LOTUS ELISE SPORT 220
The ingredients for a great sports car have never really changed – low weight, keen responses, pure driver enjoyment – and the 220 combines them to perfection
HARD TO BELIEVE IT’S TWENTY- ONE years since I drove out of Hethel’s gates in a Series 1 Elise that I was to spend the next 50,000 miles and two years driving. It never conked out, never failed to get from A to B, and never stopped entertaining me while doing so. It went to the Ring. It took a toddler and myself camping in France. I damned nearly lived in the thing. Much has happened at Lotus since. Changes of owners and bosses, fantasy model plans and a steady stream of Elises, Exiges and Evoras with a baffling array of names: Cups, Sprints, GTS, Sports and a host of numbers denoting power or power-toweight. Sometimes you forget that Lotus still makes a simple Elise. It’s called the Sport and there are two versions: one with a naturally aspirated 134bhp 1.6-litre engine and the other with a supercharged 1.8 that produces 217bhp (220PS).
The weight has gone up over the years but the Sport 220 still weighs only 904kg, which compared with just about everything else on the road is still pretty light. An S1 would have needed 175bhp to match its power-to-weight ratio of 244bhp per ton.
Step into the 2017 Elise and you can see where some of the
extra weight has come from. Compared with my old S1, the Sport 220 is like a limousine, with (optional) carpets, smart trim and electric windows, although compared with most modern cars, the little Lotus is still on the spartan side. Truth is, I fancy a little bit more comfort than I did 21 years ago and I suspect many customers would say the same.
No air- conditioning, of course, and certainly no infotainment. There’s a simple head unit in the Sport, into which you can plug your musical source of choice, but I would be happy with the stripped- out Sprint version’s blanking plate. The options list is pretty comprehensive and includes most of the parts required to turn a Sport into a Sprint, including forged alloys and a lithium-ion battery. And, if you really want to blow some cash, a £4000 titanium exhaust system, though that’d hurt on a car that already costs £39,300. One option that’s really worth a look is the carbonfibre sill covers. It’s not so much that they look cool, but their strength means that they are fitted closer to the extruded aluminium chassis underneath them and that reduces sill height by 10mm. Unless you’re a 12-year- old gymnast, every bit of help to get into an Elise when the roof’s up is always welcome. They are another £1200, mind.
The Sport 220’s power-to-weight ratio is perfect. The entrylevel car’s power is a bit too modest and the next Elise up from the 220, the Cup 250, has more than you need. Not surprisingly, the 220 is fast, but what’s particularly impressive is how good its engine feels. For a modern four- cylinder it also sounds fantastic, almost as if it’s drinking and breathing through a pair of DCOES.
The power delivery has an old-fashioned flavour to it, too, the characteristic way a supercharged engine feels as if it’s got
‘ T WENT Y- ONE YEARS ON AND NO ONE HA S MATCHED THE ELISE IN TERMS OF UNDILUTED DRIVING ENJOYMENT’
a larger cubic capacity rather than simply more power. So the power builds seamlessly and, with gearing that is perfectly matched, thrust out of corners or when overtaking is impressive. Lotus’s open-gate gearlever is a big improvement on previous shifters and sexy enough to not need a surround or gaiter, which saves a few grams. Editor Gallagher goes further: ‘ The new gearshift is one of the best in the industry,’ he says, ‘right up there with Porsche’s six-speed manual, as fitted to its GT road cars.’
On a fantastic blast around Sussex for the photographs, the weather is dreary and wet with plenty of leaves on the road. What’s impressive is how Lotus’s DPM (Dynamic Performance Management) stability control manages the breakaway and recovery in such a smooth way. It lets you feel that the car is moving but brings it back in gently without a sharp cut in power.
Both the Sport and the lighter, more focused Sprint are fitted with Yokohama Advan Neovas, 175 section on the front and 205s on the back, which have a surprising amount of grip in the wet. That said, DPM is still busy today. In the dry, the grip is prodigious and, on the public road at least, sliding about is unlikely.
Where you can feel the weight, compared with an S1 or early S2, is in the steering. It’s surprisingly heavy when you’re parking but also when you’re feeling for front- end grip or correcting a slip with DPM off. Still, a quick ride in an Alfa Romeo 4C Spider in these conditions would put into perspective how sweetly the Lotus steers and handles (and how the Alfa doesn’t).
You should by now have picked up a certain whiff of nostalgia emanating from these pages. As John Barker says: ‘ There’s a wonderfully retro feel about this Elise, in all the right ways. It’s light like most modern cars aren’t, sounds enthusiastic, and the gutsy engine flings it effortlessly down the road. Of course, you get grippy handling, a great ride and there’s a solid, quality feel too. This is a great Elise.’ Retro is an obvious word to use but it’s an unfortunate one because it implies old-fashionedness. Actually, sports cars should never have gone away from the original blueprint of low weight, accurate steering with accurate feedback, supple suspension and overall simplicity.
‘ Twenty- one years on and no one has matched the Elise in terms of undiluted driving enjoyment,’ says Gallagher. ‘It feels as refreshingly brilliant as it did when we first drove it, only now every area has been improved upon.’
This Elise is the opening statement in the case against evermore-powerful supercars. It’s impossible to avoid using the clichéd argument that this Lotus has all the performance that you need today. Writing about a car like the Mclaren 720S gives
an opportunity to use some new adjectives and expletives, but in the back of your mind there’s always the thought: ‘But what’s the point of all this performance?’ At least there is in my mind.
It’s not just the Sport 220’s realistic performance that appeals, there’s also its modest dimensions. It’s so easy to place on the road and position for corners. The sight of a van or large car coming the other way on a country lane doesn’t bring with it the clenching of the wheel and worried focusing of the eyes that you experience in over-wide sports cars like a Jaguar F-type. Time spent in this car has been a tonic. A glorious relief from a life that these days is spent writing endlessly about SUVS and listening to nonsense spoken about self- driving cars .
The Lotus Elise Sport 220 shows not only how it used to be done, but how it should still be done.