Lotus Elise S Club Racer 2015 Review

In the automotive industry, if you're still selling a car with a 20 year-old structure, you'd soon want to pension it off or find a new core business, perhaps running an aged-care facility. A LandCruiser 70 Series still sells well on the premise that it is as old as legally possible and because it still does a fine job of crawling around off-road. But an $85k sports car..?

Here we are belting into the second-half of 2015 and the Lotus Elise relies on a basic structure and hard points that were designed in the 1990s.

The Australian-spec Elise S Club Racer scores standard equipment that the UK car doesn't — namely, the Comfort Pack.

The Comfort Pack adds a full convertible roof, a digital audio system with four speakers, central locking, the sound insulation from the standard Elise S, a light weight aluminium passenger foot rest and front mud flaps.

Other standard equipment includes air-conditioning, electric windows, an alarm system, soft-top roof, leather wrapped steering wheel and twin airbags.

While the Elise still has supercar looks after all these years (and has had a few cosmetic refreshes), the test car was painted in a very bright hue called chrome orange. It drew many admiring looks. It also drew quite a few sidelong glances, with people probably thinking, "there's a man with a mid-life crisis firmly in his grasp". I'm certain that this colour makes for a very practical safety colour, and surely everyone knew that the "LITEW8" personalised plates referred to the car, not its driver's professional acumen.

Inside, the dashboard and its array of switches and buttons have not changed in a long time. Sure, you get sexy carbon-fibre, F1-inspired fixed buckets painted in body colour and trimmed in fake suede and beautifully crafted alloy footboards, but elsewhere it's 1990s chic. Items like the column wands look like they belong to a 1996 Vauxhall Astra and the light buttons look 1960s Americana. If it were an auto, I'd expect push buttons for gears, too.

Then there's the issue of approach and departure angles, and no, I'm not talking about off-roading. Last time I got into an Elise — nine years ago — I looked like a person who had landed in a barrel bottom first, limbs flailing. The sill is high, roof low and it's a tight fit. So this time, when the Lotus PR bods explained their method for entry/egress, I listened up.

First, the seat must be set back as far as it will go on its runners. Then you place your left foot on the floor, tuck yourself up in a ball and then you swing your backside over the high sill and into the seat. Then your right leg can be swung in and seat racked into position.

Armed with knowledge of the Lotus position, my week with the Elise was much more dignified.

To start the Lotus you twist the ignition key then press the start button. If you faff around for more than 15 seconds the immobiliser activates. So you must press a button on the key to disarm the immobiliser, then press the start button. That's so, like, 1990s.

Even though there's no steering wheel rake/reach adjustment and the only seat adjustment is fore-aft, the Elise was actually very easy to get comfortable in. The seats, which have so little padding they look like they were designed by chiropractors short of business, were actually the opposite — supportive and comfortable, although on the firm side, of course.

Vision out the front is good, with the raised hips of the guards good reference points and the side mirrors — with no remote adjustment — gave a good reflection of what was going on down the sides. Rear vision out of the postbox-slit back window and over the spoiler wasn't great but not as bad as some.

There are not many storage facilities in the Lotus — a small lipped parcel shelf and a small cupholder in the back of the centre console are pretty much it.

Driving the Elise around town, you feel a little vulnerable. It is small and low, so traffic around you feels like it's been super-sized. Driving the Lotus during the traffic shuffle is surprisingly pleasant — the clutch is not heavy, the gearshift really positive and with short throws and the off-idle torque is abundant.

Ride is abrupt over sharp bumps and it jiggles along over rough surfaces telegraphing a lot of it, but it doesn't feel tiresome. Even the non-assisted steering is not a chore to twirl in parking manoeuvres — yes, it's heavy but enough to make you think you should join a gym. There's no lump of an engine sitting up front and there's only relatively thin tyres to shift, which helps.

Clear the lumps of traffic and the Elise really shows what was built for and for which it is timeless. There's nothing old about a car that is so adroit while telling you what it's doing, and to be able to do it so effortlessly.

The supercharged 1.8-litre is so flexible and its power delivery so linear that the Elise doesn't feel like it's a 4.6sec-to-100km/h car. Yet punch the throttle in roll-on acceleration and it becomes more obvious that this thing has some go. The supercharger whine is only just audible, but the banshee wail up to 7000rpm is very much so and damn addictive.

Fuel consumption on test averaged 9.0L/100km, not far off the 7.5 claim. The test comprised about 60 per cent urban shuffling and the remainder a mix or corner carving and freeway cruising.

The Elise handles just… beautifully. It will squirm and require a deft hand when pushed hard — the quick steering and mid-engine layout require intense concentration and skill to get this best out of this car. Yet the sheer grip from the Yokohama Advan Neova tyres (which are only fitted to the Cup Racer in the Elise range), the immensely communicative steering and the resolved balance of the chassis makes it a very rewarding, focussed thing to drive.

The matter of this being a track-day special over a standard Elise S is a moot point. Twenty kilos weight savings doesn't seem much. Lotus claims that despite the Cup Racer sharing identical straight-line performance with the Elise S on which it is based, the weight shave does make a difference when looping a track.

There are few new cars at the price that can do what the Cup Racer does so well. The Elise S Cup Racer may well be dated in concept but there is nothing more contemporary than a car that can deliver such a rewarding, involving driving experience.

2015 Lotus Elise S Cup Racer pricing and specifications:
Price: $84,990 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 1.8-litre four-cylinder supercharged petrol
Output: 162kW/250Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 7.5L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 175g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: N/A