If you've read many of my reviews you've probably noticed that I'm fixated on agile handling. So ever since I heard about the Elise, I've been wanting to drive one. At under 2000 pounds and fitted with quick, manual steering, the latest Lotus should be more agile and provide more thorough feedback than anything else with four wheels. The magazine reviews have been gushing. Problem was, the car wasn't intially available in the U.S. And when it did recently become available, the price was in the forties.
However, I just bought a new house and then sold the old one, and this left me with a dangerous amount of cash on hand. Cash that should be reinvested. But deciding to test my ability to resist temptation, I took a trip to the local Lotus dealer. The salesman warned me that the car was "a toy." But I've heard this about other sports cars, and shrugged it off. I put a far higher priority on handling than ride comfort, after all. I'm not one of those people who needs luxurious appointments and a cushy ride even in a sports car. I'm a true enthusiast, after all. This might well be my ideal car. Just needed a test drive to find out.
However, all of the half-dozen or so new cars on hand were already sold. Why hadn't they already been picked up? Beats me. But I was allowed to take the owner's personal car out for about half an hour, so I didn't press for an explanation. My impressions follow.
Styling
The Elise is styled like a pint-sized exotic, with at least double the scoops, spoilers, and sweeping character lines of most sports cars twice its size. Think half-scale Ford GT. The front end looks especially fierce, with the headlamps and air inlets stretched back like the face of a skydiver in a very joyous freefall. I wouldn't quite call the Elise beautiful, as the styling is too busy to be classic, but it certainly attracts more attention on the street than I've experienced in any other car. One guy waiting next to me at a light pulled forward and requested, "Show me what it'll do." I did. Never had a request like that before.
The interior is less successful. Aside from the flamboyant exterior, the Elise was designed with strict adherence to a philosophy of minimalism. If the car doesn't need something to function, it's not here. The body is chiefly constructed of aluminum, and in much of the interior this aluminum has been left bare. The instrument panel is small and straightfoward. Nothing at all fancy.
This minimalism would sit just fine with me if the car didn't feel downright cheap inside. "Kit car" instantly lept to mind. The barely there center console is the primary offender. Move the shifter side to side with a minimal amount of affort and the entire console wobbles. I find it hard to believe this component could not have been more rigidly affixed.
While they're at it they might place a swatch of material beneath the clutch. As it is, every time the clutch is depressed it clangs loudly against the aluminum. I know the guiding principle was to minimize weigh, but a gram or two of felt would work wonders. If I did buy this car, my first mod would be a couple of those self-adhesive felt pads generally used beneath furniture.
Accommodations
This is a tiny car, a bit smaller than a Miata, so it should come as no surprise that the interior is tight. I fit well enough, so I had no issue with this. More of a problem: getting in and out over the very high, very wide door sill. I'd heard that this was an issue, yet the difficulty involved still surprised me.
Once in the seat, the view out is pretty good for an ultra-low sports car. Even the flying buttress sail panels don't cut into the rearward view much--they're very low. The windshield header is low, but not too low. A Miata is worse is this regard.
The seats, alas, are not designed for extended driving. Actually, I'm not sure what they were designed for aside from low weight. Considering the high handling limits of the Elise they don't provide much lateral support. The fabric contributes at least as much grip as the bolsters do. I suppose that's what the nearby door panel is for. And they are very thinly padded. Initially I found the seat downright uncomfortable, then I discovered the adjustment for the lumbar support (a rubber bulb near the outboard hip). After I let a little pressure out the seat became marginally bearable.
Another clue that this car is not meant for extended driving: the luggage area is very small, even by sports car standards.
On the Road
The steering system is manual and the diameter of the wheel is ultra-small, so of course the steering is very heavy at parking lot speeds despite the Elise's low weight. With just a little speed, though, it lightens up considerably, so I have no issue here. Feedback is of course excellent, as there's no power assist hardware to get in the way. I've never experienced more direct steering. Once I had my hand off the wheel for a fraction of a second, and a small bump wrenched the car to the left. You want to keep at least one hand FIRMLY on the wheel all the time. The wheel's small size (think arcade game) combined with the quickness of the steering makes the Elise feel very much like the world's most fully developed go kart. Yes, the go kart analogy has been applied to a number of sports cars, but never has it fit so well.
I wasn't able to push the Elise to its limits during my test drive. I hunted through a number of neighborhoods, looking for a suitably curvy road. And while I found some curves, none stressed this chassis in the least at speeds I felt I could responsibly drive. I joked to the saleman, "I bet your boss will be surprised to hear that most of this test drive was spent going 32 miles-per-hour." Thirty-two might not sound like much, but in most cars it'll elicit a yelp from a tire or two when maintained around a sharp curve. Not here. We're talking very high limits, with a very balanced feel. You'll need either a very challenging road or--better yet--a track to truly work this puppy.
Have I used the word "agile" yet to describe the Elise's handling? Seems I haven't. At the speeds I was able to drive during the cornering portion of my test the car, despite its quick steering, still didn't quite dance for me. Blame the absolute neutrality of the chassis, the non-assisted steering, and the complete lack of body roll. This car felt about as planted as the big conifers in my new backyard. This feel--technically a virtue, though not so good for entertainment value--was more the fault of the roads than the car. Double the speeds, and I have little doubt it would dance.
As you might guess, the ride is very firm. The car I drove was fitted with the Sport Package, which includes a firmer suspension, but the salesman said the standard suspension is nearly as firm. You feel every little bump and divot in the road. You won't lose any teeth, but certainly busy. I drove the car only with the targa roof off. With no sound insulation to speak of, it's noisy. No surprise there.
Of course, the guy at that light didn't care about handling. He wanted to know how quick the Elise is. The 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine is based on that in the Toyota Celica GT-S. Lotus' own engine controller adds ten horsepower, for a total of 190. This might not sound like a lot, but recall that the Elise weighs under a ton. So we've got nearly a horse for every ten pounds, supercar territory. I've always wondered why Toyota offered this engine in the Matrix but not in the MR2. The Elise confirms that a small mid-engined car is the perfect place for it.
As in the Celica, this engine doesn't feel like anything special until it hits 6,000 RPM. At which point the valve timing and lift undergo a substantial transformation coutesy of Toyota's VVTL-i system. From there on up the engine flat out screams, literally and figuratively. The exhaust has a very throaty note for a fairly small four. The tach lacks a red line. I now read that its at 8350 RPM. The power peaks at 7800, and in each of a few full throttle runs up to sixty-odd MPH I easily pulled off a couple of smooth shifts around 8000. Never hit the limiter.
The salesman kept mentioning how the Elise can get to sixty in 4.2 seconds. This despite the fact that I kept saying, "What I really care about is how it handles." No doubt this is because most people, like the SUV driver at the light, care first and foremost about acceleration. Well, I've driven a couple of four-second cars before (the Corvette and Mustang Cobra) and the Elise doesn't feel that fast. The
Road & Track preview passed out in lieu of a brochure says that Lotus claims 4.8 seconds for the car. Doesn't feel quite that fast, either.
For one thing, as noted above the rush to the redline was not so frenetic that I had to concentrate hard on the tach to avoid hitting the limiter. This isn't entirely a bad thing--in ultra-quick cars such concentration leaves me with little time to enjoy the thrill of such acceleration. The Elise is very quick--a high five car to my seat of the pants--but "slow" enough that there's a moment or two to enjoy just how quick it is. The throaty exhaust definitely adds to the excitement. It probably sounded even better to that guy I left behind at the light than it did from inside the car. Can I make the four in my Mazda Protege5 sound like this?
I'm not doubting that someone did get this car to sixty in under five seconds. But I suspect that the technique involved would not bode well for the car's longevity. Popping the clutch with the engine a good amount of the way towards that magic 6,000 mark no doubt plays a role. Actually, the R&T preview mentions dropping the clutch at 7,000.
About that clutch. For a 190-horsepower car clutch effort is high. That in the more powerful Boxster required less effort despite its shorter travel. The shifter, while requiring little in the way of effort, would also benefit from shorter throws. And, as mentioned above when discussing the console, it could feel more solid. I believe this shifter is supplied by Toyota. While not bad, it would not be out of place in a Corolla.
Pricing
The Elise starts around $44,000, and easily hits $50,000. Looking through the options, it would be hard to keep the price below $48,000 or so. There are a couple of ways to look at this. A MazdaSpeed Miata, Honda S2000, or Mazda RX-8 would cost far less. But the Elise is truly an exotic, and any other exotic would cose far more.
Last Words
Though limited by the available roads, my test drive left me with a solid sense of the Elise. I'd been warned that the car, while a blast to drive, was "a toy." I'd heard this about other sports cars, and shrugged it off. Well, the test drive made me a believer.
Much more so than any other sports car I've driven, even the Honda S2000, the Elise is unsuited for extensive driving on public roads. In addition to the busy ride, the interior is barebones to a fault. You feel like you're sitting inside a toy. Most critically, unless you've been wanting to retrofit a car with seats from a 727's coach section, you won't be happy in the Elise's for long. The seats in any other sports car are overstuffed thrones in comparison.
What the small Lotus is suited for, first and foremost, is the track. Anyone seeking the ideal car for SCCA needn't search any longer. It's here. Conversely, anyone not planning to race the car will be better off in something else. Unless, of course, they seek the sort of attention usually reserved for high-priced Italian machinery.
Since I'm chiefly searching an entertaining sports car for use on public roads, my savings emerged safely from the experience. I've thought of myself as a hardcore driver, with my focus on handling and willingness to put up with a busy, noisy ride, but it seems I have my limits. For the first mile or two after leaving the Lotus dealer my Protege5 felt as high off the ground and cushy as a Lincoln Navigator. And this wasn't so bad.
Someone's going to comment that I don't seem to like anything I drive. "The Boxster is too refined." "The Elise is too raw." Well, I am very picky. But stay tuned. I've been driving quite a few sports cars lately, and the all-around excellence of one of them blew me away.
A note on my four-star rating: I'm willing to evaluate this car purely as a limited-use sports car. But even then I expect more comfortable seats and a more solid-feeling interior. I'm not expecting luxury, just that the console doesn't wobble when you shift.
My reviews of related cars:
BMW Z4
Chevrolet Corvette
Porsche Boxster
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