Background
If the aim of the Lotus Elan M100 was to save the company, the Elise was the car that actually managed to do so. First unveiled in 1996 and due to cease production in 2021, the original Elise weighs as little as 723kgs, which is crazily light.
This absence of mass was achievable through two main engineering strands: the first was to use aluminium to build the car. Extruded aluminium sections were glued and rivetted together and then reinforced by flat aluminium panels. Aluminium is strong and light anyway, but it makes for a particularly light but stiff structure when it is used in this way, allowing the suspension to do its thing without being undermined by a constantly flexing chassis that has a tendency to alter the geometry.
The second strand was to give next to nothing in terms of equipment. This latter trait being entirely in keeping with Colin Chapman’s philosophy of “simplify, and then add lightness.”
Designed by Julian Thomson and Richard Rackham, the original cars were powered by a Rover K-Series engine - but even the 118bhp of the first models gave a power-to-weight ratio that was sufficient to see 62mph coming up in around six seconds.
And while the Elise’s top speed was a relatively poor-on-paper 126mph, the way it got there was what hooked owners, and continues to do so to this day. Knee-high to a grasshopper, the Elise connected the driver to the road in a way that no-one bar Caterham owners had experienced for a very long time.
And boy, do they handle. A low centre-of-gravity, supple but firmly damped suspension, and an absence of mass combine with super-direct steering to give a level of handling and road holding that's streets ahead of most road cars.
Its tyres are narrower than you might expect, but they grip hard and when they do eventually let go they do so in a progressive way that is easy to catch. Drivers need only a modicum of talent to drive an Elise quickly: it’s the ones with no talent and a lack of commonsense that tend to come unstuck.
Unleashed in November 2015, The Lotus Elise Sport and Sport 220 replaced the outgoing Elise and Elise S. The Sport 220 comes with a 1.8-litre Toyota engine developing 217 bhp, covers the 0-62mph sprint in 4.6 seconds and goes on to 145mph before running out of steam.
2017 marked the 30th anniversary of the last Grand Prix victories for Colin Chapman’s hallowed marque (although he was no longer around to witness it).
The car that won the championship was the Lotus 99T-Honda. The driver was Ayrton Senna.
The Lotus Elise Sport 220 99T we have for you today was created both to commemorate that win and as an homage to Senna.
It is one of only two ever built.
To describe it as rare would be something of an understatement.
To describe as anything other that sensational would be both insulting and inaccurate.
It really is very special indeed.
