Lotus Sport, the competition subsidiary of the British marque that produces the lightweight Elise, has been around since 1999. Until now, however, North American customers were left with few options when customizing their Elise for track use. The announcement that Lotus Sport would be now be operating in North America came at the New York Auto Show last week where Lotus debuted a pair of Elises to commemorate the occasion.
The first is the Lotus Sport Exige Cup (shown), a purpose-built track car that does away with such civilized comforts as headlights and air conditioning and adds a supercharger to the Elise’s Toyota-based, Lotus-tuned 1.9L four-cylinder. Power is up to 243 hp in the Exige Cup and makes its way to tarmac through a 6-speed manual and adjustable limited slip diff. 0-60 will occur in a scant 4.1 seconds. Only 15 copies will be made available on this continent at the price of $78,990.
The second car is the Lotus Sport Elise, which slots in between the narrow-minded Exige Cup and the relatively civilized Elise. The Sport Elise is fully street legal but adds adjustable Ohlins dampers and front anti-sway bar, defeatable Lotus Traction Control and a competition clutch. A roll cage and harness bar is also standard equipment. Only 50 examples of the Sport Elise will find their way ashore in the North America and each will carry a price tag of $54,995.
Follow the jump for more live shots of this dynamic duo from Lotus along with official shots from the company.
[Source: Lotus]
