Lotus Elise Supercharged by autocar.co.uk

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit may look familiar but what you're looking at here is the sports car of the future it's the new 34,000 pound and these supercharged and it may have looked the same for the last seven years but it seemed that legislation and the way people are thinking about emissions means that the business of building sports cars is moving towards notice low mass lower emissions but still high-performance right as ever were pushed for time Monserrat behind us Barcelona somewhere over there let's have a look around this vehicle I can use the crib sheet if you'll excuse me first time we've had a supercharged engine in the elite obviously now all Toyota engine those of you that are knowledgeable will already know that the IG's each has a supercharged engine but that's quite different this is their own Lotus design supercharger now the difference here is there's no intercooler we'll have a look inside the bay in a minute which means you've got rearward visibility in the exceed all the gubbins is up here so you can't see behind you there's also an eight kilogram weight saving with this new unit okay what you need to know 217 horsepower will come to talk in a minute naught to 60 and 4.4 seconds not 210 point seven seconds okay even in this day and age that is pretty quick isn't it a half inch wider rear rims at the back it's a new design about a will they say but it looks frightfully familiar to me 202 grams per kilometre that's a headline figure isn't it for a sports car for a vehicle that will do 111 seconds and it will do 202 grams per kilometre makes it pretty pretty efficient 33 mpg combined it weighs 900 kilograms ok the mark 1 Elise used to weigh nothing in it 700 and some in kilograms its added 200 kilograms but there's many reasons why 2008 model year at least excuse all the governs and so I'm a bit busy two airbags now standard so you got a passenger and a driver's airbag standard you've got standard electric windows this is a touring pad car you've got standard central locking you've got these Pro back seats you've got a lot more trim than you had before ok we could argue that it would be nice if these was pared back to wearing nothing if you wanted that you have a basic one but to have all this equipment and quite a good level of comfort even though it's still compromised just over 90 kilograms is quite an achievement anything else to look at what distinguishes your supercharged elites when you've got your badge that says you're super Church obviously but you've also got this rear spoiler here I'm told it's not just cosmetic it does have an effect in reducing some lift at high speed and if we can just poke underneath here in this now weird Lotus fashion heating the way under there it's a larger diameter exhaust pipe but with these toys or engines they do seem to be a bit apologetic the exhaust I used to love it when they at least might want have those two pipes coming out about there and again you had failing head gaskets the whole time didn't you right it may say Lotus but underneath is your Toyota Zed Zed engine super reliable revs like a madman in this case no intercooler okay so they've got the efficiency they've got the air going into this well they don't need the intercooler now Lotus designed eight kilogram saving over the unit they have in the Exige I'm a little bit down on power and tall but not much and also of course it fits within the engine bay rather than having to come up here and spawn rearward visibility become shifting on this car is pretty clever as well it can shift anywhere between four and six to depending on the way you're driving if you're pinned to the floorboards it'll let go at four and give you everything you'll be driving more conservatively you can get up to six two before you get that step-up in acceleration again helps contribute towards that 33 mpg combined figure I mean how many other cars out there that can crack 11 seconds 200 miles an hour and average 33 miles to the gallon it can't be many as ever with Lotus the money has been spent in areas that bring the biggest rewards in terms of ride and handling so have a look at this is quite trick as me you have a yokohama advan neova a do seven and that's a tire you can buy off the shelf the little yellow mark there and it says LTS that means that tire is bespoke for this car and again that means the sidewall and everything about the time has been tuned to work with the damper in the spring and it does give this incredible ride handling balance you have a vehicle that stays flat through the corners is incredibly agile it doesn't seem to roll at all and yet when you hit a rocky nasty surface the ride comfort is but it's as good as a luxury saloon car true to everything that Lotus has been founded on and a reason why it remains such an exceptional vehicle the story of Lotus's fortress is the 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 and 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 in short 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 lotit may look familiar but what you're looking at here is the sports car of the future it's the new 34,000 pound and these supercharged and it may have looked the same for the last seven years but it seemed that legislation and the way people are thinking about emissions means that the business of building sports cars is moving towards notice low mass lower emissions but still high-performance right as ever were pushed for time Monserrat behind us Barcelona somewhere over there let's have a look around this vehicle I can use the crib sheet if you'll excuse me first time we've had a supercharged engine in the elite obviously now all Toyota engine those of you that are knowledgeable will already know that the IG's each has a supercharged engine but that's quite different this is their own Lotus design supercharger now the difference here is there's no intercooler we'll have a look inside the bay in a minute which means you've got rearward visibility in the exceed all the gubbins is up here so you can't see behind you there's also an eight kilogram weight saving with this new unit okay what you need to know 217 horsepower will come to talk in a minute naught to 60 and 4.4 seconds not 210 point seven seconds okay even in this day and age that is pretty quick isn't it a half inch wider rear rims at the back it's a new design about a will they say but it looks frightfully familiar to me 202 grams per kilometre that's a headline figure isn't it for a sports car for a vehicle that will do 111 seconds and it will do 202 grams per kilometre makes it pretty pretty efficient 33 mpg combined it weighs 900 kilograms ok the mark 1 Elise used to weigh nothing in it 700 and some in kilograms its added 200 kilograms but there's many reasons why 2008 model year at least excuse all the governs and so I'm a bit busy two airbags now standard so you got a passenger and a driver's airbag standard you've got standard electric windows this is a touring pad car you've got standard central locking you've got these Pro back seats you've got a lot more trim than you had before ok we could argue that it would be nice if these was pared back to wearing nothing if you wanted that you have a basic one but to have all this equipment and quite a good level of comfort even though it's still compromised just over 90 kilograms is quite an achievement anything else to look at what distinguishes your supercharged elites when you've got your badge that says you're super Church obviously but you've also got this rear spoiler here I'm told it's not just cosmetic it does have an effect in reducing some lift at high speed and if we can just poke underneath here in this now weird Lotus fashion heating the way under there it's a larger diameter exhaust pipe but with these toys or engines they do seem to be a bit apologetic the exhaust I used to love it when they at least might want have those two pipes coming out about there and again you had failing head gaskets the whole time didn't you right it may say Lotus but underneath is your Toyota Zed Zed engine super reliable revs like a madman in this case no intercooler okay so they've got the efficiency they've got the air going into this well they don't need the intercooler now Lotus designed eight kilogram saving over the unit they have in the Exige I'm a little bit down on power and tall but not much and also of course it fits within the engine bay rather than having to come up here and spawn rearward visibility become shifting on this car is pretty clever as well it can shift anywhere between four and six to depending on the way you're driving if you're pinned to the floorboards it'll let go at four and give you everything you'll be driving more conservatively you can get up to six two before you get that step-up in acceleration again helps contribute towards that 33 mpg combined figure I mean how many other cars out there that can crack 11 seconds 200 miles an hour and average 33 miles to the gallon it can't be many as ever with Lotus the money has been spent in areas that bring the biggest rewards in terms of ride and handling so have a look at this is quite trick as me you have a yokohama advan neova a do seven and that's a tire you can buy off the shelf the little yellow mark there and it says LTS that means that tire is bespoke for this car and again that means the sidewall and everything about the time has been tuned to work with the damper in the spring and it does give this incredible ride handling balance you have a vehicle that stays flat through the corners is incredibly agile it doesn't seem to roll at all and yet when you hit a rocky nasty surface the ride comfort is but it's as good as a luxury saloon car true to everything that Lotus has been founded on and a reason why it remains such an exceptional vehicle the story of Lotus's fortress is the 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 and 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 in short 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\n"