Category: Roadsters 
Price Range: £24,500 to £29,945
Still one of the best driver's cars on sale at any price. Now, with the availability of the S model, there's a great-value entry-level model too, complementing the high-performance R. The Elise is more desirable than ever.
It can't match 'softer' rivals for comfort, but then, that's not its remit. Just be aware that it's noisier, less cosseting and harder than a Boxster.
The perfect example of evolution. It just gets better as the years pass.
This is what Lotus is all about, and the Elise is the perfect epitome. You sit low, between the high sills, with your legs stretched ahead. The front wings poke sharply up, like shark fins, and all the controls are placed perfectly, like a race car. And handling? It's sensational, with sublime steering that is among the best of any car you can buy. It's direct, it's packed with feel, it writhes and feels alive, it's brilliant. Turn-in is fluid and instantaneous too, yet the Elise never feels nervous; it's electric but so choreographed with it, and always giving you all the information you want. A true great. And that's true for both S and R, which run identical suspension settings and wheels.
The ride is exceptional too, proving supple and taking the edge of nearly everything thrown at it, while damping undulations to perfection. Mind you, we've previously criticised the servo-assisted, ABS brakes' long pedal travel. While still not perfect, it's better than it was, and again, bags of feel makes the anchors satisfying to use, even if heel-and-toe downchanges are trickier than they should be. There's little the company can do about the contortions needed to get in and out, mind; it's a well-gelled, easy daily driver, with a shunt-free transmission and at-home feel in town as well as fast roads, but you'll never find getting out in a supermarket car park anything but a pain.
Naturally, the 189bhp Toyota Celica-sourced, Yamaha-built VVTL-i engine in the R makes for fireworks in the bantamweight Elise. The bald figures are 60mph in 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 147mph: serious enough. However, the way they're delivered excites even more so. Simply put, this engine thrives on sky-high revs, particularly over the 6,200rpm cam-change point. Hit this point and it positively yowls as it rushes to the 8,300rpm limiter in what seems like an instant. The snicky, slick, close-ratio six-speed manual is a great match, allowing the ultra-fast chances such urgency necessitates. Fantastic, supercar-chasing fun, yet with reasonable shove if you drive it more gently, too.
The S is different. A lower-tech 134bhp unit, it's shorn of variable valve timing and has a less exotic construction. It redlines not far after where the fireworks starts in the R, and has a five-speed gearbox with more widely spaced (if equally snappy) ratios. It's about torque, rather than high revs - it actually has 6lb/ft more than the R, which is available lower down in the rev range. But it still thrills. And still hits 60mph in 5.8 seconds; impressive, and thanks to the rev limiter 'stretching' in 2nd gear by 150rpm for 2 seconds, so 60mph arrives with only one gearchange. Overall, it arguably satisfies more than the peaky R, albeit with less ultimate thrills when 'on it'.
