Lotus Elise

HIGHLIGHT : SUNDAY DRIVING CAR

Lotus Cars Limited is a British automotive company headquartered in Norfolk, England. It manufactures sports cars and racing cars noted for their lightweight and fine handling characteristics.

The Lotus Elise is the smallest car on offer from the British manufacturer, and also the oldest model currently available. The Elise first hit the market in 1996 and is currently in its third generation. The car was very popular among petrolheads for its authentic driving experience.

High performance and driving enjoyment were the core principles that Lotus kept in the design of the Elise. They were able to do so by keeping the car lightweight and minimizing the number of luxuries in the car.

The car has no air conditioning, stereo or power steering as standard, all to keep the overall weight of the car as low as possible. While these can all be added on as optional extras, it’s what set the Elise apart from all the other cars on the market and created the sense of being strapped into a race car.

With the Elise, a soft top comes as standard in order to reduce the overall weight of the car. A hard top is available though as an optional extra if you prefer it. The idea is to create a car that is smaller and lighter than the other two cars on offer at Lotus.

The Elise has five different variations on offer, and while none of them come with luxuries as standard, what you get with each later model is a more powerful engine and a lighter car. The base model features a 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder Toyota engine with a power output of 130 horsepower. The rest of the models all have 1.8-liter supercharged versions of the same Toyota engine.

What was of crucial importance to them was the actual driving experience. Lotus wanted to build a car that is fun to drive and can bring the driver closer to the machine. That is exactly what Elise does extremely well.

It shows you that you don’t need luxuries or even power steering to enjoy driving a car. Elise also proves that you don’t even need a lot of speed and power to have fun in a supercar. This car is perfect to drive around windy mountain passes over a weekend for your own enjoyment. Just don’t expect it to be great for daily use!


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