The Lotus Elise, released in 1996, is a storming track-day car although it is equally at home on the British roads on a summers day. Hand-built in Oxford, the Lotus' fibreglass body is truly stunning and provides a light weight, rigid frame for outstanding handling. The Elise is born out of Lotus' Chapman design philosophy, 'performance through light weight', and this philosophy perfectly sums up what the Elise delivers in bucket-loads. When released the series 1 Lotus Elise weighed just 720kg in standard form, when compared to a competitor that is also considered light weight, the Porsche Boxster at 1,250kg, this shows just how serious Lotus take the 'light weight' part of their motto. The strict weight policy of the Lotus gives the car astonishing handling, braking and pace, while ensuring fuel consumption is low. This enables the Lotus Elise to be an affordable option for sports car enthusiasts looking for outstanding performance and exclusive looks that doesn't cost rock star money.

For those who feel the need for a stronger dose of what the Elise offers, there are several variants offered by Lotus that have a more race-tinted edge to them. The 111S (read as 'one eleven S') was introduced in 1999 and utilised the VVC engine from the Rover K-Series. This gave the car 143bhp in comparision to the standard car's 118bhp from the 1.8L Rover K-Series engine. Also on offer is the Lotus Elise 340R, released in 2000. This particular variant was limited to 340 examples and produced 177bhp. There were also various other limited edition series 1 Elise's, the 145bhp Elise Sport 135, the 160bhp Elise Sport 160, the 190bhp Elise Sport 190, the green/gold 50th Anniversary Edition, the Gold Leaf red/white Type 49 and the Lotus Elise Type 72 JPS/John Player Special (although the latter 3 of these received little more than cosmetic treatments).

The Series 2 Lotus Elise used the same K-Series engine as before with the changes to the car being mostly cosmetic, although the car was made more comfortable and a radio now came as standard. As was the Series 1 the Series 2 Elise was available in 111S and Sport 160 forms. Added to the range this time though was a 111R, sold in North America as the Federal Elise. The 111R used a 189hp Yamaha/Toyota created engine in place of the traditional Rover units and was hailed by dealers and press alike as the best Elise to date, with a 0-60mph time of just 4.9 seconds. As with the Series 1 Elise there are many variants and special edition Series 2 Elises including the SportRacer Elise, the Elise Sport 190, the Elise Sport 135R and Types 23, 25, 49 and 72.

The Elise also spawned the Lotus Exige, a hard-top coupe version of the Elise.