Making a strong statement of intent since switching Australia-New Zealand distributorship to Ferrari importer Ateco, Lotus Cars has reveled a new Elise lineup with extra kit but reduced prices by up to $23,000.
Entry level is the Lotus Elise, now priced at $67,990, but running as standard the $8,000 worth of goodies from Lotus’ Sport Pack. That means such handy additions as electronic stability control, twin oil coolers, Bilstein dampers, ProBax sports seats and Y-spoke alloy wheels.
The Elite SC (re-priced to $77,990) gets all that tossed in as well as traction control.
First launched in 1996 and now into its third generation, the Lotus Elise runs the world’s first bonded and extruded aluminium chassis which weighs just 68kgs but provided a stiffness of 10,800Nm/degree to aid sporty handling.
In fact the Elise delivers around 42 per cent of all Lotus sales and is one of the most successful models to emerge from the Norwich, England factory founded by F1 hero Colin Chapman.
Power comes from two Toyota engines – a naturally-aspirated 1.6-litre for the Elsie with 100kW of power while the Elise SC enjoys 163kW from its turbocharged 1.8-litre. Both engines are fettled in-house by Lotus after initial assembly by Toyota.
