2008 Lotus Elise S Review
August 9, 2008 by Anthony Crawford
2008 Lotus Elise S Review & Road Test
“It’s got a 1.8-litre engine lifted from a Toyota Corolla and yet there are precious few supercars which can out corner the Elise when you hit the ‘S’ bends”
Model Tested:
- 2008 Lotus Elise S – $69,990 (RRP)
Options fitted: Touring pack $8,000
Pure driving bliss, unbelievable handling, great looks, well priced.
Somewhat impractical
CarAdvice Rating: 
- words and photography Anthony Crawford & Alborz Fallah, action photography – Paul Maric
Anthony -
That’s 1.8-litres, 100kW, and not a whole lot of torque, just 172Nm to be precise. Not impressed? Then ask someone at your nearest Lotus dealership to demonstrate it’s handling ability to you, but only if they have a sickbag on board.
Theme park operators should listen up too! You don’t need to spend millions of dollars building the next best roller coaster ride. All you need to do, is lay five kilometres of bend-to-bend tarmac, buy a Lotus Elise S for $69,990 and start printing tickets – lots and lots of tickets.
Awesome, astonishing and mind blowing all come to mind as apt descriptions of the Lotus experience. But I’m sick to death of those worn out descriptive words, which these days, are used to describe anything from the latest Nokia handset to a new pre-school backpack by the Wiggles.
But if I could find three more descriptive words which best describe your first time experience behind the wheel of a Lotus Elise S, I would. It’s like nothing you have ever driven before, a masterpiece of mechanical symphony.
You never need to turn the leather bound race car style steering wheel more than half a turn, except maybe in a car park. Such is the accuracy and honesty of the steering set up. No power assistance whatsoever. With an all up weight of 860 kilograms, you simply don’t need any.
Wow, I never realised that this was only $70,000 I expected it to be much much more expensive, near the $100,000 mark.
Great review! Great car.
Corolla engine.Better keep that quite.LOL.
excellent review guys. i too am surprised at the price of this car. looking forward to your exige review.
ps. Realcars, you spelled quiet incorrectly.LOL.
A lot of engine for the price.LOL
# 0-100km/h: 6.1 seconds
Does it need much more engine?
Hi Caradvice team,
I think there’s a little confusion as to the Toyota engine used in this car.
Since the new generation of elises/exiges, the engines theyve used are the 140hp 1ZZ-FE toyota engine (in the celica GT in usa, also in the toyota MR-2 roadster) and the 190hp 2ZZ-GE toyota engine (celica GT-S and Austrlian 7th gen celicas). Both of these are 1.8L engines.
On the other hand, 1.8L engine used in this generation (and the previous generation Corolla i think) is the 2ZR-FE which makes similar power but less torque.
Cheers
Okay I take back everything I just said about the engine, the previous corolla used the 1ZZ-FE too!
Oops!
word of advice with the elise, Never ever lift off the throttle loaded up through a corner.
Niiice. These shots are taken at Hawkesbury River right… Ive noticed a few which seem to match that area although I thought CarAdvice was based in QLD?
TP, we are based in QLD, NSW, VIC and WA. Our main work force is in VIC followed by NSW than QLD and WA.
that’s a lot of impracticality for something that doesn’t go as well , nor look as good as a falcon (according to ACA star ratings) and costs 30K more
Hehe yeah those Falcons with GT kits & decals are real head turners compared to this Lotus. Define “go”.
Did I take the bait? I’m normally the one setting the traps :)
Great car review.
You’d prefer to be driving a Diesel Epica right Anthony?
This is a car for purists most liekly driven only in the weekends. People who buy a Lotus know what they’re in for. It’s not for everyone but I reckon it looks sensational.
“how does it go” is one of the rating criteria at the end of the car reviews on this blog. It shows to go that taste is subjective, as I think the Lotus looks better than the Falcon. And I would have thought it would drive at least as well, not worse, though I guess the marks are relative to the competition.
why would anyone buy the more expensive s2000.
The s2000 is far overpriced in our market. It should be closer to 50k.
It makes a good daily for some. My friend has an Exige S and drives it to work and back every day!
The supercharged engine was the Celica/Corolla Sportivo’s 2ZZ-GE, and could be found in the top model Elise and Exige. The car tested is one of the low-end variants, with the ZZE112 Corolla’s standard 1ZZ-FE engine, the same one found in the MR2 Spyder. The middle-of-the-range Elise and Exige have the non-supercharged 2ZZ-GE.
Okay then Al Jutraj The supercharged engine in the Lotus is a from the Silly-Car.. I mean Celica;
Therefore; If Toyota is a company full of Passion – as we are lead to believe by the handful of Toyo-philes on this site.. then why don’t they add a supercharger for the Corolla instead of being shown how its done by that is compared to Toyota [the worlds wealthiest car company] a lightweight?
Then maybe the Corolla might stop getting its a–e kicked by the Golf
I ran the Exige every day as my only car commuting to work. Granted it only a 30 min drive in each direction mostly on nice empty country roads. The Exige is easy to live with day in day out. Cheap to run too.