GRR Garage: Introducing our Lotus Elise Cup 250
If our line of GRR long-termers has had anything over the last few years, it’s been variety. SUVs have followed estates, kit cars, crossovers and more. So why not throw a sportscar into the mix? This is Goodwood after all. Welcome then to our time with Lotus.
I say Lotus rather than a specific car because we’re lucky enough to be running what could only really be described as a procession of them over the next few months. Starting with an Elise we’ll move on to the Exige and Evora, leaving only the Evija left to try. To be honest, I don’t think the team at Hethel are going to hand one of those over for a long period any time soon…
So here’s the first of them. It’s an Elise, but not any Elise. It’s a Cup 250. The top of the Elise tree. A £50,000 super-fast, super-light version of what was already a pretty fast, pretty lightweight car.
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The all‑electric Lotus Evija is a monstrous 2,000 horsepower British hypercar
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The Series 1 Lotus Esprit racer that almost made it to Le Mans
Under the rear hatch is a 1.8-litre Toyota motor, a supercharged four-cylinder that makes 246PS (243bhp) and 250Nm (184lb ft) of torque. Enough, then, for a sprint to 60mph in around 3.9 seconds and a sprint on to 154mph.
It is the fastest Elise ever, so it should be quite fun. ‘Ours’ will be orange, with a big rear wing (complete with union jacks), a radio and, er, not a lot else. But hey, we daily-ed a Caterham last year, so this will be simple.
You know the score: we’ll bring you our adventures with this vivid pocket rocket over the next few weeks, and hopefully let you know if you really can live with a Lotus day to day.
This should be interesting.
GRR Garage
Lotus
Elise
