsche 911 GT3.
Yet this is only a £45,600 sportscar. Or, if you want to be negative about it, this is only a Lotus Elise, at £45,600 – the sort of money that can get you a Jaguar F-Type or Porsche Boxster.
And there’s the problem. Neither of these is anything like as focused on the track, but both are entirely usable as daily drivers. Thus they can hardly help but look like more car for your cash.
Not that the Cup 250 is trying to compete with vehicles of this nature. It’s not entirely no-compromise – comfortable seats see to that – but it’s a finely honed tool for the track for people to whom spending the thick end of fifty large on such a thing is more than a dream.
Yes, price-wise this may be an Elise too far for some. But it certainly keeps the spirit alive. Compared to Prime Ministers and England football managers, if you want something reliable there’ll always be Lotus.
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