Grabbing the keys to the very last Lotus Elise built for a customer would feel pretty special for any of us. But particularly so in the case of Elisa Artioli.
Elisa’s grandfather Romano Artioli was boss of Lotus when the legendary lightweight Elise sports car was conceived, and he named it in her honor. The 29-year old Italian, whose Instagram handle is @iamlotuselise, and who was just two years old when the first-generation car was launched at the 1995 Frankfurt Motor Show, already owns a silver S1. In fact, she’s owned it since she was four.
But now she’s the proud owner of the last customer example of the iconic Elise, a Sport 240 Final Edition, the final incarnation of the lightweight sports car that rounds out a 25-year-long career. The 35,124th and very last Elise was a yellow sport 240 produced in December 2021 and bound for Lotus’s heritage collection.
Painted in Championship Gold, her 240 is powered by a supercharged 1.8-liter Toyota four-cylinder engine that makes 237 hp (240 PS), or just more than double the power of Artioli’s original S1. Lotus says zero to 60 mph (97 km/h) takes 4.1 seconds and gives the top speed as 147 mph (237 km/h), compared with around 6 seconds and 126 mph (203 km/h) for the 118 hp (120 PS) naturally aspirated Rover-engined original.
Related: Fully Electric Lotus Elise Successor To Retain Sharp Driving Dynamics And A Focus On Lightness
Yesterday, we were delighted to welcome Elisa Artioli to Hethel to hand over her new car – the last Elise built for a customer – a Sport 240 in “Championship Gold”.
The granddaughter of Lotus’ then Chairman, Romano Artioli, Elisa was the original inspiration for the car’s name. pic.twitter.com/pt0hf9WZIo
— Lotus Cars (@lotuscars) February 25, 2022
The road-biased Elise Sport 240 and its more track-focused Elise Cup 250 marked the model’s send-off with unique paint choices, bespoke exterior decals and new wheel finishes. Inside, you got a digital TFT instrument pack, build plaque, new seat trim, and a flat-bottom steering wheel. The 240 sport also gained 20 hp over the 220 Sport it effectively replaced in the range.
Lotus also offered customers the chance to reduce their car’s curb weight from 2,033 lbs (922 kg) to just 1,980 lbs (898 kg) by specifying carbon panels a lithium-ion battery and a lightweight polycarbonate rear window, though it’s not clear how many of those goodies Artioli chose for her trips into the Alps from her home in Bolzano, northern Italy.
Artioli moved back to Italy from Lotus’s Norfolk, England base when she was five, is a trained architect, and organizes road trips through central Europe and to places like the disused Bugatti factory her grandfather set up in the 1990s to build the EB110 supercar. If you fancy tagging along this summer, head over to DelightfulDriving.com.
But if you’re looking forward to the next Elise, you’re facing a long wait. Lotus is planning an all-electric sports car to take over where the Elise left off, but it won’t be ready before 2026.
