Lotus is phasing out the iconic Elise sports car this year after an incredible 25-year production run. If you live in a country that hasn’t already outlawed it on safety grounds (its US visa was revoked in 2011), it’s not too late to grab one of the final 2021 cars. Or, you could buy the lighter, purer, more Lotus original Elise and see why the world went crazy for it in the first place.
In fact, you should definitely buy this Elise. The 1997 car pictured here, and offered for sale by RM Sotheby’s has covered an incredible 1739 miles since it left the Norfolk factory, which might just make it the lowest mileage S1 Elise on the planet, and the closest thing to a new one it’s possible to come.
The bug-eyed series 1 Elise was sold between late 1996 and 2000, when Lotus revamped the flyweight sports car with more grown up supercar-like styling. But it also softened the S2’s handling, cutting the already skinny 185-section front tires to 175mm to build in more understeer to make it safer for novice drivers to handle. That, and the fact that the S1 was lighter by around 110 lbs (50kg) is why it’s considered the purer driver’s choice.
Related: The Lotus Elise Final Edition Is Still One Of The Finest Driver’s Cars Around
But even among S1 cars this one is fairly special. Lotus quoted an incredible 1598 lbs (725 kg) curb weight for the S1 Elise, but that only applied to the very first cars fitted with advanced aluminium matrix MMC brake rotors. By the middle of ’98 Lotus had switched to heavier conventional cast iron discs to cut build costs.
RM Sotheby’s listing doesn’t include too many details about this specific four-owner car, which comes finished in metallic British racing green paint that’s offset by the immaculate-looking magnolia leather bucket seats. It has the standard 1.8-litre Rover K-series engine, which sends just 118bhp through the five-speed transmission, but thanks to its low weight the S1 Elise could reach 60mph in less than 6 seconds.
One interesting fact is that it was bought new by Robert ‘Robs’ Lamplough, a British racing driver who competed in a handful of non-championship Formula One races in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Being a ’97 model this car is slightly too young to meet the US 25-year import rule. But it looks so good, it’d almost be worth buying now and sitting on for 12 months, until you could finally hit the road in what would surely be the most original Elise in North America.
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