Lotus Elise Club Racer: Purity, Performance, Pleasure - A TRUE Lotus

Lotus Cup comes to North America - Over the years, the Lotus Cup Race Series has developed into one of the most successful enthusiasts race series brands in the world. Races feature capacity grids of Elise, Exige, 2-Eleven and Europa race cars racing and jostling for position. Previously operated exclusively from several countries in Europe and Japan, the Lotus Cup has now expanded considerably to include the USA, UK and Eastern Europe. Image Credit: lotuscars

Lotus Elise Club Racer: Purity, Performance, Pleasure - A TRUE Lotus

Anyone living under the misunderstanding that Lotus might be moving away from performance through lightweight due to all of the noise the release of the Lotus Evora has caused, one only needs to take a quick ride in the new 1.6 Lotus Elise Club Racer to know that this is definitely not the case. The hard working engineers at Lotus put even the lightest of Lotus’ modern cars on a diet and managed to shed a further 24kg - 52.9109429 pounds.

So how did Lotus manage to make one of the lightest models on the market even lighter?

The engineers behind the Elise Club Racer took a stripped-to-the-bare-bone approach visualized by the body-colored seats but materialized in many ways such as the motorsport derived lightweight battery and the stripping out of noise insulation. Attention to even the smallest of details has ensured that Lotus’ passion for performance through lightweight has been translated throughout the car.

For the first time ever ... an Elise variant comes complete with a Sport setting for the DPM (Dynamic Performance Management) allowing even the less experienced sports car drivers to feel at the top of their game, while the ability to switch it off completely will please the more established track orientated drivers. DPM combined with improved agility courtesy of Lotus finely tuned sport suspension and an adjustable anti-roll bar will make the Elise Club Racer equally versatile for both road and race track fun.

Wolf Zimmermann Chief Technical Officer Lotus Cars said: “The traditional Lotus approach of reduction and purity has lead to one of the most zeitgeist and contemporary sports cars around. For over 15 years the Lotus Elise has become an icon in the sports car market, carving out a niche market with a dedicated following of lightweight fans. The new Club Racer will definitely give these people something extra to get their teeth stuck into. This car epitomises everything that’s cool about the Elise – it’s fast, raw, responsive and a huge amount of fun to drive.”

Quality throughout the vehicle has been a top priority, highly regarded component suppliers such as Eibach for springs and Bilstein for dampers ensure that the Elise Club Racer is a car of quality substance as well as sporting style.

The Elise Club Racer seeks to please the eye as well as the soul with a choice of six rich and unique colors (Sky Blue - pictured above, Saffron Yellow, Ardent Red, Aspen White, Matt Black and Carbon Grey) that highlight Lotus design elements and emphasize the character of the car.

It’s pocket pleasing too, at 27,500 British Pounds - $44 676.50 / 34,450 Euros - $47 141.38 / 48,900 Swiss Franc - $51,365.10, the Elise Club Racer marks the new entry level sports car from Lotus. Also, with the Elise standard of just 149g CO2/km emissions contribution plus the weight reduction, the new Club Racer provides maximum fun without so much of the potential "green-guilt" some associate with the gentlemanly (ladies welcomed) pursuit of high performance driving.
(ht: lotuscars)