I picked this ultra-rare Lotus from Forza Motorsport 7's Totino's Car Pack and while this car brings me back to the corner of my childhood, there's a lot of explaining to do about this ultra-rare, ultra-hardcore take on the Lotus Elise. The Lotus Elise has spawned three competition versions and the first was the Elise GT1.
The Elise GT1 features a carbon fiber bodywork nested to its bonded-aluminum backbone chassis modified to accomodate the 3.5L V8 twin turbo engine from the Esprit. In its road-legal state, it produces 350HP of power but in race tune, it produces over 550HP of power - in a car that weighs less than 2,000 lbs.
Apart from that, the Elise GT1 features a full competition suspension and 14-inch disc brakes with 6-piston calipers for dramatic stopping power.
This Elise is a massive flop to Lotus. Ever since they compete in the FIA GT Championship, Lotus are looking for a suitable replacement to the aging Esprit in their racing portfolio and they've chosen the Elise as their next race car for the job. Due to financial reasons, they only built one road-going car that is unavailable for public. Lotus made seven Elise GT1 race chassis were built and while most of them never made it to the finish line due to mechanical issues, only a few made it to the end of the race. Due to such lackluster results, Lotus and parent company Proton decided to axe the program.
It's a shame that Lotus wasted a lot of money for such a lackluster performance with the Elise GT1 but since I'm driving the only road-legal in its existence, what's like the drive it? In my experience, you'll get the feeling that you're driving a Hennessey Venom before it was cool but this is not the Venom, it's actually an Elise beefed up with the engine of the Esprit and it's not as intimidating as it looks. Because it was set to 350HP of power, which is the road-legal mode of course, you don't get scared pretty easily and despite its intimidating looks, it handles pretty much like what a Lotus should be, making it a proper track toy as I shall now prove with a lap round the Top Gear Track.
This car really is quick by modern standards and because of such performance, let's take the beastly Lotus to another part of Britain which is...
...Silverstone, of course.
Ah, the venue of the British Grand Prix, this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the Lotus at its best and with that, it's time to see if this ultimate flop has the guts to be called a hardcore Lotus compared to the most hardcore of all...
This is the Lotus 3-Eleven, the fastest and the most hardcore Lotus ever made and it was the fastest Lotus to lap round the Nurburgring to lap the sub-seven minute mark. Since both of these machines are set to road-legal use, it's quite questionable to see which is which on the track but since I got all of the ingredients here, it's time to see which of the hardcore Lotuses is the most hardcore of them all.
And now, the results...
3-Eleven - 2:21.204
Elise GT1 - 2:24.821
It's true what Lotus said, the Elise GT1 was a complete disaster for the company but look at this way, despite being a total flop, it became an inspiration for Hennessey to create the Venom GT because if it weren't for the Elise GT1, the Texans wouldn't made the car that shattered world speed records in a pinch. It really is a Venom GT before it was cool and while it wasn't as hardcore as I hoped for, this car really takes me back to the time when I first introduced myself to the world of Lotus Cars from the Elan, the Esprit, and most famously, the Elise.
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