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The Elise saw the return of the genuinely exciting sports car. This was the first Lotus for a generation truly to revive Colin Chapman's ideals, proving a worthy successor to the seminal Lotus 7. The Elise was the first modern sports car to generate real enthusiasm, tempting many classic car fans to change their allegiance to this no-compromise contemporary classic.
Innovative in its extruded and bonded aluminium construction, thrilling to drive, yet surprisingly affordable and usable, the Elise has become a legend in its own lifetime for its mixture of track-day ability and accessible sports car fun on the road. Conceived as a plaything, the ground-breaking Lotus captured buyers' imaginations and forced the hand of its maker into turning the Elise into a full production model, one that went on to spawn the extreme, track-focused 340R, Exige and 2-Eleven, as well as the more comfort- orientated 111S and Europa plus the badge-engineered Opel Speedster, Vauxhall VX220 and electric Tesla Roadster.
Since the shock unveiling of the Lotus Elise at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1995, the little Lotus has ploughed its own furrow through the market that it helped to revive. The Elise proved equally happy on the road or the track, and its instant cult status turned a limited-run fun car into a full production model. As its rivals have grown heavy, laden with ever-bigger engines and more luxury, so Lotus has continued to keep its revolutionary roadster ahead of the game, by going back to its core principles of performance through innovation and light weight.
This Haynes Enthusiast Guide: Lotus Elise tells the complete story of the Elise, from the first concept sketched to production, through gentle evolution into Sport 135 and 111S to the revolution of the S2, the arrival of Toyota power, the sales surge into America and more, right up to the launch of its big brother, the Evora. With extensive input from its creators, plus owners, racers and the specialists who repair and improve them, this is the essential guide to one of the most important sports car of the modern era.
Haynes Enthusiast Guide: Lotus Elise takes you behind the scenes of the Elise's inception, creation and launch, told through the eyes of the multi-talented team that steered its development. It follows the model's evolution and expansion into a whole range of thrilling, driver-orientated sports cars - including the Exige, 340R, 2-Eleven and Europa - plus meets owners and guides potential purchasers through the minefield of buying second-hand.
Having trained as an architect, author Alastair Clements was lucky enough to turn his passion for cars into a career when he joined Classic & Sports Car magazine in 1998. He later worked as a senior road tester for sister title Autocar and editor of www.autocar.co.uk before returning to Classic & Sports Car as deputy editor. His first book for Haynes was Elise: Rebirth of the True Lotus, published in 2003, which has been thoroughly revised and extended to create this Haynes Enthusiast Guide: Lotus Elise.
Other titles currently available in the Haynes Enthusiast Guide series include:
VW Beetle by Jonathan Harvey
VW Transporter by Jonathan Harvey
Land Rover Discovery by Dave Pollard
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Review copies available
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