News from Lotus : New Lotus Elise Model Year 2011

[Frederik]

je bedoelt omdat ie schijnbaar zo hoog staat? niet hoger of lager bij mijn weten dan de S2.. In het echt valt het mee.. het valt op dat de S2 1/2 heel moeilijk op de gevoelige plaat gaat.

Precies net van de trailer, misschien zitten de beveiligingsblokken nog op de vering?

[Bart P]

Nieuwe Elise in videoclip.

[mindp0wer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXuQOYoKK0c

Nieuwe Elise in videoclip.

En ook nog in een zeer leuk blauw kleurke

[Stijntje]

oeh gevaarlijke kleur .

[T_085]

Laser Blue staat op die nieuwe Elise erg goed

Gangsterzz met stijl? Had eerder een 300c of Escalade verwacht

[bAAx]

Ik zit nu al twee weken om het half uur de EVO homepage te verversen en eindelijk is het zo ver.. Catchpole rijdt met de nieuwe elise S

.. and its still a 5 star car!


http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarr ... iewed.html

"What is it?
The new 2010 baseline Elise. Replacement for the brilliant Elise S that was evo’s 2006 real world car of the year.

Technical highlights?
It's the first Elise ever to have a 1.6-litre engine. It uses Toyota’s Valvematic system, which works directly on the inlet valves rather than using throttles, meaning greater efficiency and increased fuel economy. Lotus reckons that with a suitably conservative right foot you can get 500 miles from one fill of the 40-litre tank - to save you doing the calculations yourself, that means averaging 56.8mpg.

What’s it like to drive?
The chassis and suspension set up remain the same as the previous generation car, so it’s business as usual when it comes to ride and handling, which is very good news. Sublime control and balance matched to fantastically involving steering mean it’s a true joy to thread down springtime lanes. The drop in torque over the 1.8-litre means that the engine really needs to be revved to get the most out of it, but when you get it spinning it’s got plenty of character.

How does it compare?
Even with the optional (£2000) touring pack and the new options of cruise control and parking sensors it’s not as luxurious as a Porsche Boxster, but it is nearly 500kg lighter and £7k cheaper.

Anything else I need to know?
Toyota’s 1.6-litre engine is produced in Deeside not Japan, which helps the car’s lifetime carbon footprint quite considerably.

*****"

[bAAx]

Pistonheads review:

http://www.pistonheads.com/roadtests/do ... 47&i=21810

veel gezeik over de cruise control, maar hij geeft uiteindelijk toch toe dat dat niets weegt, dus so what, just don't spec the effin touring pack..

"Hardcore Elise aficionados look away immediately - the facelifted roadster now has the option of cruise control and rear parking sensors... And the headline on the press release boasts of the lowest CO2 emissions for any comparable petrol-engined sports car before it talks about anything else. It's all a far cry from when the original Elise was launched in 1995, devoid even of floor mats, with the singular purpose of providing the purest possible driving experience.
So, does the new car utterly betray the whole Elise ethos? Lotus would like to persuade us that this isn't the case, of course. By standards other than Lotus's own, even at 876kg (in basic trim) the Elise remains a comparative lightweight. Parry that assertion with the fact that the S1 had a quoted weight of less than 700kg and the response is two-pronged: firstly, that original weight claim was a 'dry' weight, the Elise minus all its fluids, whereas the new car's is a proper 'kerb' weight with all fluids in situ including a full tank of fuel and a 75kg human aboard; secondly, the new Elise has to accommodate all manner of mandatory safety equipment that does it no favours on the scales and from which the S1 was immune. They've got an answer for everything, those Lotus chaps...


Including a reason for the cruise control and parking sensors - they're what Elise customers have been asking for. Apparently we all adore the concept of a stripped out sports car, but when confronted with the options sheet many of us become afflicted by a nervous tick, splashing ink liberally into those expensive little boxes. Besides, say Lotus folk, most of the options weigh little or nothing, so stop fretting. As for the latest additions to the options list, I think we can safely blame the Americans. Okay, rant over. But as an ex-Elise owner, it's only because I care...

As was the case for the change between S1 and S2, the 2011 model year Elise's facelift - which applies to the R and supercharged SC, as well as to a new entry-level model - is an in-house production courtesy of Lotus Design. Although Lotus couldn't justify a complete re-skin this late in the Elise's life, a fair amount has been changed, including the front clamshell, inspection panels and bumper, while at the rear there are a new engine cover, rear bumper and diffuser. The new headlights incorporate LED daytime running lights and LED indicators and create the biggest, most immediate visual difference between the newcomer and its predecessor. The Elise's two alloy wheel designs are new, too, and can be painted black along with the rear diffuser, as part of the optional 'Black Pack'.


While plenty of other sports car makers are increasing the size of their engines, for the base model Elise Lotus is bucking the trend, for the first time ever offering the zippy little icon with a 1.6-litre motor. Once again it's a Toyota-sourced unit (built in Britain!), answering to the snappy title of 1ZR-FAE. It's slightly taller and heavier than the engine it replaces, thanks to a fancy valvegear arrangement Toyota calls Valvematic that works in tandem with the regular dual VVT-i (variable valve timing) system carried over from before.
Valvematic is a sophisticated system that instantly and continuously varies the amount of valve lift to more precisely and efficiently control the volume of air entering the combustion chamber. The system eliminates the need for a separate throttle mechanism as the air control takes place directly at the entrance to the cylinder. To this Lotus has added its own engine management and exhaust systems to suit the character of the Elise, with the upshot that the new 1.6-litre engine produces the same 134bhp as the outgoing 1.8-litre lump: torque, however, drops off from 127lb ft to 118lb ft.


Understandably the Lotus PR machine glosses over the torque loss, preferring to highlight the fact that thanks to the new engine's greater efficiency - and with a little help from a new six-speed gearbox for the entry-level car - the Elise produces just 149g/km of CO2 emissions. Perhaps of more tangible value is that the Combined fuel consumption figure now stands at 45.0mpg, which for a smile-a-mile sports car is pretty darned impressive.
On the other hand, if you want great fuel economy, buy a diesel - you buy a sports car for its performance, not its parsimony.

Against the stopwatch the new £27,450 1.6-litre Elise is pretty much on the pace of the 1.8 - it hits 60mph from rest in 6.0sec rather than 5.8sec and has the same 127mph top speed (despite being 4% more aerodynamically efficient). Out on the road, though, it seems you need to work the engine much harder than before. Not that it's an onerous task, granted, but below 4000rpm there's a laziness I don't recall from the 1.8; throttle response is dull, particularly if your foot isn't flat to the floor.

Above 4000rpm the Toyota motor finally gets a grasp of what's required of it and the revs pile on enthusiastically; beyond 5000rpm the induction system exercises its singing voice and before you know it you've stuttered into the 7000rpm rev limiter, having noticed the red lights in the tacho warning of its arrival but then had little time to react to them. It's a real shame there's not more fizz to the engine lower down the range, to make the Elise feel as thrilling as it putters through traffic as it does on clear roads; one of the great joys of this car has always been that you don't need to go bananas to get a buzz out of it. To be fair, the test car's engine had few miles on it, so you'd hope that in time things would loosen up a bit.

With the rest of its underpinnings largely unchanged, it's no surprise that the 2011 model year Elise is as brilliant to drive as ever, like connective tissue between you and the road. For a road car its chassis dynamics - the way it responds instantaneously to your steering inputs, reacts in neatly measured terms to changes in direction and differences in road surface, grips so ferociously - remain outstanding. No wonder that to date Lotus has sold 30,000 Elises; needless options notwithstanding, I'd still love to own another one"

[bAAx]

Autocar heeft zijn review ook online staan:

http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/Fir ... -S/248917/

"Lotus Elise 1.6
Test date Thursday, April 15, 2010 Price as tested TBA

What is it?

Changes afoot at Lotus. A new top man. New bods all over the shop, come to think of it. And now the first changed product under the new regime – the 2010 Elise.
Step forward Matt Becker, who now works exclusively for Lotus Cars rather than Lotus Engineering, and has been put in charge of whole vehicle validation. In short that means he's responsible for everything about the way Lotuses drive and feel. All of which seems entirely sensible to me.
“We did a three or four week programme to improve the ride and handling,” he says. “But in the end we we kept coming back to the same setting; which is as it was before.”
So, some things don't change. Fine by me. The old Elise S – which Autocar wasn't alone in thinking was the pick of the Elise range – drove as well as any small sports car.

What’s it like?
There's a point where sports cars are just too fast and too grippy to enjoy exploiting on the road. The base Elise had just the right gap between its abilities and that point.
It's a gap that hasn't reduced with the 2010 model. Different now is that the 'S' moniker has been dropped (the base Elise is now just 'Elise'), as has the 1.8-litre Toyota-sourced 1ZZ engine, replaced by another British-built Toyota unit, a 1.6-litre 1ZR unit, developing (more or less) the same 134bhp.
The engine is a tad taller, so a new rear deck joins some other subtle styling modifications that also drop drag by four percent and that, along with the new engine's efficiency, and a leggier six-speed gearbox than the old five-speeder, means that economy and emissions are the sort you'd find on a petrol supermini – 45mpg on the combined cycle and 149g/km. About the same as a 1.4-litre Peugeot 207.
The virtues of an 876kg kerbweight keep on giving, too. Zero to 60mph takes six seconds dead.
To access its full performance potential, you do have to work the newest Elise harder than ever before. Peak power arrives at 6800rpm, past peak torque of 118lb ft at 4400. Still, it's a sports car, so putting the effort in is kinda the point I suppose.
You'll be working it in a lower gear than you might think, too. Fourth on the six-speed unit is where you'd not have been surprised to find fifth/top not so long ago. Less than 4000rpm at 70mph in top wouldn't have felt out of place when the Elise was introduced 14 years ago, yet today there are still two gears to go.
What's more of a pleasure than ever before in an Elise is, finally, the process of changing gears. The lever still flops about a bit in each gear and the console it's attached too wobbles a little if you shake it, but it has been stiffened and lower-friction cables have been used.
The shift quality still can't match that of, say, a Hyundai i10 (not much does), but swapping cogs in an Elise is, for the first time in my memory, something approaching enjoyable. Clutch take-up and the engine's response is smooth, too, as is its willingness to attain and hold high revs.
That ride and handling? Still wonderful, of course. Nothing else rides so well yet is so agile and willing. Nothing touches the deliciousness of the Elise's unassisted steering, either.

Should I buy one?
Some changes, then, but the same outcome. The base Elise is still the best small sports car you'll get your hands on."

[bAAx]

Top Gear

http://www.topgear.com/uk/lotus/elise/road-test/2011

"So Tom Ford's off in Marbella, thrashing the Audi 444bhp RS5. I'm in Leatherhead. In an eco-car. Brilliant.

Actually, it is brilliant. The South Downs are bathed in sunshine, the roads are empty... and the eco-car in question is the new Lotus Elise.

Yes, it is an eco-car. Lotus describes the new Elise as having ‘the lowest CO2 for its performance for any sports car in the world', and it's a fair boast.

The entry-level Elise gets a new 1.6-litre naturally aspirated petrol - the higher powered ‘R' and ‘SC' variants retain the 1.8-litre engine - with vital statistics of 134bhp, 45mpg and just 149g/km of CO2. The first-gen Elise, in comparison, managed 118bhp and emitted 168g/km of CO2. Sub-150g/km emissions means £115 a year for road tax. Not quite Prius territory, but still mighty impressive.

Like the 1.8, the new engine is Toyota-sourced - and built in Wales, in fact - but tweaked by Lotus to make it, er, interesting. It gets all of Toyota's clever tech - variable valve lift and timing - and revs to 7,000rpm.

Put simply, this engine is a Good Thing. The entry-level Elise isn't mad-quick by any measure - 0-60 takes six seconds, top speed is 127mph - but it never has been: instead, the powertrain does a worthy job of playing support actor to the Elise's still-brilliant handling.

The new Elise rides and handles like, well, an Elise. The steering is as true and feedbackful (it's a word) as ever, the balance just as balanced. We've spent over a decade marvelling at how well the Elise drives, and we're not going to stop yet.

Chatting to Lotus's chief chassis engineer, he admits that they spent a month trying out different suspension and steering set-ups for the new Elise... and eventually decided to stick with the existing configuration ‘because it was basically perfect'.

Committed Drivers might want a bit more brute pace - say hello to Messrs R and SC, chaps - but in truth there's just enough in this base Elise for all the back-road entertainment you'll ever need.

The engine is surprisingly tractable at low engine speeds - thank the Elise's 800-and-something kg kerbweight for that - but really wants to be revved hard. Maximum power doesn't arrive until 6,800rpm and, though it isn't a great-sounding engine (what Elise has been?), there's a pleasing little fizzle above 4,500rpm.

You'll have spotted the visual changes, which do a fine job in freshening up the Elise. There's a sharper new front end with LED running lights (more lightweight, more compact, more efficient, more Lotus) and an excellent and very functional-looking rear diffuser.

All good, then? In a word, yes. After four hours of roof-down hoonage around the South Downs, the Elise's petrol gauge stands at three-quarters full. Responsible eco-motoring at its best."

[Frederik]

baaxke ... 't wordt tijd dat je uw bakje hebt hé

'k heb zo de indruk dat je zowat zot wordt van wachten, en al die artikels gaan er nieveel goed aan doen