RE: US Elise Confirmed

[GarySh]

I don't know about the 190 bhp 2003 Corolla engine, but according to the March 2002 edition of Motor Trend, the 180 bhp engine in the Celica GT-S is built by Yamaha...

So would it be a Lotus-Yahama engine, or a Lotus-Toyota engine or a Lotus-Toyota-Yamaha engine?

[paulnederland]

Since Lotus is part of Proton, do they have anything suitable? Who is Proton friends with? My guess is that Proton and Toyota are competitors.

[adeewuff]

Proton use old Mitsubishi engines, which are ropey at best. Having used a fair number of Protons while in Malaysia I couldn't think of any that would be suitable for the Elise. But then again Lotus have done more surprising things...

[lotusbmw]

Fox Valley Motor Cars in Chicago has already taken over 50 deposits for the federal Elise..since the their auto show last week!
Goes to show that people are not worried about what engine will be in the car! There are numerous US dealers that have 20 or more deposits with no car to even view or drive.

[kip]

I was over at www.caranddriver.com and read the review of the Opel Speedster (Elise derivative). I have to ask you guys out there--do you really think you can drive 10,000 miles a year on the Elise when you can hardly get in (or out) and knobs keep falling off?
I'm worried for Lotus--they should have built the M250!

[englishman in LA]

Well, its official. I have my deposit down on an elise in the US. I put 1k down at Thousand Oaks Lotus Dealership, and I have a very small piece of paper to show for it.

I'm third in line, so the third car the dealership gets should be mine!


I'm feeling pretty good right now!

Steve

>> Edited by englishman in LA on Friday 1st March 21:52

[paulnederland]

Congratulations, Englishman!
Just out of curiosity: would you cancel the order in case the engine has anything less than 190 HP? Also, would you buy the “remove AC option”?

[paulnederland]

I don't understand why Lotus is not saying anything about the power of the US-Elise. I cannot wait to put my order down. But that is hard to do without any specifications. I certainly do not want to get a car that doesn't have a respectable engine. The US-Elise just has to outpower cars like the Saturn Sky!! That car has the Opel Ecotec 2.2L engine with a low-boost supercharger, generating 180 horsepower. That engine fits the Opel/Lotus Speedster/US-Elise.

[Englishman in LA]

my feeling if I was lotus is that I would be looking to put the most powerful, reliable engine they can in the US Elise, just because there doesn't seem to be much point in doing anything else.

In answer to your question about what level I'd want my deposit back at, I think I'd be happy with a car with the same HP/tonne as the british car, after all it makes 0-60 in 5.6, which isnt bad... So with the weight increses we think we are going to get for over here that would translate into roughly a 135bhp engine. Anything over that and I'll be relatively happy.

Given the option I'll pay a little more (3k ish) to go from a 135bhp car to a 190bhp car... Now I'm just waiting for information like everyone else.

Steve

[Englishman in LA]

As a side note, according to my Dad, who is currently cramming a ford 4 pot in his westfield, one of the problems with using the Honda 4 pot with about 190 bhp is that it rotates in the opposite direction to most peoples engines, so if you put one in an Elise you wind up being able to go really fast backwards....

can anyone confirm that?

[adeewuff]

Now that would be fun to see!!

[nikismart]

Very Dry.

On the note of the rotation of Honda engines, they have a history of doing such things.

Gearbox resides on the opposite side to the K-series when in the back of Sun Internationals Elises, close ratio's all going forward.

[ez8911]

Ha Guys
I was with Lotus Taiwan and the first custmer for the Elise is from a American English teacher/head master! the price is the same as a BMW 325i and He enjoyed the car so much he said he can not find enough time to drive it !

[madmike]

I commend those of you who have plunked down your deposits so far...you are certainly hard core enthusiasts.

However, I may turn out to be in the best seat. I just got my first Esprit a couple weeks ago, and I figure in about 5 years or so, when I'm ready to move on to something newer, the US Elise will have worked out some of the initial kinks you KNOW will exist with a new powerplant and additional federal features.

So sometime in the 2007-8 timeframe, I think I'll be getting an Elise that is better tuned and probably is turning out more horses.

But to those of you getting the first run, enjoy! I suspect if we ever pull up to a light together it will be similar to the Rip Van Winkle Porsche commercial, where we are each enviously checking out the other's ride!

Mad Mike

[Englishman in LA]

I think my main reason for putting down my deposit for the elise now is that I'm sure that the waiting list over here is going to get really out of hand really quickly, Therefore to put money down now and get the car in 18 months may in fact be shorter than the waiting list when the car is in production.

That and the fact that I get a better return on 1000 dollars sitting at lotus than I do on my e trade accout

by 2007-8 hopefully I'll be ready for an exige or the lastest TVR.