Friday 26th August 2016

Lotus Elise 250 Special Edition

50 cars to mark 50 years at Hethel, plus a sub-900kg kerbweight too

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Anyone expecting a return of the Esprit or something similarly dramatic to mark Lotus's 50th year at Hethel must continue to wait - that hasn't happened. What there is instead is the Elise 250 Special Edition, a new model "drawing inspiration from some of the company's most alluring models".

What's the silver strip for?

As the name implies, this Elise is based on the 250 Cup that so impressed us earlier this year. However, rather unlike everyone else and certainly in keeping with the Lotus ethos, this Special Edition is lighter than the car on which it's based. Yep, thanks to a raft of standard carbon parts - the front splitter, rear wing, boot and front access panel - this car has an 899kg unladen weight.

Mechanically identical to the 250 Cup, the Special Edition makes 246hp and 184lb ft from a supercharged 1.8-litre engine. With 270hp per tonne, it's capable of 154mph, 4.3 seconds to 62mph and 1min 34secs around the Hethel test track. Which sounds about fast enough.

Naturally though there are some key differences to mark out the Special Edition from the Cup, this car only available in four colours (classic metallic blue seen here, red, yellow and white) as well as leather seats with contrast stitching. The forged wheels are available in silver or black. Or you can send it to Lotus Exclusive, pay more money and get whatever paint you want.

There will be 50 Special Edition Elises made, available now and priced from £47,900. What could be next for Lotus in this anniversary year? An Exige would surely suit the special edition treatment very well...

 

[Oddball RS]

Scraping endlessly scraping............... surely there is no bottom left in that barrel?

[Oddball RS]

CraigyMc said:

6 comments and 4 of them are about how the thing looks.

It's a Lotus. You can't *see* how the steering feels.

I know how the steering feels from having owned an S160, 240Cup and 340R.......... that do ya?

They need something that adds to the idea, and it needs to 'look' new.

Edited by Oddball RS on Friday 26th August 14:41