Lotus Elise

Imagine having a car that can out-perform a $300,000 car for the price of a Lexus.

Now there is a new car that for a reasonable cost performs very close to what a race car could. This is a Lotus Elise, its a small British car that has been recently introduced to the United States. Lotus has always believed in keeping a car extremely light and not worrying too much about horsepower. That's exactly what they did with the Elise.

It's a $40,000 car that handles better than almost any cars out there. It's small and light giving it the ability to take corners at incredibly high speeds.

Due to the fact that it's so light, it can afford having a small engine. It has a small Toyota 4 cylinder engine which is 3 times smaller than a 6 liter Corvette engine. Despite its size this car is still incredibly fast. Even though the Toyota engine is only producing 190 horsepower, this car can still go from 0-60 in 4.7 seconds. The Engine is located right behind the driver. This helps distribute the weight evenly which helps improve the car's performance. The Elise can do the slalom faster than a Corvette Z06, Dodge Viper, and Porsche GT3. Even though those three cars are all more expensive and have bigger engine. Keeping the weight down and only including necessities, also helped keep the cost down.

Compared to a $300,000 Ferrari 550 Barchetta, the Elise is just as fast when going from 0-60 mph. This is because even though the Ferrari has almost triple the horsepower it weights 1700 lbs more than the Elise. Although the Ferrari would be faster in long straights the Elise is much quicker around corners. The downside is that the Elise is also a lot less comfortable and convenient to drive. But that's what you pay for if you want to have such an exciting car at a low cost.

At first glance you'd probably expect the Elise to cost about $100,000. The Elise has an unique eye-catching design that makes it stand out and no one would ever be able to guess it only costs $40,000. The lightweight and small stature allows this car do things most cars can't. One way they were able to keep this car so light was by providing only basic luxuries. The only luxuries included in this car are air conditioning, air bags, leather seats, and a CD player. They even left out power windows. There is limited carpeting in the car therefore for the most part you're stepping directly on