15 years on and the Elise is still going well
The Lotus Elise was named after the granddaughter of Romano Artioli who was chairman of Lotus at the time of the car’s launch. The first generation Elise weighed just 725kg, It was due to its light weight that it could achieve a 0-60mph time of just 5.8 seconds, bearing in mind it only had 118bhp engine this time was a real achievement.
Throughout its six year lifespan Lotus released limited edition models of the Elise including, the Sport 135 (1998/9) with approx 145 bhp (108 kW; 147 PS), Sport 160 (2000) with 150–160 bhp (112–119 kW; 152–162 PS), and Sport 190 (190 bhp (142 kW; 193 PS)).
The second generation Elise was available from 2000, in order to fund the project Lotus partnered with GM for some cash injection, in return GM would receive rebadged Elise models with GM engines for its Opel and Vauxhall brands.
The second generation Elise along with its GM counterparts are produced at a new plant in Hethel. The Lotus Elise is currently available as a 111R model, the more powerful version is powered by an all-aluminium 189 bhp 1.8 litre DOHC Toyota ZZ engine with a Yamaha designed twin-cam head offering variable valve timing on both intake and exhaust valvetrain, mated to a 6 speed manual Toyota gearbox. The <a href=”http://www.westovergroup.co.uk/lotus/new-cars/view/1340/lotus-elise”>new Lotus Elise R</a> is claimed to do 0-60mph in 4.9 seconds
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