Lotus are one of the most hard-core sports car brands that still manage to shift a sustainable amount of units a year to prevent them from being terms as small-scale or low-volume. They manage to provide that essential British sports car feel in an enclosed shell that provides you from the elements- something that Caterham, KTM, BAC and numerous other manufacturers try to avoid in the pursuit of light weight.
Granted their cars may not be as outright powerful as rivals in class, but Lotus models still have the advantage of fantastic feedback and feel. Their cars are sharp without being edgy, agile without being uncontrollable. The all new Elise S Cup is the latest model to join their line-up, and it melds the developments of the Elise Cup R race-car with the road-going version.
Cup is a popular word used among sports car manufacturers to denote a variant that is extra edgy and usually designed for track use. While a large number of Lotus owners already take their cars to the track, there are still a few extra things that separate a track car from a road car.
In comparison to the vanilla Elise models, the Elise S Cup gets a better-developed aero package for extra downforce. This alone is enough to bring lap times down by a whopping 3 seconds around Lotus’ Hethel test track. The front splitter, rear wing and rear diffuser work in tandem to force the featherweight Elise S Cup down on the tarmac.
Other basic modifications include a T45 roll bar for extra roll-over protection, as well as re-engineered electrical systems for easier positioning of an engine-kill switch and a fire extinguisher- all of which help to bring the Elise S Cup closer to FIA approval.
