Lotus ELISE 120BHP
With The Standard 120bhp Elise,
Lotus Remains The Benchmark By Which All Other Pure Sports Cars Are Judged. Jonathan Crouch Reports
The Lotus elise still has a great deal of life in it. For proof, just check out the entry-level 120bhp version featured here. You can buy faster and plusher Elises of course but arguably none that capture the spirit of the original in quite the same way.
This car, after all, was always supposed to be about lightweight speed. Sure, you can theoretically option up your own example to include everything from air conditioning to a high-tech digital MP3 player but if you wanted luxury motoring, then why didnt you buy a
BMW Z4? Presumably, the whole point of buying an Elise is to buy into real roadster motoring in the raw. In which case, the £22,995 standard 120bhp version is a great place to start. Its £3,000 less than the next Elise model up, the 111S, which shares the standard cars
Rover K-Series engine but offers it in throatier 160bhp guise.
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If you want to go further, top of the Elise range is the
Toyota-engined 190bhp 111R, costing £27,995 and capable of near supercar speeds. Mind you, the 120bhp models 0-60mph capability of 5.7s on the way to 125mph isnt to be sniffed at. Just how much faster do you really want to go? If you owned an original MK1 Elise, youll find that the MK2 changes have brought about some worthwhile improvements.
The much-criticised soft top roof has come in for some attention and is now far easier to use, being a modified version of the roof found on the
Lotus-built
Vauxhall VX220. Theres also an option of a T-bar hard-top roof which allows two panels to be removed and stored in the boot, leaving just a central strut. The interior has had a light makeover too, the blue backlighting for the instrument panel looking particularly classy. The use of combination analogue and digital readouts persists as before, but the effect is far more cohesive, with a leather-clad steering wheel fitted as standard.
There was even a nod towards practicality with a full length shelf, decent storage space behind the seats, and a quite generous 115-litre boot.
"The focus is on ultimate driving pleasure"
As ever with the Elise, however, the focus is on ultimate driving pleasure. The close ratio five-speed gearbox that was such a hit with owners of the MK1 Elise 111S has found its way into the latest car, along with a remapped engine control unit to give more aggressive throttle response. This shorter gearing affects the cars performance, which means that 100mph is attainable in just 17.2 seconds, 0.
8 seconds quicker than the best figure the equivalent MK1 car could generate, despite a weight penalty of 22kg. In comparison, the 111S makes 60mph in 5.1 seconds and on to a top speed of 131mph plus, somewhat improbably, is more economical than the standard car. A lot of time has been spent in recent times in fettling the suspension, and Lotus engineers claim to have made the Elise a more benign performer when approaching the limits of adhesion.
Springs, dampers and tyres have been chosen to improve high-speed cornering stability, as 80mph tail-out moments were never a favourite aspect of most MK1 Elise buyers ownership experience. A safer understeer bias has been engineered in, but at the same time work has been undertaken in quelling the insistent droning that characterised the old cars motorway manners. As ever, the cockpit is constructed from an aluminium tub and, along with the usual mechanical grunts and graunches, youre forever listening to shingle and loose chippings tinkling against it. You get a bit of a buffeting too with the fiddly cloth hood removed but then, thats all part of the experience.
This really is a car you could drive to work and race with at weekends. People in search of a little luxury wont much like the cockpit ambience. Theres bare metal everywhere: no armrests, pockets or electrical gadgets. Nothing, in other words, to distract from the driving experience. Practicality of course, is non-existent. There is a narrow space behind the front seats but you couldnt fit much in it.
The tiny boot isnt much bigger either: a squashy overnight bag would be about your limit. Before you worry about that, however, youve got to get in the thing not the easiest of tasks if the roofs in place, particularly if you happen to be wearing a short skirt. Dignity will have to be forgotten. Once inside, you wont find many switches and dials: just a tiny steering wheel and two white dials a speedo and a rev counter. The money has instead, been spent on the engineering that ultimately makes this car such a hoot to drive. Danish aluminium specialists Hydro make the 70kg chassis out of special thin, super-strong lightweight aluminium frames which have been glued (or in engineering terms bonded) together, a trick borrowed from the aeronautical industry. If you think that sounds like something which would reduce into a crumpled heap of twisted metal in an accident, then youd be wrong.
Remember that Lotus has a history of building Grand Prix Formula One racers, cars which have to withstand 200mph accidents. Testing suggests that the Elises tub will keep you safer than any other Roadster you can buy. It will last too: it survived an accelerated corrosion test so severe that the steel exhaust disintegrated into rust. Overall, the standard 120bhp Elise remains a hugely significant car for Lotus. If you want the true, no-frills Lotus driving experience, then youll find it here.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Lotus Elise 120bhp
PRICES: £22,995 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 19
CO2 EMISSIONS: 163g/km
PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 125mph / 0-60mph 5.7s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 38.5mpg
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Widthmm 3717 / 1740mm
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