Still alot of $$$ considering you can get a year old Corvette that’s 10x more livable and is still faster in most aspects.

Jake, the guy who buys ‘Vette will not buy (or may not even fit into) this and vice verse. Different driving philosophies, completely different vehicles. Each great in its own right.

agreeing with Borat here, its so irrate when people blast the corvette into any and every sport car post. the vette doesnt fit into every sport car venue, each sports car is its own beast. The lotus is purely a drivers car, not all the bells n whistles of an everyday car btut pure sport, super low weight, tight chasis great suspension, built to take the corners like they are nothin. not all sports cars are about speed which is the only thing the vette is good for

Since I’m a fat bastard, I’ll take the Lotus over the Vette, so I can look like an overstuffed german sausage like most Americans.

What’s a “baragin”? Oh wait… do you mean bargain?

Also, what’s an “Elsie”? I thought that was a cow, not a sports car.

Do you guys EVER proofread your articles?

F you ya French idiot, YOUR WELCOME for America giving your country back on two separate occasions; bunch of pussies.

I love my vette (I also get 27 mpg highway, even though the “official” figure is 22), but this looks like a great bargain too. I always liked British styling. However, I wonder what kind of maintenance costs the Lotus needs . . . seems like it would be expensive, even if you have a lotus dealer in your town.

Naw the Lotus is a snap to maintain because it has a Toyota engine which IMO are some of the most reliable engines even when you smash on them. I have a 97 Avalon with 160k on it and it still runs perfect, no noticeable hp loss and no funny issues, I expect that car to last until 300k without major repair.

Thomas the lotus has a tuned toyota engine so its easy to maintain there, transmission and everything else might run ya a penny tho

krautninja, tranny is from Toyota as well, this is not being advertised of course, but they come as a pair. Both have Lotus logo atop and every bolt and gasket will cost 10 times more.

So this car has more options than the base elise… for thousands less? sounds like it was overpriced to begin with. The thing is a damn celica for christs sake, its an amazing car but they could probably move these for $30k and still maintain a huge profit margin.

Um the Lotus Elise is not a Celica. If I put a Celica motor/tranny in an Acura NSX is it all of a sudden a Celica as well? Didn’t think so.

These are brilliant cars.. but I’d rather not deal with leather seats, blech. So much for a PURIST edition with leather seats and crap like that. Make it more stripped than the base model!

corvettes are for old fat guys….. this thing is sweet, it just should have a honda k20a ( type r ) motor and tranny instead of the old toyota GT-S drivetrain, it could use the extra 20-30 hp, higher engine speeds without consequence

I saw the tagline for this article and had a laugh thinking that they were making an even more stripped out version of the elise. I wondered if they were going to remove the “luxury” of seats and make you sit on a lightweight, race-engineered milk crate. Thankfully, that’s not what they meant by “purist.”

Well, in regards to Corvettes being for old fat guys, I got mine when I was 25 and I still weigh under 180lbs. I assume at 6′1″ I would fit okay into this Elise though. As for it being just a Celica, no of course it isn’t. Buy kansei, if you DID put a Celica engine and tranny into an NSX, I assume you wouldn’t still try and sell it for $80k. The question is, does using a Toyota engine and tranny, but putting it in a well designed car still warrant a $47k price tag. The answer of course is no, which is why they’re trying out this $43k model. I always hate the smoke and mirrors of rebadging cars and using other’s parts, while trying to convince buyers that they’re getting something unique, but I have to hand it to Lotus, when I pass by an Elise around town they sure don’t SOUND like Celicas.

==>> davebo you hit the nail on the head. Except for one point. Im glad that you did put the word “assume” in when you said “I assume at 6′1″ i would fit okay in the Elise.”, because i can guarantee first hand that you can fit in but probably won’t be comfortable at all. Me standing tall at 5′3, i found that it was more room than it looked like when i testdrove an ‘07 Solstice GXP, felt pretty comfortable overall. But i’ve driven an Elise too. I WILL fit inside, but i guarantee at 6″1 u would not be comfortable driving one over like 20mins.

==>>imeant to say “You WILL fit inside, but i guanrantee at 6″1 u would not be comfortable driving one over like 20mins.”

an elise is not a celica. First of, celicas are dead, go try buying a new one off the lot. You can’t. Next, companies borrow motors from each other all the time, especially the low-volume premium manufacturers. The first kuniggsegg used a Ford motor, M-B’s smart brand uses a Mitsu-sourced motor, Hyundai used to use Mitsu-sourced motors, Dodge uses M-B sourced motors for the Sprinter Van… Nissan uses Toyota’s Synergy Drive system for its Altima Hybrid (as did the first gen Ford/Mazda Escape), for a while the V6 Saturn Vue used Honda’s V6. Etc…. this is normal business practice to save on costs. Honestly, with the quality of British motors, i’d better have Lotus source it from Toyota than try to build their own. Let Lotus focus on what they do best, suspension and other handling bits.

A comment on engine: yes it is sourced from Toyota, but it was first “massaged” by Yamaha. And yes it was in Celica GT, but in Lotus it is a bit stronger (software anyone?).

08CobaltSSKen: So it really is as small as it looks, huh? I figured it was just an optical illusion or something. I mean, it’s not like it was built in Japan where the average height is lower. Aren’t the British just as tall as other western countries? Seems like when building a car like the Elise, you want the only factor that eliminates potential buyers to be price, not height.

davebo, they are really that small. although there is surprisingly good room on the inside.

this thing is a celica? how retarded are you? go see a doctor immediately, you have serious brain damage…and comparing this to a used corvette is also a fail…completely different concept here…light, nimble, great handling car with perfect weight distribution…elise vs ‘vette is like a scalpel vs a chainsaw…

celica, tho, seriously? not that you had a lot of credibility with me, but that was just dumb…

==>>leftwingagenda, although the celica comparison was a little dumb, it wasnt as dumb as your making it out to be. Afterall, the engine in this car is the identical engine from the late Celica GT.

Person who wrote this article should have done a ’spell check’ before he hit publish.

I believe Colin Chapman would be please with this. Now if they would only return to F1…

@Tetsujinn

Yes!! Best F1 comment of the past 2 years…

Now back to the Elise ‘Purist’ Edition: Get rid of the idiotic leather seats (should shave 3 grand off the price…?) and the A/C. No ‘Purist’ would need air—put the windows down with fan on max and suffer like REAL racers do! I like to listen to Hi-Perf engine/exhaust anyway.
Oh, yeah, get rid of electric locks—saves even more weight. (I read Lotus electric window system weighs less than cranking–hmmm?)
Hell, get rid of the cheap nappy carpet everyone puts on car floors. That’s gotta be good for a few pounds of weight?

with a name like purist, you would expect it to be more stripped than the base model yet i can’t fathom the idea of leather seats in an elise.

Murphious, If they made it more expensive and added these doodas, I’d agree. But holy heck! They give you more and charge you less. I’m certainly not going to complain about that. If you want a true purist model, you can buy a stripped out track version. I think the goal was to increase US market penetration, and the formula of offering greater features for a smaller price certainly seems to be a good strategy.

I cross shopped a used Elise and a used C5 Z06 vette last summer…both where going for around the same price, the elise looked cool and I know its a tremendous performer but at 6′1 185 I couldnt get comfortable in the Elise. I went with the Vette, it was faster and much easier to live with.

hey dickheads, it was a comment, i know its not a celica, it has a celica engine, and it has less standard features than one, and weighs less, and its also a small 2 door, my point is it has many similarities to a damn celica i know it isnt one and i know what an Elise stands for. Take things with a god damn grain of salt you halfwits.

and orangecones, the standard V6 Saturn Vue didnt use a Honda motor, the RedLine Vue did.

6 minutes later and i still cant get over how literally some of you morons take things.

(thanks davebo for getting what i was saying, btw)

No problem A4. Being practically raised on the internet I am able to detect the subtle nuances in forum postings : P

Nice start, I was hoping for something around $28K though. I can go w/o leather seats. What can you do?

Actually, the engine was ‘massaged’ by Lotus after sourcing from Toyota, who had contracted the engine out to Yamaha. Yamaha’s experience in building small, lightweight, high compression engines has led to them being used by Toyota and others on a number of occasions…