Currently reading: Lotus celebrates motorsport heritage with retro liveries for Elise

Classic Heritage Edition Elise can be painted to match four of Lotus's most famous race cars

Lotus has unveiled a range of commemorative liveries for its Lotus Elise sports car, each inspired by the brand’s motorsport heritage.

The four new paint schemes are available on the limited-run Elise Classic Heritage Edition, which also features extra equipment as standard over the Elise Sport 220 on which it is based. 

The model can be painted in a black and gold scheme that pays homage to Emmerson Fittipaldi’s 1972 Type 72D Formula 1 car; a red, white and gold design similar to that of Graham Hill’s 1968 Type 49B; the blue, red and silver of Nigel Mansell’s 1980 Type 81; and a two-tone blue and white paint job that resembles the livery of Lotus’s 1960 Monaco Grand Prix-winning Type 18.

As well as their bespoke paintwork, each Classic Heritage Edition Elise will be fitted with a numbered build plaque. Just 100 examples will be made and customer demand will dictate the final numbers of each variant. 

The Heritage Edition commands a £6350 premium over the standard car, with a starting price of £46,250, but comes equipped as standard with features that would add £11,735 to the price of a Sport 220. 

Each car will have a DAB radio, four-speaker audio system, air-con, cruise control, lightweight performance alloy wheels and two-piece disc brakes. 

The upper door trims and seat inserts will be coloured to match the exterior, except on the blue and white car, which features red Alcantara seat centres. 

Buyers can choose to upgrade their Heritage Edition Elise with optional extras such as a lightweight lithium ion battery, glassfibre removable hard-top and titanium exhaust system. 

Read more

Reborn Lotus Esprit spied testing for the first time​

From Esprit to Exige: The highs and lows of Lotus

Advertisement

Read our review

Car review

Is the Lotus Elise still the last word in open-top British sports car fun?

Felix Page

Felix Page
Title: Deputy editor

Felix is Autocar's deputy editor, responsible for leading the brand's agenda-shaping coverage across all facets of the global automotive industry - both in print and online.

He has interviewed the most powerful and widely respected people in motoring, covered the reveals and launches of today's most important cars, and broken some of the biggest automotive stories of the last few years. 

Join the debate

Comments
6
Add a comment…
russ13b 7 May 2020

1 missing

Jim Clark's racing green and mustard, but then that wasn't a sponsorship scheme, which is what these are. I can't help finding it annoying that green and yellow is now more associated to a john deere tractor. I do like these though, it's easy to forget how pretty the Elise is!

Zeddy 6 May 2020

These are very smart looking.

These are very smart looking.

 

xxxx 6 May 2020

Amazing car that'll never age in my eyes

Good to see an article on Lotus cars, getting bored of 55k Renault A110's and Porsches

artill 6 May 2020

xxxx wrote:

xxxx wrote:

Good to see an article on Lotus cars, getting bored of 55k Renault A110's and Porsches

I am rather out of touch with what these cost, and my first thought was £46K was expensive, but actually you are correct. Compared to the Alpine, this is £10k cheaper, has a manual box, and can be enjoyed without a roof.  These special editions look brilliant too