Frankfurt 2009: Lotus Elise Club Racer

You might be tired of hearing about special edition Elises, but I'm not. In fact, what's wrong with you?  They're Lotuses, you like them if you're reading this site, so here we go.

The latest infinitessimally different Elise is based on the entry-level Elise S, and it's called the Club Racer.  It's a modern Elise with some classic Lotus styling cues and colors, wrapped up in a fun (and efficient!) package with an attractive price.

The Club Racer inherits the standard Elise's 134bhp 1ZZ-FE engine, shared with the Corolla and MR2.  While that sounds as fun as partying with a bunch of nuns, when coupled to the Elise's 860kg kerb weight (1896lbs) it equals surprising performance - 0-60mph in 5.7 seconds - along with surprising efficiency.  The Elise S (and Club Racer) rate at 37.2mpg, and emissions are an impressively low 179g/km of CO2.

Being a special edition of the base-model car, there aren't any mechanical changes made to the Club Racer.  And when the basic formula is so right, why bother anyway?  Outside, the CR gets a set of exlusive color choices that harken back to the old Elans and Elites and what-have-you.  There's Elite Yellow, Carbon Grey, Sky Blue, and Old English White, all sort of flat old-fashioned British colors, which somehow look right on the shockingly modern Elise.

The interior gets special treatment as well.  The seats have special microfibre pads that "0ffer just the right amount of support" but still leave a lot of the (body colored) seat shell exposed.  The transmissions tunnel is also body-colored, and there are a few other niceties like an anthracite-colored gearknob, smaller 320mm sports steering with with a center marker (for the drastic oversteer your experience in... an Elise?  oh wait) and some other goodies.

There's also a set of anthracite-colored 6-spoke alloy wheels on the outside, mounting bespoke Yokohama AD07 LTS tires.  Pricing for this extra-cool special Elise start at €33k Euros in mainland Europe, and from £25,712 (iincluding VAT) in the UK.  Sales start September 15th.  Lotus hasn't said anything about this being a limited-edition run, but you still aren't likely to be seeing one at every stoplight.  So if a lightweight, efficient and economical sports car with telepathic handling suits you, but you don't quite need the full on 257bhp Exige Cup 260, then maybe the Club Racer is for you.  I would still definetely kidnap someone's mother for one, supercharger and VVTL-i or not.