The World According to Tim Skipper

When I went to test the Elise 135 a couple of weeks ago, it was merely as a curiosity. As you will know if you’ve read my subsequent test drive reports, I was very surprised how much I liked it.

The factory visit/test track day in their development Lotus Sport Elise 190 was the icing on the cake, so yesterday I happily signed an order for the first customer car to be made.

Several hours spent at Lotus Cars dealer Stratton Motor Company pouring over spec sheets and options, and many phone calls to Chris Dinnage at Lotus Motorsport later we came up with a definitive specification, taking the basic Sport 190 and tweaking it to suit my requirements and budget.

The Lotus Sport Elise 190 as per published spec is £33,700 on the road.

Things I’ve removed:

MSA approved A-frame roll bar. Since I want to use this car on the road as well as on the track, I opted to delete the A-Frame roll bar that sits behind the seats. This means I can have the 2 speaker radio kit fitted to make long journeys a little more bearable. In its place is a horizontal strut that the harnesses attach to, so there was no cost saving here. The standard car’s rollover protection is proven, so I’m not overly concerned about losing this (plus it saves a bit of weight).

Plumbed in fire extinguisher system & master battery cut-out switch. Removing these two options saved just short of £400. The cut-out would have had to come out anyway because it precluded the alarm/immobiliser functioning correctly. I will fit my own hand-held extinguisher after delivery for added peace of mind.

Passenger race seat. The standard Elise seats are very good for lateral support anyway, and it adds a little more practicality when ferrying people around. It also saved another £300. It’ll be a standard black cloth seat, so I’ve opted to have the drivers racing seat in all black to match (could have had blue/yellow/red inserts).

There are no standard seat belts; both seats have MSA approved 4 point racing harnesses. The harness bar uses the same mounting points as the standard belts, so I couldn’t have both.

Metallic paint. £645 is a lot of money for metallic paint, and I really like the Elise in flat black having seen one at Stratton Motor Company. So another black car for me then (this will be the second “I’m definitely not having black again” new car!).

Things I’ve added:

Category 1 alarm/immobiliser. This is required for peace of mind and insurance purposes, added £295 to the cost.

2 speaker radio kit. £150 – plus CD head unit thrown in for free.

Limited slip differential. At the Lotus test track I was getting the inside wheel spinning coming out of the tight 2nd gear corners, Chris said the LSD would do wonders for that and was a very worthwhile option. At £528.75, it’s pretty good value I think.

Door panels in Alcantara – £120. I’ve specified these in blue so it helps break up the black interior/exterior a bit.

I really wanted to add the two way adjustable Dynamics dampers/Eibach springs. This is hand-built individually dyno tested kit, which ensures they’re all exactly the same rate etc. At £1,286.63 it was seriously stretching my budget, and I’m not sure my driving abilities would do them justice. The Sport 190 comes with better than standard uprated adjustable racing kit anyway.

The total price OTR came to £34,420.77. Insurance, through Cheam (recommended by Stratton Motor Company as people who know Lotus products very well) came out at £1,122 fully comp. Not bad considering it’s a highly modified car with £10k of tuning goodies on it. I’ll try a couple of other places during the week as a cross check.

As for delivery date, well they’re fast-tracking a standard Elise off the production line for me and so should have it built and road registered well before the end of March. It’ll then get wheeled across the yard to Lotus Motorsport and the team there will pull it apart and turn it into the Lotus Sport Elise 190. So we’re looking at early April sometime for completion.

They’ve agreed to hand over the car at the factory, and spend a couple of hours with me doing a shake-down test round the test track, to make sure it’s set up properly and the race seat bolted in to suit me etc. That will be fun!

Then I have the painful task of running it in before Cadwell Park on May 1 – Chris & the Lotus Motorsport team are going so they twisted my arm to sign up for that too (didn’t need much twisting though!).

So there we have it. The 911 is going in part exchange after they managed to up their previous best offer, and I will certainly miss it, but the Sport 190 is definitely a far better track tool, which is where my main interest lays.

After I’d signed on the dotted yesterday, I asked Guy if I could take his demo out for another run. This was a standard 120bhp Elise and not the same 135 I tried previously – didn’t feel hardly any different power wise, and I returned it 20 mins later with an enormous smile on my face.

With even better handling, competition tyres and another 70bhp to play with, I’m really looking forward to this new one…

My sincere thanks must go to Guy Munday at Stratton Motor Company and Chris Dinnage at Lotus MotorSport for their hospitality, time and a first-class deal.

Full spec of my car is listed below:

Lotus Sport Elise 190

Engine:
Transverse mid engine
1.8 litre DOHC 16v 4 cylinder inline
Power: 192ps (190bhp) @ 7,800 rpm
Torque: 174nm (128 lb.ft) @ 5,000 rpm
Power to weight ratio: 267.6 bhp/tonne
Race cooling system
Engine oil cooler

Transmission:
5 speed close ratio gearbox driving rear wheels
Hydraulic clutch
Limited slip differential

Suspension:
Double wishbone with coil springs over gas pressured racing dampers
Adjustable ride heights
Adjustable front Anti Roll Bar

Wheels/Tyres:
Front: 6.5″ x 16″ wheels
Rear: 7.5″ x 17″ wheels
Yokohama AO48 semi-slick tyres

Chassis:
Unique ultra light weight extruded aluminium bonded construction chassis with lightweight rear sub frame

Body:
Lightweight composite body panels

Safety:
MSA approved race seat (driver) and 4 point race harnesses (driver & passenger)

Brakes:
282mm diameter ventilated discs
Lotus/AP Racing 2 piston aluminium front callipers and racing pads

Steering:
Rigidly mounted rack and pinion, 2.8 turns lock to lock

Performance:
Maximum speed 135mph
0-60mph 4.4 seconds

Dimensions:
Length: 3785mm
Width: 1719mm
Height: 1143mm
Weight: 710kg

Colour/interior:
Black exterior
Silver wheels
Blue Alcantara door panels
2 speaker radio kit

This article was first published on 16th March 2002 at www.sport190.com.