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6 Attachment(s)
Lotus Elise Concept 2010
Lotus Elise Concept 2010
[QUOTE]The Grown Up
Oh yes, here it is! There’s still room for the Elise at Lotus but what a difference a decade or two makes. The Elise due for release in 2015 is a sexy, agile beast of a car. Finally the Elise comes of age.
Aesthetically it’s definitely pleasing to the eye, it’s bold directional body gives you subtle hints of the Elise of old so it still seems a touch familiar but at the same time, it couldn’t be more different.
Perhaps a small example of how the car has changed would help. Aside from strong graphic styling, the practicality of the car has had a major overhaul too with sizeable improvements made to the ingress and egress – in simple terms, no more acrobatics but still all the fun you expect from the Elise.
Dany Bahar, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus, said: “We worked very hard on getting the Elise 2015 exactly right, it’s our entry level car so it needs to give a proper introduction to the Lotus driving experience.”
“The Elise you can buy now is still a fantastic car, make no mistake, Lotus remain very proud of it, but this is a natural progression for us moving forward. The Elise 2015 will also be class-leading in terms of performance and efficiency but it will do more than that it will take the Elise model to the forefront of its class across the board.”
“The design of the Elise 2015 is perfect for the target market, it’s young, strong, confident, verging on ruthless, it mirrors the engineering and technology. It’s the next generation Elise for a new generation of Lotus drivers.”
Fear not though, despite the dramatic upgrades the Elise 2015 has lost none of the cheeky charm that made the two-seater sports car famous, it still retains performance through lightweight and handles like a dream – albeit a quite aggressive and tension filled dream. With a 2.0 litre inline 4 pressure charged engine delivering up to 320 PS, the Elise 2015 should reach 0-100kph in under 4.5 seconds.
The Elise 2015, proving great things come to those who wait.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Layout 2 seater, mid-engined, rear wheel drive
Engine Petrol with start/stop option
Hybrid technology Mild hybrid, i.e. start/stop technology
Cylinder 4
Capacity 2.0 litre
Power/Torque 320 PS / 330 Nm
Rev limit 7,800 rpm
0-100 km/h 4.3 seconds
Top speed 270 km/h
CO2 approx (CO2/km) 150 g/km**
Weight 1,095 kg
Seats 2
Transmission 6 Speed Manual, DCT optional
Drive RWD
Start of production Early 2015
Enters the market Spring 2015
Price indication Circa £35,000
** With new technology[/QUOTE]
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Hell, throw out the motors and batteries, get this thing below an imperial ton, and you still have a proper Lotus.
...now all the other Parisian concepts would lead me to a similar conclusion to your's.
AWD, hybrids, and 4,000lb curb weights Oh My!
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Looks like a "cheaper" LF-A from the grill.
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Jalopnik said it: Lotus is dead, long live Lotus.
This is a joke. hellcat and I discussed this last night and I said at most, Lotus should have one "heavy" car, the Esprit - and it should still be light (or very light) for it's class, and use a light small displacement TT V8.
My ideal Lotus lineup would be a 2k or sub 2k lbs Elise, an Evora, and a high end fighting Esprit. Maybe even a Seven if it could be kept cheap.
This new Lotus is brutal - and not because the cars will necessarily be bad, but because this is not what Lotus is, and now we just have more homogeneity.
Colin is rolling in his grave.
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When Elise weigh over 1 metric ton, you have a weight problem....it needs to enroll in somekind of self-help group....
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I am quite fearful of a blissfully ignorant/optomistic Malaysian management and a hard-charging Maximum Bob going on a new-model blitz critically destabilizing one of my favorite once-British car companies.
For me their lineup should be a FR sportscar in the mold of the original Elan or Elite hovering below a ton (maybe with a 2+2 option), a mid-engined sportscar like the Elise with more of a track setup than the FR but in that weight range, and a mid-engined heavy "supercar" packing more heat that the others like the old Esprit.
Lotus should do Lotus-style cars, I would have thought that would be obvious to the powers that be.
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I think all I really want from Lotus is an Elise that my girlfriend can get in and out of without having a 'wardrobe malfunction'. Nothing else really needs to change.
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[quote=NicFromLA;949545]I think all I really want from Lotus is an Elise that my girlfriend can get in and out of without having a 'wardrobe malfunction'. Nothing else really needs to change.[/quote]
buy her some jeans and Bob's your uncle. (not Lutz)
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There is one very interesting detail about the Elise's new engine that isn't mentioned in the article. It's a V4 (read that on numerous germans websites).
I like the concepts Lotus displayed at the show, but i agree that this is a hard turn in their philosphy. Nearly as crucial as the fact that Ferrari doesn't offer a manual for the 458 (despite their promise to offer a manual option "as long as there is at least one person who wants it". Breaking with your core values seems to pe a common thing these days).
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The problem isn't that it is, or will be, a bad car. It almost surely won't.
The problem is Lotuses are bought for the lightness and driving dynamic. This (or all the other concepts for that matter) isn't it. It is something else.
Therefore it isn't really a Lotus at all.
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Wait, 2015? At quickest it'll be 2014 to launch.
So... why are they releasing it so early again? And what will be built in between that period?
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The other ones. This will be the last to release of the Five Lotuses of the Apocalypse... if they last that long.
If this is a V4 engine, how is it a Toyota engine? And why does the article say it's an inline engine?
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[quote=Ferrer;949559]The problem isn't that it is, or will be, a bad car. It almost surely won't.
The problem is Lotuses are bought for the lightness and driving dynamic. This (or all the other concepts for that matter) isn't it. It is something else.
Therefore it isn't really a Lotus at all.[/quote]
Was it you that posted the link to Sniff Petrol about history repeating itself? Lotus going upmarket/heavier and failing miserably? It could well happen again, and considering the thickness of competition they are diving into (Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston Martin, Porsche), I'd not be surprised if this costs Proton a fortune and Lotus is crippled.
[quote=NSXType-R;949563]Wait, 2015? At quickest it'll be 2014 to launch.
So... why are they releasing it so early again? And what will be built in between that period?[/quote]
To gauge customer reaction to a rapid change in philosophy?
Will all of these even make production?
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My god, 1095kg, what a total fatty. MAH LOTUS!