The Lotus Elise gets supercharged with the addition of a 162kW model to the roadster range.

Easily identified by its new rear spoiler and unique new design of alloy road wheels, the Elise SC features an all new, non-intercooled installation applied to the current Elise’s 1.8-litre 2-ZZ VVTL-i engine. Despite the on-paper similarity with the Exige S, this is no mere engine swap.

The Lotus-designed, Magnuson-produced supercharger uses a smaller Eaton rotor pack (an M45 unit) than that of the current Exige S, and is married to the intake manifold plenum as part of a single-piece casting. Combined with the absence of an intercooler and its associated pipework, this integrated supercharger/intake assembly contributes to an 8.0kg reduction in engine weight compared with the Exige S.

A further benefit of dispensing with the intercooler for the Elise SC application is the supercharger packaging viability for Elise and improved rear visibility when adopted into the Exige S, where vision from the rear view mirror is masked by the current intercooler installation.

The Elise SC has also been designed to have different driving characteristics to the Exige S. In keeping with its role as a road car rather than track machine, throttle response is progressive but also very direct, resulting in what's billed as a "measured, refined driving experience".

But, as you might expect of a car with 162kW and weighing 903kg, the Elise SC does the 0-100km/h sprint in an estimated 4.6 seconds, en route to an estimated top speed of 240km/h. (The Exige S does remain the faster car on track, thanks to its superior aerodynamics package that generates 42kg of downforce at 160km/h.)

The Elise SC's estimated combined fuel consumption is 9.1l/100km.

A new bespoke wheel design is introduced to the Elise SC, the rears having increased half an inch in width to 8.0 inches, to give even better grip performance from the standard Lotus specific Yokohama AD07 LTS 225/45 R17 tyres.

Pricing
Lotus Elise SC: R599 000