A slight nose job--the 2011 Elise (Image courtesy of netcarshow.com).
I have long been a fan of Lotus. For me, it represents what a true sports ought to be--fickle and demanding, but also wonderfully alluring and utterly unique. During the Colin Chapman era, Lotus made a name for itself with legends like Moss, Clark, and Hill at the wheel. Later, it was Fittipaldi, Andretti, and Senna carrying on the Lotus name in Formula 1. But these days, Lotus is a much different company. While it will once again have a car on the grid in Formula 1, this Lotus team is of a novel kind, without true connections to the Team Lotus of yore. Further, the Esprit, perhaps the most recognizable of the road-going Lotuses, saw production cease in 2004, though it is slated to return in two years.
Today, the success of Lotus rests, principally, with the Elise, which has undergone a slight nose job for 2011. It takes a particular customer to purchase an Elise. It has always been a bare-bones sports car, without the electronic gadgets common to the majority of today's sports cars. Of course, it is blindingly quick, due mainly to its minimal weight. Also, even considering the significant mechanical strides Lotus has made in the past decades, it is still a Lotus and, as such, it requires some mechanical know-how, or a nearby Lotus service technician.
In my opinion, the Elise is the single truest example of a sports car available today (with consideration given to the MSRP). I realize that this is a bold statement, but in a time when sports cars are increasingly fitted with navigation systems, heated seats, and automatic transmissions, the Elise is a reminder of where sports cars originated, namely, on the track, driven by slightly (if not completely) crazy individuals, whose only concerns were a clean heel-toe downshift and the condition of the tires.
The Elise has nothing the driver does not need; it is loud, brash, and rides as smooth as a track car on city streets; and, most importantly, it makes no apologies whatsoever. That, in my estimation, is what makes Lotus so special--and refreshing--in the automobile world today. You do not buy a Lotus to ferry yourself to the Country Club on Saturday--you buy a Cayman. You do not buy a Lotus to drive to work every day--you buy a CLK. You buy a Lotus to drive it because that is what it is meant to do--that, and nothing else.
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