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www.QV500.com - Lotus Elise Part 4: Elise Sprint |
 Elise Sprint |
Soon after Elise production had begun in earnest, Lotus started developing a road-legal racing variant known as the Sprint. In October 1996 it was unveiled at the Birmingham Motor Show, but a fast-expanding waiting list for the standard Elise and limited production capabiliy meant the Sprint remained a tantalising one-off. Built on chassis 16 (originally a training car for the new Elise assembly line), the Sprint was packed full of special parts including adjustable suspension with uprated springs and dampers. The engine was a bit special too and developed 158bhp. It came with upgraded camshafts and throttle bodies, a programmable ECU and carbonfibre intake box. |
| Julian Thomson was responsible for the attention-grabbing new look, his remit being to remove the front and side glass and replace it with a wind deflection system to reduce turbulence. The end result was a great looking car that worked better in theory than practice. Indeed, despite substantial re-profiling of the front ducts and a new perspex wrap, the Sprint was best driven with a full face helmet. Chassis 16 was painted metallic titanium silver in anticipation of its motor show debut, the left-hand drive car being equipped with racing seats, four-point harnesses and a quick-release steering wheel. Weight was officially quoted as 650kg which combined with nearly 160bhp would have given some blistering performance figures. |
 Elise Sprint |
However, the Sprint was never fully developed, the solitary car being retired to the factory and sold to a private collector in 1998. Lotus had even gone to the trouble of compiling an options list before the plug was pulled, this consisting of an FIA approved roll cage and four-point harness, competition springs and dampers, an anti-roll bar, STACK instrumentation with data logging, a close-ratio gearbox and competition silencers. They had planned to make it available from mid 1997 but even a small production run never materialised and unfortunately the Sprint was left to become a mere footnote in Elise history. |
