Lotus Elise 250 Special Edition – the MOST expensive Elise at £47,900

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The Lotus Elise 250 Special Edition launches as a celebration of Lotus’s 50th anniversary at Hethel in Norfolk. Just 50 units at £47,900.

Lotus are starting to discover that a ‘special edition’ car can attract a premium price and, with a limited run, encourage buyers to plunge in to a purchase now rather than sometime later.

So special editions are good for Hethel’s bottom line, and a model celebrating 50 years of Lotus at Hethel should be an easy shift, especially when it’s true to the Lotus ethos of less weight is always better. Step forward the Lotus Elise 250 Special Edition.

The Lotus Elise 250 Special Edition is essentially a Lotus Elise Cup 250, but Lotus has managed to shave another 22kg off its already low weight to tip the Elise 250 Special Edition under 900kg.

The weight drop is achieved through more liberal use of carbon fibre and aluminium, including carbon fibre for the splitter, wing and tailgate as well as carbon fibre shells for the seats, and the Special Edition comes with a choice of metallic blue, red, yellow or white paint and silver or black alloys.

Under the skin the 250 Special Edition has the Elise’s 1.8 litre supercharged petrol engine kicking out 243bhp and is good for 60mph in 3.9 seconds – the same figures as the 250 Cup.

Jean-Marc Gales, Lotus CEO, said:

When we first introduced the Elise, it redefined how involving and exciting, yet civilised, a sports car could be. As the Elise was conceived, designed, engineered and is built at Hethel, we wanted a 50th tribute that’s even lighter than the fastest road-going Elise we’ve ever produced.

The new Elise 250 Special Edition achieves that, so it’s supremely quick and agile, but it’s also wonderfully finished and stunning to look at.

At almost £48k, the 250 Special Edition is a pricey Elise, but Lotus will be very happy to extract much more from you if you want stuff like a sound system, Bluetooth, Air Con, Cruise, driving lights and even carpets.