Celica Forums General Discussion General Lotus Elise!

i know we've already talked about the lotus engine being the GTS's and everything, but i was reading road and track online and they have an article about the Elise.

well im reading through as im quite interesting with anything involving the celica, and i read that the estimated quarter mile time for the car was 12.0 seconds. now i understand that this is estimated and it might be slower, but it probably wont be by much. now the real amazing thing for me was what i read next...

i read about the Ford GT. as im reading along i see that the quarter mile time for it is 12.2 seconds. i was amazed.

the 49 thousand dollar Lotus Elise is in the same time bracket as the 150 thousand dollar Ford GT40. the handling is probably the same if not in favor of the elise.

at first i thought that this was indicative of toyotas failure with the engine but for its price the celica is just about right. what do you guys think?

doesnt surprise me...ford cars . Now, if the elise can do 12's stock there must be something we can do to get faster times. Its all R&D and math.

ford gt: 1/4 mile in 11.7 secs at 122 mph

lotus elise: 1/4 mile in 14.4 secs (don't know speed)(1999 model year)

ford gt is definately faster. not a fan of ford cars, but a lotus elise with a celica engine doesnt make for a super fast car.

disregard that number...that year doesnt have the toyota celica gts engine in it..gimme a sec

sorry again.

k. i just read the article and road & track does say the 1/4 mile is in about 12.0 secs...not too bad.

still not a big fan of lotus though. the car is nothing but 2 seats & a radio. too small, too narrow, too light. but nonetheless...12 secs isnt bad, isnt bad at all.

yeah man, im not talking about luxuries here, just pure racing. it's damn sexy.

and the only real difference between the celica GTS and the lotus is the 500 pounds of weight and the fact that it is rear wheel drive. hehe, well i say only, but it's a big difference =P

no need to bash ford though, i have much respect for the GT. its like the same price as the ferrari 360 but better all around i think, i'm simply amazed at the lotus.

much better than a ferrari 360, except for the styling (i like the ferrari feel of things). i like the ford gt, but i still dont like ford cars. i'm also a big fan of the new f-150..thats the best looking, performing truck out there. especially the svt lightning version.

ok, well maybe the dodge ram srt-10 performs a little better than the ford f-150 lightning..but it does have a freakin viper engine in it. and i'd definately take the f150 styling over a ram anyday.

New Ram styling isn't too perdy. As much as I hate to agree, Ford gets the cookie on that note.

Now, a question. If we droped 500 lbs off our Celicas, our cars can run low 13's to 12's??? Hmmm... sounds too easy.

no, because the lotus elise is still rear-wheel drive. it really is a big difference

think about it, when you take off really fast, you are pushed backwards into the seat and the front of your car lifts slightly. this lift takes downforce off of your front tires and therefore traction is reduced.

in a rear-wheel drive configuration. your take off will do the same thing: push you back into your seat and the front will lift slightly--taking downforce off of your front wheels. but the big difference is that when the downforce on your front wheels is reduced, it increases the downforce of your rear wheels--increasing traction and thefore enables you to speed up more quickly.

ford f-150 lightning: mad props

dodge ram srt-10: iffy

Why is it always a trade off of good looks for a good brand name??? Or Performance to looks??? Celica owners must be used to this by now. I wonder how they do on the strip? The Dodge is a V10 and the Ford is a V8 right? Way the f*ck off topic here.

Uhmm, the lotus elise doesn't come with a toyota GTS engine. The Lotus EXIGE comes with a toyota GTS engine. And it will be fast as hell.

Counterpart of this car will be the Opel Speedster Turbo (also built by lotus)

Speedster Turbo [autointell-news.com]

Had a plant tour in Lotus. I like the Elise but is a little small for me

yes the dodge is a v10 and the ford is packing a v8. you would think a viper engine would smoke it, right? while the #'s are indeed better for the dodge, the ford doesnt lag by much (saying a lot considerring it is a v8 after all)

a look at the ram's #'s
0-60 in 5.2, 1/4 mile in 13.8 and top speed of 150 mph

i'll post the f-150's #'s as soon as i can..its a concept as of right now.

um..never heard of the exige, but the elise definately does use a toyota gts engine. car and driver magazine: lotus elise [caranddriver.com] look in the 5th paragraph

the only thing i can think of is that in europe they are calling the elise the exige (not sure--google isnt helping). you did say you were from belgium, right?

You guys do know that the Lotus Elise guys contacted EverythingCelica.com last week

Im following up with them as we speak

The GTS engine will be in the EXIGE and not in the ELISE.
Both models may look very alike but are really different.

The EXIGE excists from 2000 on, but is (was) illegal in the states. Now the second series comes and it is legal in the states. But it is really the exige not the elise

Lotus EXIGE [motorcities.com]

awesome

i'm sure you'll let us know what was said. and its good feeling to know this site has positive recognition beyond celica owners (even though lotus is borrowing our engine)

well, like i posted earlier. it must different in europe. here in the states, it's still the elise and the toyota engine will be used in it.

manufacturers do that sometimes, what we know here as the acura nsx is known in japan as the honda nsx. what we know as the acura rsx is known as the honda integra in japan...its just marketing

sounds like ur exige (according to your link) is going to use the toyota vvtl-i engine, while we are definately going to use that engine in the elise.

But the elise still exists here. It are two different models. One will use the toyota engine and the other one will not. What engine does the elise have for the moment in the states?

the elise currently uses an inline-4 engine producing 135 bhp.

i could be wrong, but i dont' think the exige has been produced here since 2000 because it did so poorly in crash tests.

whether or not they will again sell the exige here..i don't know.

i don't know why lotus wouldn't put the vvtl-i engine in the the elise where you are like they are doing here and instead put it in the exige. my guess would be the the people at lotus thought the exige would be a better fit in europe and the elise a better fit here in the states. thats really the only reason i can think of.

Well I just searched google and it says Toyota Engine in US Elise. I found that strange because the 190 hp (not from toyota) elise already exists here in europe but i guess it is not legel in the states?

Lotus Elise Sport 190 [fast-autos.net]

i guess not...not sure.

whats more stange to me though is that there is a 190 horsepower elise already where you are and now they are going to try to sell you a 190 horespower exige? they do look almost identical and the performance can't be much different.

i wonder how that will shape up. lotus

i have the hot wheels version haha...doesnt look rightr sitting next to my enzo, bugatti, murcielago, and saleen though...

i'm a sucker, oh well.

I have all those hot wheels cars, too. lol. I got the S7 Police car. There is no escaping that thing.

hmm so If you can somehow gut out 500 pounds of weight reduction, and add maybe i/e/h to make up for rwd, you guys should hit close to 12's

i dont think intake exhaust and headers can make up for rwd.

haha i have that one too. both the black 5-0 and the classic silver versions. whenever i'm just walkin through wal-mart or target i'm always drawn to the hotwheels (when will i grow up...) and anything that is an exotic or an import its like i HAVE to get it. nissan skyline, honda civic, i have 3 different celicas, nissan z cop car, hyundai tiburon, honda civic si...plus others. i'm a toys-r-us kid

gotta gree with snake (the post below yours). just being rwd makes a huge difference in timeslips. we explained this in another post about the elise.

The Celica is a too big of a car for me.

you shoulda bought a mini cooper then lol, or a beetle?

the lotus elise has about as big as a cab as my ranger (previous car). it had 2 seats and that was about it. my friend matt and i carpool to school...its no fun when you can't even fit 2 backpacks in that dumb cab...gotta throw it into the back of the truck. lotus would be a nice car IF you had another car to drive. but your only car? i would think twice. just an opinion.

Hey you guys - I'm reading up on both the Celica GTS and the Lotus Elise. The info I have is... the Elise is considered the best handling car in the world.

I know for a fact that the Celica is also one of the best handling cars. I drove one recently. Anyway, for the 1st time, the Elise model is available to buy in the US, and it does have the Toyota Celica GTS engine. It also has the GTS 6-speed on it.

Imagine the GTS 6-speed shifter, but improved. Also imagine the engine's computer chip remapped, and the engine retuned. It now has 190hp, has more torque in the lower revs, and the redline is now 9000 RPM.
Now imagine losing the 500-lbs (I read that here) and, imagine not only a RWD (rear drive), but a mid-engine car so it's also better balanced. And it sits lower (that's a guess, but gotta be right), and it comes with Performance tires already (with nice wheels!)

That is the Lotus Elise... with a Toyota engine, it also becomes extremely reliable. That engine is like bullet-proof they say.

I'd like to get an Elise, but probably can't. I'm trying to decide between a Celica GT and a GTS.

l8r

Oh yeah, one more thing. So mostly, people like it because of the incredible handling - it just so happens to be fast too.

It's top speed is close to 150mph. That is very good. The Toyota MR2 Spyder I think only goes up to 130mph. You need a lot more power to get the additional 20mph more speed, and also you need stability. The Elise and the Spyder are practically the same size and proportion - both mid engine, etc. But the Elise is very stable at high speeds - like a Celica.

So the Elise is like a faster GTS in a Spyder body.

Oh, and the Ford GT is a fantastic car... I doubt it will handle anywhere near the Elise though.

The Elise won't run 12s. Expect it between 13.5 and 14.0, even though that's really not what it was created to do. It's made to turn, and handle. All the skidpad tests for the new Elise are above 1.0G, most are 1.05G or 1.06G. Anything about 1.0G is mind boggling. The Celica's stock skidpad was about .85G, higher than average for it's class, but nothing TOO spectacular.


The new Exige is the racecar platform version of the Elise, it is absolutely barren. No AC, no radio, no power anything, carbon fiber bucket seats, no carpet, no sound deadener. Nothing. It's only 50 pounds lighter than the Elise, but there isn't anything more than can be removed.

It's got extra aero parts, like a wing and various splitters, and different wheels and tires. and it was made to own all other cars. The Elise is a convertible, the Exige is not. It has the same horsepower and torque as the Elise, but less weight and more downforce.

Elise:


Exige:

Wohoo! Nice pics...

Sport Compact Car recorded their MR2 Spyder project car with 1.03G. Another article and another Spyder recorded 1.021G -- good stuff.

I have to say that the Elise is my favorite car. It's my favorite kinda car - and the Elise is its best version of itself!

And just to go on another tangent, the Elise is kinda like Speed Racer's Mach 5, which is topless, and Racer X then would be driving the equivalent of the Exige - a coupe that owns everybody else.

I think that's exactly right

id run an elise bring it on... i got lsd, kazuma, Intake, and trd high compression pistons. dino hp - ? at this piont in time but its up there yeah east coast baby i kill srt-4

^eh, okay...

Some info:

http://www.supercars.net/cars/2003@$Lotus@$Elise%20135Rx.html

http://www.supercars.net/cars/2004@$Lotus@$Exigex.html

east coast much love

quote][b][i]Originally posted by isaac]You guys do know that the Lotus Elise guys contacted EverythingCelica.com last week

Im following up with them as we speak [/quote]

Can you give details on the nature of their query?

About what Isaac? very intrigueing!...!

Yes, I can't bother but ponder the reasonig behind their confrontation. It is odd is it not! DO TELL!!!!

I can hit well over 1G in my celi. I have shitty street tires too...

Well over 1g? When you hit a wall at full speed, or driving off a cliff?

what about??