Lotus Elise Supercharged by autocar.co.uk

The story of Lotus's fortunes is a classic roller coaster one minute they've got billions of pounds loads necessary most of the next minute they've got no money at all and all their engineers becoming delivery drivers to make sure they don't get made redundant but for the first time in ages I really feel there is a great future for Lotus they embodied the type of technology that the whole industry needs to adopt if it's going to have a future for this kind of group because a two ton German saloon with a four liter v8 is never ever going to conform to emissions regulations that want no more than 120 g/km of co2 emissions in the next few years it just will not but it's not possible however if you've got 1800 CC petrol engine and you meet every single 2008 model year legislation worldwide and you're Coralie weighs 900 kilograms give every chance of having a future in the business so what's it like when you bolt a supercharger on to me release well you end up with a curiously relaxing vehicle something that's very enjoyable it doesn't shout at you is performance its float in a load of torque I really like that to me it just feels like a normal Elise the power characteristics are the same you don't drive the car you don't thrash it you just allow it to local long on this wave of talk and that sounds strange for sports car don't be worried this is still absolutely superb it steers better than anything else in the class it stops me from anything else in the class some small points that are really worth noting for me with the exceed supercharged the first time I drove it there was a little bit of throttle like that made the car difficult to heel and toe every summer on international throttle there was that slight hesitation two or three millimeters of travel on the throttle that made it difficult to do that that's all gone the engine calibration on this engine is better than it is in the Exige same with the brain panel there is this dead travel on the top of the brain puddle that made it a little bit awkward that's gone heaps absorb it never feels as quick as it is I love to see it against a clock I wonder whether it will crack 11 seconds 200 then again you look down to the numbers and is swishing along quite a rate it's pitiful to navigate the camera around here so try and work with us and show you some of the new bits and bobs that are standard for 2008 the interior had that rather horrible finish that was first in the Europa hard of nasty proton really this time they've covered it in something that's called sin so soft which doesn't sound like a conditioner for hair from the 1980s doesn't it it's quite a clever solution though rather than go for a big heavy new design to give that soft under plastic it's that sort of rubberized texture they put on top of the dash to make it feel like Julius it adds virtually no weight does make a bit of a difference it's still quite sparse in here though other thing new dials new clocks they look still basically similar to the original stack instruments from the car ten years ago but this time we've got an intelligent shift light system that actually through first and second gears helps you anticipate if you don't start the limit when you get one two three line grab the next gear you also get a readout of speed readouts on the electronics section down by the fuel meter but otherwise it's still very very basic very Lotus the way we like it there are a couple of notable options on top of the touring pack you can also have a sports package is another 1500 crew brings you trick dampers some I back Springs bigger brakes performance-oriented kit there is also a thousand pound limited slip diff option now notice Olympus that did don't have the best relationship and rather wonderfully in the press debrief they said yes you can spend a thousand pounds on limiters that differential if you want to do some auto testing but we'd rather you didn't but we develop the car properly in the first place therefore it doesn't need one I love the way it looks I love the way it drives I love the control weights I love the ride I love the handling of the performance I like the Elise supercharged an awful lot