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Lotus ELISE!! TOYOTA??? or....

11K views 75 replies 38 participants last post by  goretro77 
#1 ·
hey..i live in mississauga..a town in Canada...really close to toronto..

and lasst nite i saw the first lotus elise here...a lime green one..

pretty sweet

anyways..does this car have anything to do with toyota??

just a question..i heard somewhere that it did.but i am not sure
 
#27 ·
Speed4TheNeed said:
I'd buy it if it were cheaper.

I just can't justify spending around $40k-$50k on a car that offers a whopping 1.8L of power, no matter how well it handles.

A lot of auto magazines are saying how the Elise is the best handling stock car of all time, which I don't doubt. And I love handling, but I also lover power and I just couldn't do that with a good conscience. LOL so please no one ask me why I bought a Celica ;) (I don't know).
Oh come on. The Elise may have a 1.8L 190hp motor, but it weighs 1900lbs. It's a mid 4 second 0-60 car. It doesn't just handle well, it's fast as well. People like to bag on the price because it "just has a celica motor". It takes a lot to get a car to 1900lbs. You try and strip out 600lbs of weight from the Celica while keeping it streetable and legal, and be able to seat 2 people. I'm pretty sure it's going to cost you more than what an elise costs.

BHam00GT-S said:
JSPITZ said:
I thought the elise was 43 new thats how much they are here in VA?
prices vary all over the country. Elises are more rare, meaning that dealerships can put a price on them for whatever they want, and if someone wants the car badly enough, they'll find a way to get it
When it first came out it was rare. Lotus only brought in ~2500 cars initially and they were getting scooped up insanely fast. Seeing the demand Lotus brought in another 2500 car and saturated the market. Everyone that wanted on and could afford one had purchased one. My local dealer alone has 10 05' Elises on the lot, and the 06's are out now. Dealers can not fetch a premium for the cars now. In fact most are selling them for $5-10k under MSRP. My friends Elise that is in my pictures above stickered for $54k, he got it for $44k +ttl. That's $10k off MSRP. Not to mention the used market on Elises is pretty big since a lot of people purchased them and realized that it's very small and not well suited for daily driving. So there are lots of very low mileage Elises out there.

barefoott4 said:
JSPITZ said:
I thought the elise was 43 new thats how much they are here in VA?
When they first came out it was around 43K new. Lotus has upped the MSRP several times since then. I think it's over 50K now.
MSRP has gone up once, and only by ~$1000. Many Elises come equipped with the premium package, and sport package, and hardtop. This puts the car just over $50k. And for 06' there are other options like traction control, LSD which add even more to the sticker. The Exige's MSRP is over $50k though.





I'm sort of in the market for an Elise so I've been doing a lot of research on them.
 
#28 ·
marc said:
The 2zz is actually partially designed by Yamaha
But Toyota and Lotus have had a partnership before - Yamaha did the heads on the AW11 MR-2 with the 4AGE engine, while Lotus did the suspension on that car.
yamaha had nothing to do with the 4AGE, that motor is a full toyota design. i hope you're confusing it with the 3SGE/3SGTE engines which like the 2ZZ-GE, their heads were co-developed with yamaha...
R
 
#29 ·
Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con said:
Speed4TheNeed said:
I'd buy it if it were cheaper.

I just can't justify spending around $40k-$50k on a car that offers a whopping 1.8L of power, no matter how well it handles.

A lot of auto magazines are saying how the Elise is the best handling stock car of all time, which I don't doubt. And I love handling, but I also lover power and I just couldn't do that with a good conscience. LOL so please no one ask me why I bought a Celica ;) (I don't know).
Oh come on. The Elise may have a 1.8L 190hp motor, but it weighs 1900lbs. It's a mid 4 second 0-60 car. It doesn't just handle well, it's fast as well. People like to bag on the price because it "just has a celica motor". It takes a lot to get a car to 1900lbs. You try and strip out 600lbs of weight from the Celica while keeping it streetable and legal, and be able to seat 2 people. I'm pretty sure it's going to cost you more than what an elise costs.

I'll agree that having a sub 2k curb weight is outstanding...but I would still like more power along with it. It shoudl have came factory supercharged (instead of making it an option like they are planning to do now).

Or at least stuff a Honda K20 or K24 motor in there. Not much heavier than a 2ZZ and it has so much more potential. I personally would have preferred an all aluminum 3.0 V6 or something along those lines.

But really, this argument can go both ways and I'm aware of that. That's my personal preference. Gain weight, lose handling. Put a heavier V6 engine in the back and you lose 50/50 weight distribution. I'd pay that price, some wouldn't and I understand that. I'm sure Lotus is happy enough with their sales so they're not complaining. I guess that's the main thing.
 
#30 ·
Oh come on. The Elise may have a 1.8L 190hp motor, but it weighs 1900lbs. It's a mid 4 second 0-60 car. It doesn't just handle well, it's fast as well. People like to bag on the price because it "just has a celica motor". It takes a lot to get a car to 1900lbs. You try and strip out 600lbs of weight from the Celica while keeping it streetable and legal, and be able to seat 2 people. I'm pretty sure it's going to cost you more than what an elise costs.
i heard different. i heard it is possible to get our cars close to the lotus elise weight. unless they where b/s me. c/f hood,hatch, ... light rims, rearseats,spare tire.... and other removals will take off around 500 pounds.

but yes i agree their nice cars right out the box. especially for a short ass like my self.
 
#31 ·
Elise has to be your second or third car...very impractical...with the DC5 i have even more space than the celica....i miss the steering of the celica...
 
#32 ·
elcelicagts said:
Oh come on. The Elise may have a 1.8L 190hp motor, but it weighs 1900lbs. It's a mid 4 second 0-60 car. It doesn't just handle well, it's fast as well. People like to bag on the price because it "just has a celica motor". It takes a lot to get a car to 1900lbs. You try and strip out 600lbs of weight from the Celica while keeping it streetable and legal, and be able to seat 2 people. I'm pretty sure it's going to cost you more than what an elise costs.
i heard different. i heard it is possible to get our cars close to the lotus elise weight. unless they where b/s me. c/f hood,hatch, ... light rims, rearseats,spare tire.... and other removals will take off around 500 pounds.

but yes i agree their nice cars right out the box. especially for a short ass like my self.
You can, but it's VERY impractical. To shave 500 pounds off of your celica involves taking out everything that even resembles comfort or style, including all your panels & sound deadening materials. It's good if your a track or semi-track car, but for a Celica to be a daily driven sub-2000 pound car your going to have to fork over some major cash and get a lot of custom work done. Bi-Mon was correct in that aspect.
 
#34 ·
There are still minor mods that you would do to an Elise to improve the shift feel. The frame has a bit of a wobble to it but there's a well documented mod made in elisetalk that you can perform yourself. I know the '05s are this way but not sure about the '06s. I will know later this year.

Celicatechgts said:
Shift linkages in the Elise's were perfected. They don't have the same problem as we do. BTW Only in America they sell for 40k. But in europe they sell for ~20k-25k. Not sure if they sell them in Canada though.
 
#35 ·
Aris said:
Elise has to be your second or third car...very impractical...with the DC5 i have even more space than the celica....i miss the steering of the celica...

VERY untrue. I have over 26000 miles on mine. Had 3 months of stuff in it when i worked in wi last summer.
 
#36 ·
Drove a orange exige today. :drool: :drool: It was AWESOME. I would definitly get one, as a secondary car only though. Terrible DD. I had a backache from getting in and out like 4 times haha. Its like 3" off the ground. Getting in is like a car with lambo doors, you kinda gotta shimmy in sideways.
 
#37 ·
elcelicagts said:
i heard different. i heard it is possible to get our cars close to the lotus elise weight. unless they where b/s me. c/f hood,hatch, ... light rims, rearseats,spare tire.... and other removals will take off around 500 pounds.
Even if it was possible to shave off 500+ pounds from the Celica, it would still be quite a ways away from having the Elise's performance ...

Celica = FWD, engine in front
Elise = RWD, engine in back

2ZZ swap into MR2 anyone?
 
#43 ·
It actually looks pretty damn sick in red :D I think they'll only look good in red or black, I've only seen one once in person.

Imagine...a fully built and stroked 2zz turbo in there... :drool:
 
#46 ·
very very fun car, deadly on an autox course if driven by a good driver.

Speed4TheNeed said:
Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con said:
Oh come on. The Elise may have a 1.8L 190hp motor, but it weighs 1900lbs. It's a mid 4 second 0-60 car. It doesn't just handle well, it's fast as well. People like to bag on the price because it "just has a celica motor". It takes a lot to get a car to 1900lbs. You try and strip out 600lbs of weight from the Celica while keeping it streetable and legal, and be able to seat 2 people. I'm pretty sure it's going to cost you more than what an elise costs.

I'll agree that having a sub 2k curb weight is outstanding...but I would still like more power along with it. It shoudl have came factory supercharged (instead of making it an option like they are planning to do now).

Or at least stuff a Honda K20 or K24 motor in there. Not much heavier than a 2ZZ and it has so much more potential. I personally would have preferred an all aluminum 3.0 V6 or something along those lines.

But really, this argument can go both ways and I'm aware of that. That's my personal preference. Gain weight, lose handling. Put a heavier V6 engine in the back and you lose 50/50 weight distribution. I'd pay that price, some wouldn't and I understand that. I'm sure Lotus is happy enough with their sales so they're not complaining. I guess that's the main thing.
option?... there's the exige 240R. Supercharged/intercooled 2zz (243hp), race ready, basically as light as they make it.. but lotus is constantly changing the names of their model line and the specs are so close between each and every elise/exige. Speaking of which, there's a new line, the exige S, it's still supercharged and intercooled, but sits in between the 240R which now is called "cup 240" and the exige. The S has 218hp.

quick pics of the motor/supercharger



lotus had built the car with the 2zz engine in mind... v6 was not even a slight consideration for what they were trying to achieve with the car. Funny enough, toyota rejected lotus's offers in their many approaches originally, but at the end, i guess they offered enough $ toyota finally sold the motor/tranny to them for them to pick apart and play with to refine the motor/tranny for the elise.
 
#47 ·
Speed4TheNeed - I think the 2ZZGE is a stout 4 banger and provides very good performance in it's normally aspirated trim - especially to move less than 2000 pounds. Lotus did tweak the ECU to take advantage of it's intake and exhaust layout in the Elise. I for one, do not want a supercharger in my Elise as I like to keep it simple and as reliable as possible, also - adding a supercharger will take your rear view away and make an already tight engine bay very tight unless you plan to take the rear clam off every time.
Just me but there is plenty of power available in this engine for the chassis weight.
 
#51 ·
2k2_TRD said:
Yea we rented one this summer, I didnt even fit in it
On the eliseforum we have members that are over 6'1" and over 200 pounds that can fit in it. The seat may have to go all the way back and maybe they have to have the top off but a lot of it is also technique.
Here's a demonstration someone did when getting in and out of one. he's not that large but other members commented that they are bigger than the person doing the demo and they have no problems. The demo car even had the hardtop on which makes it the tightest it can be, but as shown - you can get in and out pretty quickly with familiarity:
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/goretro77/?action=view&current=MOV01663.flv
 
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