Big respect to Carfection for being the only car channel not giving in to the industry-wide boycott of Lotus. Lotus is the only manufacturer to date offering lightweight cars with a manual stick, no power steering, and pants on fire thrills behind the wheel - cars putting other manufacturers so called 'purist cars' to shame. We would love to see you guys giving up a video review of the Exige Cup430 please!
Nailed the Exige comparison. The new Exige is such a different beast to the old S2 car, it's heavier, way faster, and much more expensive. This, however... this is what the Exige was originally meant to be.
Amen. I love my Lotus. I, like yourself, had a photo of an Elise on my wall in secondary school, and now am lucky enough to own one. This car is better than therapy. Anytime I am a bit down, a 20 minute blast around some twisty roads puts a huge smile back on my face. Thanks Henry, keep up the great work. Your and Jethro's videos are the best on the web.
Seen a high schooler with one of these which was red with black wheels when i was a 7th grader. Still one of my favorite looking cars to this day. Hats off to lotus
Very nice - and good point about relevance of small capacity light sports cars for road use - Love my MX5 1.5. 975kg and 158 BHP naturally aspirated revs to 7250rpm (thanks to BBR)
Great review! And, finally, a blast around Hethel in something other than a rain storm! :) It's always nice when the poster on your wall as a kid turns out to be even better in the flesh. The Elise/Exige is Lotus' 911 platform. Their brilliant engineers make incremental improvements every day. After 22 years, that's a lot of development, and, yet, the car still retains its essential character. Amazing.
The Elise is a truly special car- those who don’t understand most likely haven’t driven it or are too obsessed with superfluous things like stereo’s & heated seats to ever know any better.
Henry and Harry are easily my two favorite car journalists. They just have a way of stirring the petrol in my veins. Chris and Jeremy are fantastic but Henry and Harry have a special place in my heart. Thanks!
Wonderful video. One of my favourite journalists on one of my favourite cars. And to the pillock below complaining about the Elise being too heavy - it's nearly a thousand pounds lighter than a Coxster. Even a 4C or a Miata are heavier by several hundred pounds.
I'm not against it, but it seems like there are about 10 automotive 'video journalists' that have recently started to freely circulate around to different mediums like motortrend, /drive, carfection, evo, autocar, etc
Great vid Henry ! As usual. Film starts by referring earlier Elises but how would you rate the chassis/balance/steering compare to an S1 Exige (which was the 1st one with aero)? Would the cup 260 feel heavier? Less accurate? Or not? Thanks for your valuable inputs.
It's a while since I last drove an S1 Exige (still one of my all-time favourite cars, just for the way it looks), but I would say that the Cup 260 does feel a little heavier, not necessarily so much in terms of kerb weight, but more because it's wearing wider, grippier tyres than the S1 Exige ever did. I'd say that the Cup 260 is an easier, more forgiving car to throw about though. Glad you enjoyed the video!
I love your videos, they are well made and include beautiful footage of the cars. Thing is though: the clip seem more like commercial videos to market the cars than reviews or honest opinions on the cars. i miss a little criticism and realistic impressions.
I remember seeing an Elise parked on the side of the road for the first time. I must have walked around it staring at its curves for a good 15 minutes.
Loveley video by the Carfection team and lovely presentation by Henry Cathcpole as always. It get's me wondering though - Henry seems like a tall guy, so there are two following questions from me as a tall car enthusiast: 1. How tall is mr. Catchpole? 2. Can you really fit comfortably in an Elise and the newer Exige cabins? With regards, a 1,96m tall car lover.
I'm about 1.87m and fit in my Elise comfortably. I've still got a few clicks back to go on the seat and a few inches headroom. I think you'll fit but it may be tight. It also depends what your proportions are like. I've heard of people the same height as me that don't fit because they have a particularly long body or legs.
Beautiful car . Back in the 80's I was a testdriver at Millbrook, where there were 2 Elise'.s Used to break back suspension bolts back then. No longer I assume. It was under powered compared to the VX220 on the same chassis though. This car has fixed that but is it worth 60K ? I have to say , I don't think it is. This is what the Elise should have been in the first place
I was a test driver for JLR loved that Hill Route and the Bowl. Now I own a 250 Elise and the pleasure it gives me takes me back to all those 38 years of Testing. Of all the Elise Vids this is the best by far - well done Henry you capture everything the Elise is 👍🏻
No, an Elise shouldn't cost £60k, it's crazy to be honest. Should start at 30k new up to 50k for this top spec, then start the exigencies at 50k up to whatever you like with options.
I, for one, feel the Lotus is doing exactly the right thing with these limited run cars. This is worth the $60K, the numbers of people who will actually buy this car is small but they will do their best to extract what it has to offer and have a great time in the process, which after all is the whole point of this type of speciality car. Yeah Lotus. BTW, this was a well done video, please do more on Lotus cars.
Well it´s this, the Alfa or a mildly used Cayman GTS with sports Chrono Package - for two seaters in this price range the offers are actually quite limited in terms of newer car models. This is great if one has enough money for another car in the garage - else the GTS would be the more all round choice.
Looks like motor trend hired the wrong drive tribe host? There is no animosity toward henry compared to jethro in motor trend. That's good for us carfection subscriber
