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Lotus Cars Elise

Concept

After a difficult first year for Lotus in the 3 litre formula, Chapman went back to the drawing board and came up with a design that was both back to basics, and a leap ahead. Taking inspiration from earlier designs, particularly the Lotus 43 and Lotus 38 Indycar, the 49 was the first F1 car to be powered by the now-famous Ford Cosworth DFV engine after Chapman convinced Ford to build an F1 powerplant.

The 49 was an advanced design in Formula 1 because of its chassis configuration. The specially-designed engine became a stress-bearing structural member (seen first with the H16 engine in the Lotus 43 and BRM P83), bolted to the monocoque at one end and the suspension and gearbox at the other. Since then virtually all Formula 1 cars have been built this way.

The 49 was a testbed for several new pieces of racecar technology and presentation. Lotus was the first team to use aerofoil wings, which appeared partway through 1968. Originally these wings were bolted directly to the suspension and were supported by slender struts. The wings were mounted several feet above the chassis of the car for effective use in clean air, however after several breakages which led to near fatal accidents, the high wings were banned and Lotus was forced to mount the wings directly to the bodywork.

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Lotus Cars Elise

Unveiled at the 1999 London Motorshow at Earls Court, this special edition Elise is painted in the same red, gold and white colour scheme as the Lotus Type 49 Formula One racing car. Also available with a yellow, white and gold colour combination. It was available with the standard 1.8 or the VVC engine.

The Lotus 49 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1967 F1 season. It was designed around the Cosworth DFV engine that would power most of the Formula One grid through the 1970s and was the first successful Formula One car to feature the engine as a structural member.

Jim Clark won on the car's debut in 1967, and it would also provide him with the last win of his career in 1968. Graham Hill went on to win that year's title and the car continued winning races until 1970.

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Lotus Elise Cars

A limited series of 100 Elise's in black with gold rims and grills LHD. The interior has a yellow / gold suede effect seat panel and yellow / gold dash. These were a special race at the request of the Italian distribution network, and although in JPS colors (yellow gold instead of the original), as "heritage" of Lotus branded not own the rights to the JPS. A limited edition of 50 units in the form of law, and were sold as a type of 79th These engines were available with standard or VVC.

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Lotus Elise Cars

Lotus Elise Cars was originally called the Sprint and shown in a windowless format, but later re-named the Lotus Elise Cars 111S when it was launched at the Geneva Motorshow in 1999. The main difference on this model is that it has the Rover K-series 1.8 Variable Valve Control (VVC) engine which gives 143bhp giving improved performance figures of 0-60 in 5.38 secs, 0-100 in 14.4 secs, and a maximum speed 133mph.

The VVC progressively changes the cam profile, unlike the Honda VTEC engine which is more of an on/off action. These means that it also comes into effect lower down the rev range, giving a wider and smoother power band.

Lotus Elise Cars 111S also features wider 225 section rear tyres and some controversial cosmetic changes such as new 6-spoke wheels, a spoiler, an egg-crate grille, and a carbon effect dash. It also has aluminium window winders and optional Lotus Elise Cars 111S decals.

Lotus Elise Cars was replaced by a 160bhp version of the standard engine named the Lotus Sport 160 in August 2000.

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This is a special edition car based on the standard model. It was launched in late 1998 and only 50 were produced. It was available in one colour only, a metallic green with two tone green/beige leather seats & gold wheels.

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The Sport 135 was first launched as a limited run of 50 in November 1998, VIN: X 5401 - 5450. It has some improvements to increase the power to 135bhp (although it seems 145bhp is not unusual). Other additions include close-ratio gearbox, sports exhaust, drilled brake discs (cast iron), blue tinted metallic silver paint (Quicksilver), dark blue hood, corbeau sport seats, silver roll over bar, racing steering wheel, headlamp covers, driving lights, and unique Sport 135 body graphics. The catalytic converter is replaced by a through pipe which means the car has to be homologated and this is the main reason for the limited first production run.


The second batch of cars were produced for the 1999 year (VIN: X 6001 - 6035) and had 111S wheels, tyres and spats, black painted fuel filler cap, matt finish alloy gear knob and Sport 135 '99' decals.

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In 1997 Lotus unveiled the Lotus Elise GT1, a derivative of the Lotus Elise and powered by a 3.5 litre eight-cylinder engine with 580bhp. The body is carbon-fibre. Performance is 0-60 in 3.8 seconds, and top speed is 200 mph.

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Besides the standard higher-performance variants listed below, Lotus also released some limited edition models such as 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)).


These were more competent on track with sports suspension, wheels and tires, seats according to model. There were other special editions such as the 50th Anniversary Edition (green/gold) celebrating 50 years of Lotus cars, the Type 49 ("Gold Leaf" red and white two-tone), and Type 79 ("JPS" black/gold) which refers to its successful Grand Prix car type numbers.

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Lotus Series 1 Elise

In accord with founder Colin Chapman's saying "Simplify, then add lightness," Lotus cars are built lightweight to achieve great performance. In its production form, the 1996 Lotus Elise weighed 725 kg (1,600 lb).


The Series 1 Elise was able to accelerate 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 5.8 seconds despite its relatively low power output of 118 bhp (88 kW; 120 PS). Braking, cornering, and fuel consumption are also improved by the car's reduced weight.


Series 1 was designed by Julian Thomson, then head of design at Lotus, and Richard Rackham, Lotus's chief engineer.

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The Lotus Elise Cars is a two seat, rear-wheel drive, mid-engined roadster conceived in early 1994 and released in September 1996 by the English manufacturer Lotus Cars. The car has a hand-finished fibreglass body shell atop its bonded extruded aluminium chassis that provides a rigid platform for the suspension, while keeping weight and production costs to a minimum. The roadster is capable of speeds up to 240 km/h (150 mph). The Elise was named after Elisa, the granddaughter of Romano Artioli who was chairman of Lotus at the time of the car's launch.

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Michael Kimberley took over as Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Company and its Group from May 2006. He currently chairs the Executive Committee of Lotus Group International Limited ("LGIL") established in February 2006, with Syed Zainal Abidin (Managing Director of Proton Holdings Berhad) and Badrul Feisal (non-executive director of Proton Holdings Berhad). LGIL is the holding company of Lotus Group Plc.


Kimberley retired as CEO on 17 July 2009 and was replaced as CEO by Dany T Bahar on 1 October 2009. Bahar was formerly Senior Vice President, Commercial & Brand for Ferrari SpA where he was responsible for worldwide road car sales and after sales business, overall road car and F1 marketing activities, licensing, and merchandising business.

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The company also acts as an engineering consultancy, providing engineering development—particularly of suspension—for other car manufacturers. The lesser known Powertrain department is responsible for the design and development of the 4-cylinder Ecotec engine found in many of GM's Vauxhall, Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Saturn cars. Today, the current Lotus Elise and Exige models use the 1.8L VVTL-i I4 from Toyota's late Celica GT-S and the Matrix XRS.


The company is organised as Group Lotus, which is divided into Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.