Lotus Elise Is Britain's Greatest Export To The World

Series 1 Elise Models were assembled in Malaysia from 1997-2000.

Source- Lotus Media

In a bid to capture Southeast Asia, Lotus agreed to make Elise in Shah-Alam, Malaysia where the final assembly of Elise took place.

The engine and painted bodywork were still imported from its home factory at Hethel, England. Malaysian Elise was twice as expensive as their European counterparts and came with standard amenities like AC, Carpet, and Hard-Top along with the letter “B” stamped in the 1st position of the VIN compared to the letter “H” for those assembled at Hethel.

Lotus Elise had Brakes made from Aluminum!

Such was the obsession over weight savings, that the engineers at Lotus decided to make the brake discs out of a sci-fi compound called “MMC”.

The Metal Matrix Composite was made out of Aluminum and 30 percent silicon carbide making them extremely durable for road use, as pointed out by the process engineer who made them. These brakes provided excellent brake pedal feel and lasted over 100,000 miles. However, some people eventually swapped them for normal steelies due to two reasons.

First, the company that made them (Lanxide) went out of business and they were hard to get. Second, during rain and wet conditions, the water would get trapped between the disc and the brake rendering them useless.

At its Peak, Elise had its racing series. 

Source- Lotusladiescup/Facebook

 AKA The “Lotus Ladies Cup” in which all the participants used the same Lotus Elise 1.6-138 hp racing cars with Yokohama AD07 tires in a race that lasted 31 laps. Most importantly, the race was an all-women affair and was held in the famous Hungaroring F1 circuit

Lotus Elise Is Hollywood’s best-kept secret 

Screengrab from the movie Tomb Raider showing Lotus 340R

Well, it wasn’t exactly Elise but was based on it. The super rare “340R” was parked in Lara Croft's garage in the Tomb Raider Part 1 starring Angelina Jolie. Furthermore, Redditers have claimed to see a silver Lotus Elise driven by none other than Marc Anthony with Jennifer Lopez by his side.

Elise Sold In America Had A Yamaha-Designed Engine

Source - Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Lotus Elise finally entered the USA in 2005 with a Toyota 2ZZ engine and Yamaha-designed Twin Cam heads and was dubbed the “Federal Elise” as it did not conform to NHTSA’s safety bumper rules.

The Elise made 189 hp and came with US-specific modifications like airbags, ABS brakes, electric windows, and carpet, increasing its base weight by 187 lb. Weirdly, it suffered from a flaw that melted its headlamp unit when exposed to the sun, which was later fixed in upgraded Elises.

Tesla’s first Car Was Based On Elise 

Source- FaceMePLS from The Hague, The Netherlands, CC BY 2.0 via via Wikimedia Commons

The Gen 1 Tesla Roadster was based on none other than mighty Elise. Part of the chassis was assembled in Hethel, England, and then transferred to the US.

However, later in 2018 Musk openly admitted that choosing Lotus Elise as a base for Tesla Roadster was a poor choice due to some incompatibility issues.

World’s Fastest Car Was An Elise

Source- Hennessey Media

Back in the late 2000s madman John Hennessey was looking to stuff ridiculously high-powered American V8s into the smallest of cars he could find, ending up choosing a Lotus Elise as his guinea pig.

The Elise albeit heavily modified went on to become a 1200 hp LS7 powered, 270 MPH all-American land speed record holder AKA Hennessey Venom GT. The Venom GT even its final avatar retained Elise’s roof, doors, side glass, windscreen, cockpit, floorpan, HVAC system, wiper, and headlamps

It Could Swim Underwater 

Source- Rinspeed

LOL, not Elise but Rinspeed sQuba did. The $2 million creation was developed by Swiss company Rinspeed and had twin propellors that could attain 75 mph on the road and 3.7 mph underwater.

The interior was waterproof and also consisted of a laser-based autonomous guidance system. The whole drivetrain was powered by a 54 Kw lithium-ion battery system. The project sank (pun intended) and only 1 was ever made.

The Last Lotus Elise went to … Elisa.

Source- Instagram/iamlotuselise

Named after former Lotus chairman Romano Artioli's granddaughter, Elisa Artioli, the last Lotus Elise painted in a very special gold color went to her and was the last Lotus Elise ever made. Elisa is a gearhead just like her grandfather and runs her own company that specializes in organizing car rallies. 

Electric Elise???

Source-Minseong Kim, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Long before the Tesla Roadster, a company by the name of Zytek decided to make an all-electric super coupe based on Elise. The result was a 1,929 lb dual motor Zytek Lotus Elise that made 200 hp and could travel 120 miles on a single charge, not bad for an EV made more than 2 decades ago.

A decade and a half later an EV startup called Detroit Electric SP.01 decided to make a manual transmission EV and guess what they chose as its mule. The ubiquitous Elise. The car had a 37kWh battery pack came with a 4-speed manual transmission and reached 155 mph.

 Recently, Lotus 135 was teased and is touted to be a true spiritual success or to the now discontinued Elise coupe. The car will be based on LEVA architecture and will be an all-electric model destined to replace the phenomenal Emira. Lotus even told Autocar that an AWD with torque vectoring is also a possibility.