2006 Lotus Elise Road Test

Hardly Ideal but Just About Perfect

Id
thought Id driven a true purists sports car before, having piloted
everything from Mazdas pesky little MX-5 Miata to Ferraris superbly
crafted F430, and most everything in between on the street and around
race tracks, but while each has been wonderful in its own way, nothing
could have prepared me for the ultra-light Elise.

In North
America, anyway, nothing as inherently visceral exists. No car connects
as intuitively to its driver, or relates as much information about what
it is doing and what its about to do. Certainly Mazdas little
roadster is minimalist compared to an everyday midsize family hauler,
and Porsches Boxster is about as much fun as any open-top luxury
sportster can get, but believe me when I tell you that even the agile
Porsche feels like its wearing lead boots when put side-by-side with
the Elise.

It only makes sense, after all, what with a Boxster
weighing in some 900 to 1,500 lbs greater, depending
on trim level, its suspension is more taxed and engine needs to put out
a lot more power to achieve the same levels of performance. The Elise,
on the other hand, weighs only 1,984 pounds in base trim,
which in perspective is 540 pounds less than a base Mini Cooper, one of the smallest cars available
in the U.S. Then factor in that the Elise
comes equipped with an engine more powerful than even the top-line Mini
Cooper S, by 22 horsepower no less, and its easy to understand why a
car with only 190-horsepower feels like a Ferrari at takeoff.

Few
cars can manage a sub-5-second sprint to 60 mph (4.8s to be exact),
much thanks to its thorough use of aluminum, blatantly exposed inside
the cabin, and rigid composite body panels - even the exterior paint
has been scrutinized to make sure its not adding excessive weight.
Actually, Ive never been around a team of engineers so obsessed with
weight reduction (no doubt we journalists should be so concerned). Need
to know the weight of the right front fender, each individual seat, the
gas cap… they can tell you. Fortunately their somewhat disturbing
preoccupation has resulted in a car that can transform Toyotas peaky
little 1.8-liter four, with a rather thin torque curve maximized at
6,800 rpm to 138 lb-ft, into a blistering performer.

To be
fair, this 190-horsepower mill, that features a Lotus engineered engine
management system, is a fabulous little beast. At around 6,200 rpm it
wakes up as if juiced by a hidden can of nitrous, forward momentum
persisting as it whips into a frenzied 7,800 rpm maelstrom to deliver
peak power. I kept it up over 6K most of the day, the power instantly
on tap and mellifluous whine zapping the synapses to my brain, a
barrage of nervous impulses force fed from one neuron to another, with
what seemed like constant electric stimuli - OK, I spent much of my
early adulthood strapped to Japanese sport bikes, so the sound of a
high-spirited small displacement engine is beyond intoxicating to me.

And
if it was only the cars acceleration that caused me to fall giddily
into a stream of overwrought hyperbole Id be sitting up and paying
attention, but the Norfolk, England think-tank is even better known for
working wonders with suspension systems. The Elise, and its various
spin-offs, might just be its best work to date, thanks much to its
bonded and extruded aluminum chassis that not only reduces weight but
together with its relatively short wheelbase and rigid composite body
panels, stiffens the cars substructure to otherworldly levels.

On
the winding roads outside of Atlanta, where I had the chance to put it through its paces recently, it quickly became clear that the car had no rivals, although it
wasnt until I took it through a makeshift autocross course that I
realized, somehow I have to own one. The Elise elevated my driving
competence to an entirely new level. Its just so easy to toss from one
high-speed right-angle corner into the next, a quick shift down one of
the six-speed manuals cogs before using the throttle and a quick tug
on the wheel to slide the rear end out and place it precisely where I
wanted it to go on exit, charge to the next corner, tap the brakes to
set up the front suspension and then pull on the wheel while adding
throttle again… absolutely fabulous fun, and all for only $42,990!

Yeah,
Im even more shocked with the price now that Ive driven it, and that feeling continues when adding up its sport and luxury oriented option package prices,
all very reasonable for a car from a maker with such a revered pedigree
and capabilities beyond supercars costing hundreds of thousands more.
But really, the Lotus is more about what you dont get. What I mean is
that all the extras, except for the lighter power window system, add
performance draining weight. For this reason youll need to spend a couple of hundred
to delete the standard air conditioning, and who needs it when the top
is down anyways? OK, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the I-5 in
So-Cal, where the sun is brutally intense might make a person think
otherwise, but all-in-all this is an open-top car and begs to be driven
that way. A hardtop is available, again at a surprisingly low $1,475,
and those who want a little more luxury can spring for the $1,350 Touring Package. There are plenty of extras, so get your local Lotus dealer to go
through them all as you wouldnt want to miss out on some of the more performance-centric goodies like forged
wheels,
especially if you plan on taking it to the track.

I
have yet to drive the Elise on my home town roads, and every time I see one
running around I get to thinking about phoning my Lotus dealer and
requesting a test drive. And for me, its not just about its
unparalleled performance or exotic styling, or the fact that I could
get one in a bold shade of my favorite color, orange, but also that
it delivers miserly fuel economy, something that I wouldnt have
worried about before the $3-plus per gallon reality many of us now live with. Considering the Elise is a sports car with 150 mph
pretensions, its eco-friendly personality is a fabulous bonus. Imagine that? A feel-good green car that can dust
almost anything it comes up against… ha… try that in your Honda
Insight!

Environmental benefits aside, the Elise made me feel
ruddy good in every respect. Even its styling is wonderfully exotic;
especially when its composite panels are drenched in one of Lotuss
more eclectic color schemes, dubbed Lifestyle Paint, and despite its
diminutive dimensions the little Brit miraculously appears long and
lean.

Is it perfect? No. Sliding inside is fairly easy for the
agile if the roll-up fabric roof is off, but if in place it even forced
my 5-foot, 8-inch frame into contortionist positions. Its interior is
both stunningly cool, due to handmade aluminum bits and pieces and an
almost bare aluminum floor, and rather poorly constructed when it came
to the plastics around the instrument cluster. Of course, such sins are
forgiven and completely forgotten when out on the open road, or even
better, cleaning up at the track on weekends.

Yes, the Lotus Elise is hardly an ideal everyday driver, but nevertheless its just about perfect.