Classic pearls of the future - Lotus Elise Mk 1
12/17/2012
The manufacturer Lotus was known for building lightweight and relatively simple sports cars that were characterized by excellent handling and outstanding efficiency. Over the years, however, this nimbus was lost, and vehicles such as the Eclat, Elite and later Esprit models were more inclined towards luxury than renunciation, slowly making the icons Elite and Elan forgotten. Until 1996, when the Lotus Elise came onto the market.
Weighing just 720 kg and equipped with a slender Rover K engine with just 120 hp in front of the rear axle, the little Lotus made life difficult for many a super sports car. The lightweight aluminum alloy frame gave the car stability, so that the body could be molded from plastic and even allowed an open roof in Targa style. The handling was legendary, not least because of its low weight. And the fact that you felt like you were on board a Le Mans racer behind the wheel was of course an additional attraction at the time.
At around 3.7 meters long and 1.7 meters wide, the Lotus was compact and still had enough space to carry two people and some luggage (in the optional luggage compartment behind the engine).
It was also not overly expensive, so that over 8,000 units were sold until the year 2000, when Series 2 arrived, which replaced the rather conservatively shaped Elise of the first series with insect-like eyes and other modern attributes.
Because some of the original radicalism and focus on minimalist lightweight construction was lost over time, the very early models - with their wonderfully colorful paintwork - are likely to be among the most sought-after in the future.
P.S. For anyone wondering about the blurriness of the two detail pictures, here is a photographic anecdote. These two pictures were taken with a Sony digital camera that was "state-of-the-art" in 1999 and recorded its images in VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels) on 3 1/2 inch flobby disks. Yes, that was a long time ago. This camera is unlikely to achieve cult status, unlike the Lotus Elise ...
