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The 2005 Lotus Elise: America’s Mid-Engine Wake-Up Call
It’s Tiny, Raw, and Smoother Than Any Lotus Before It
By Kevin Smith
MotorTrend Archives
[This story originally appeared in the July 2004 issue of MotorTrend.]
There’s a wave of relief washing over the sports car community today that we can now confirm: The 2005 Lotus Elise is not going to demand apologies or special considerations when it hits American roads. That was far from a sure thing before our first drive of the new U.S.-spec Elise at the stunning Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama. This $40,000 machine represents a brand rebirth for Lotus in the U.S.; the marque had become nearly invisible following years of dwindling Esprit sales. So, a lot rode on this car’s success. But given Lotus’ long and storied history, we weren’t certain what to expect.
Lotus Reboots in America: From Kit Cars to Modern Mastery
Colin Chapman founded the company in Hethel, England, in the early 1950s, and since then, Lotus has been revered for its innovative philosophy: build simple, lightweight sports and racing cars with phenomenal handling. However, quality, durability, and reliability have rarely been Lotus hallmarks. The thrills often demanded a kit-car mindset regarding fit and finish, plus owner maintenance—none of which would fly in a modern production automobile. Consumers today expect trouble-free ownership, and no manufacturer could expect slack.
We don’t think they’ll need it.
One look at the specifications sheet reveals that the new Elise should uphold the company’s tradition of drivability and performance. It’s a simple mid-engine roadster weighing 1,975 pounds, fitted with a 190-horsepower Toyota engine and a six-speed gearbox. The chassis tuning comes from the same ride-and-handling wizards Lotus licenses out globally through its Lotus Engineering consultancy. This car, by far Lotus’ best-selling model, has been a delight for years in European spec, using a coarse and uninspiring Rover engine. Therefore, the Toyota-powered U.S. version was almost guaranteed to be enjoyable.
Under a Ton, Overdelivering: The Quality Paradox
But would Lotus tradition also live on in the car’s perceived quality and tendency to shed bits? That was our biggest concern. The final verdict awaits a track record on the market, but the early signs are positive. The Elise is small (beefy occupants will rub elbows and everyone has to travel light) and simply trimmed (lots of bare structural aluminum shows). But those are necessary and reasonable compromises to make a car that’s light and supremely maneuverable. The quality of materials, the accuracy of assembly, and the likely reliability appear not at all compromised. Fit and finish are well in the game; there are no sloppy noises or sensations; and the car looks and feels stuck together in the manner we now expect of modern cars built by modern manufacturers.
The Elise begins with a sophisticated platform chassis of bonded aluminum sheets and extrusions. Lotus claims this structure weighs a mere 150 pounds, but it provides a sense of rigidity (difficult in an open car) and the stiffness needed for a precisely tuned suspension to perform as its engineers intended. This rigid foundation carries a control-arm suspension with gas-charged Bilstein dampers, disc brakes with enthusiast-calibrated ABS, and light, modest-sized alloy wheels with custom-spec Yokohama tires.
Toyota Power, Lotus Personality: A Smooth Transition
The powertrain nestled behind the cockpit is Toyota’s 1.8-liter 2ZZ-GE engine, paired with the six-speed transmission found in the Celica GT-S and Matrix XRS. This long-stroke engine utilizes variable valve timing and lift to provide flexible midrange power plus a rapid top-end surge. However, it feels significantly different—and much better—in the Lotus application than in any Toyota we’ve driven.
You don’t have to drive it like you’re angry with it, and it doesn’t buzz and shriek back at you. In Toyotas, we usually feel we have to rev this engine hard and just put up with its intensity. The VVTL-i has always made a dramatic changeover to the high-speed cam profile at about 6400 rpm. It gets the job done, but doesn’t feel as silky and happy as it might.
Lotus has transformed the 1.8-liter engine into a much smoother, more elastic powerplant, and not just by bolting it into a vastly lighter, less burdensome vehicle. A new engine-control computer programmed by Lotus significantly alters the engine’s character. Notably, the transition from low-speed to high-speed valve events occurs a few hundred rpm sooner and feels much more seamless. It doesn’t fall off the cam on upshifts, which enhances the engine’s ability to provide ready torque and willing response whenever the driver asks.
And that gets to the real point of the Elise. The Lotus development team stated their goal was to create a Formula Ford car for the road—one that would take your input, react and communicate, forgive mistakes but not hide them, help you learn to drive better, and make sure you enjoy the lessons along the way. And they nailed it.
Handling That Resets Your Expectations: A Driving Revelation
When you drop into the pleasingly stark cockpit (you can do this open-wheeler-style if you’re feeling spirited: step over the door, stand on the seat, then wriggle down under the wheel), you’ll find yourself in a businesslike driving environment. You sit low to the ground with very little car surrounding you, though you’re well-protected by the large windshield and the rear roof hoop (with fixed glass). Visibility is fine in all directions except to the rear quarters. The upright, one-piece bucket seat miraculously accommodates a wide range of physiques and positions you perfectly for the smallish steering wheel, immediately signaling good things to come.
The engine fires to an eager but not too raspy blat. As you orient yourself to the pedals and snick the shifter into first, you notice two key points: First, the pedal spacing isn’t overly cramped, but you’ll still fare better with skinny loafers than wide-soled running shoes. Second, the slop-free linkage and light gate return springs Lotus selected make this six-speed a friendlier gearbox than it has ever been before.
You don’t need to drive hard to appreciate how the Elise harnesses the magic of light weight. The delicate immediacy of fast-ratio, pure-manual steering, with little mass bearing down on small tire contact patches, is a delight to feel and use. And a car weighing under a ton doesn’t need excessive technical frippery to change heading on a whim. Finally, 190 horsepower and 138 pound-feet of torque might not sound like speed-demon numbers, but with only 1,975 pounds of car to move, that output provides genuine acceleration. Lotus quotes a 0-to-60 mph time of 4.9 seconds, though that only hints at the real beauty of the Elise’s power-to-weight ratio. Throttle is available to do more than just speed up and slow down. It can also affect cornering attitude, giving the driver lively options to manage both ends of the car. Sweet.
An autocross course provides a safe, focused opportunity to examine the Elise’s moves, and Lotus set one up in a Barber parking area. The most telling sections were the long, smooth arcs at each end, where we could experiment with cornering attitude, and where the Elise proved marvelously cooperative. On neutral throttle, it hooks around dead neutral, slip angles and grip evenly balanced between front and rear tires. Roll into some throttle and gentle understeer points you a bit wide, as the front tires unweight. Hop out of the gas and some lift-throttle oversteer eases the tail around and tightens your heading. Get back on the power with authority, and you can carry a lurid tail-out slide like you’re a natural-born drifter. The Elise makes it easy.
Out on the road, where you’ll hit trees instead of orange cones, you may not hang it out quite so casually. But the Elise is the same eager dance partner. It’s flexible and hassle-free in traffic (though you do feel small), and any time the mood and opportunity strike, the car is ready to have a go. Freeway onramps become mood-altering experiences, just because of how the car flicks into a cornering stance and accelerates hard, grinning back at you all the while. On winding secondary roads, the Elise will flow as gracefully as you like or dive-bomb apexes like a shifter kart. You call the tune.
This kind of balanced, immediate, driver-centric behavior comes at only one cost: The new Lotus, like most all of them before, comes to think of it, represents elemental transportation in the extreme. Have a big family to cart around? Need to be cosseted in luxury far removed from the passing world? Insist on bringing two golf bags with you? Forget it. You have a car that’s 149 inches long and almost 44 high, so you’re expected to make some sacrifices in utility.
And that’s just fine, if you’re in the right frame of mind. The serious simplicity of the Elise is the whole point, after all, and we even found ourselves wondering about the wisdom of the Touring Pack Lotus offers as an option. For $1,350 over the base MSRP of $40,780, you can have leather seat faces, power windows
