Celebrating the 70th anniversary of Lotus' founder Colin Chapman who built his first car in 1948, the company has unveiled the extreme limited-edition Lotus Elise Cup 260. Limited to only 30 units worldwide, the Lotus Elise Cup 260 claims to be a benchmark for intuitive handling and driver involvement. Lotus claims to have integrated some of the latest design philosophies from its high-performance stablemates which include the Exige Cup 380, the Evora GT430, and the track and competition only Elise Race 250.
The Lotus Elise Cup 260 gets an all-alloy, chargecooled supercharged 1.8-litre engine that is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. The powerful engine generates 245bhp of power and 255Nm of torque. The vehicle is capable of sprinting from 0 to 100kmph in just 4.2 seconds. The Elise Cup 260 comes with lightweight carbon fibre and composite components as standard. The vehicle also gets a fully independent double wishbone suspension with an adjustable front anti-roll bar, with Nitron coaxial coil springs and, for the first time on an Elise, adjustable Nitron high-performance dampers. With 24 settings for rebound and compression, the dampers allow owners to perfectly dial-in the car’s setup to their preference.
As for the interior, the vehicle gets carbon race seats in black Alcantara with contrast stitching in red or yellow. Bodywork keyed colour inserts for the sports seats, transmission console, HVAC surround and window switches are complemented by the cabin’s exposed aluminium and carbon fibre elements including a new carbon fibre instrument binnacle cover. The vehicle also gets an in-car entertainment system with iPod and Bluetooth connectivity.
The Lotus Elise Cup 260 is priced at £59,500 (approx. Rs 5.10 crores). The vehicle is available in Championship Gold to commemorate the forthcoming 70th Anniversary of Lotus.
