Lotus Elise Cup 260 joins limited edition Lotus fleet

After the Evora GT430 and the faster Evora GT430 Sport, Lotus revealed another limited edition car from their stable called Lotus Elise Cup 260 recently. The production of this puny little car is limited to just 30 units worldwide. Just like the GT430 Evoras, the Elise Cup 260 banks on aerodynamics and lightness to improve its performance.

The aerodynamics of the Cup 260 generates 180 kilos worth of downforce at 243 kph. The racing chassis developed by Lotus’s motorsport division helps the Elise Cup 260 hone its corner-carving skills. The 1.8-litre engine has new air intakes and revised calibrations that help it churn out 250 hp and 254 Nm of torque. A six-speed manual gearbox gets paired to this engine. All this wicked mechanical wizardry is complimented by the weight-shedding witchcraft of Lotus.

The body of the Elise Cup 260 flaunts large amounts of carbon fiber which helps in reducing weight and adding stiffness. The weight-cutting measures span extremes to swap out the existing seats with light-weight racing units and the engine batter with a lighter Li-ion one. Summing it all up, the Elise Cup 260 weighs just 902 kilos, which is near to nothing in the car world.

All this has had a massive effect on the performance of the Elise Cup 260, which can now run from 0 to 100 kph in 4.2 seconds.

The interior, well, offers not a lot to talk about (blame lightness). There is Alcantara and carbon fibre everywhere. And then there is the open-gated gear shifter like the one on a Pagani Huayra, but it’s not as pretty as the latter of course.