Lotus Elise

The Lotus Elise is a roadster conceived in early 1994 and released in September 1996 by the English manufacturer Lotus Cars. The car has a hand-finished fiberglass body shell atop its aluminium extrusion and bonded frame that provides a rigid platform for the suspension, while keeping weight and production costs to a minimum. The roadster is capable of speeds up to 240 km/h (150 mph).

The original Elise, called the Series 1 was augmented by a faster edition called the 111S, named after the Lotus type-number of the Elise — M111. The 111S was introduced in early 1999 and contained a VVC Rover K-Series engine with a modified head and VVT type technology producing a declared 143 bhp (107 kW) rather than the standard Rover 1.8 L K-series 118 bhp (88 kW) unit, along with a closer ratio gearbox and lower ratio final drive. It also had more padding in the seats. The 111S also received some cosmetic changes including: headlamp covers, rear spoiler, cross drilled brake discs, alloy window winders and a new 6 spoke road wheel design.

Announced on October 9 2000, the Series 2 Elise was a redesigned Series 1 using a slightly modified version of the Series 1 chassis and the same K-series engine with a brand new Lotus-developed ECU.

The series 2 was also available as a 111S model, with the VVT engine technology. Also released was the Lotus Sport 160, which is a Lotus 111S Series 2 with the additional track handling package. The 111S models were discontinued in 2005.

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