| First Drive | West Sussex, England | 2011 Lotus Elise 1.6 |

If any sports car manufacturer has stayed entirely true to its founding principles then it is Lotus. A memo from the firm's archives shows the MD in '75 stating that the company should build 'prestigious, efficient transport'. With weight being the foil of economy, Lotus' featherweight Elise has always been an efficient sports car. Replacing the entry-level 1.8-litre engine with a 1.6-litre unit, which passes Euro 5 emissions regulations and puts out the same power, means Lotus can offer its Elise with supermini rivalling economy and emissions - yet still reach 62mph in 6.5 seconds.

In the Metal

Usually we'd talk about the metal outside and the plastics inside, but with the Lotus that's reversed. The 2010 Elise's bodywork has had a mild makeover. There's more of an Evora look to its front end, Lotus removing some of the fussier details from the Series II car to produce an Elise that in many ways returns to the purity of the original. Where it's really distanced from that original is inside. Sure, there's still lots of cool bare metal, but the equipment available is completely different to that in the first cars. You can have your Elise today with air conditioning, traction control, parking sensors and even cruise control. Though we wouldn't bother...

What you get for your Money

Key change over the previous entry-level Elise is the fitment of a 1.6-litre, Toyota-sourced engine in place of the old 1.8-litre one. Peak power stays the same with 134bhp at 6,700rpm, but torque drops a bit to 118lb.ft at 4,400rpm. The 2011 model also gets a six-speed manual transmission as standard. Additionally there are LED driving lights and you now open the boot via a cockpit button rather than with the key.

You'll need a bit more than the £27,450 list price for your perfect Elise, as the Touring Pack costs £2,000 but includes the excellent ProBax seats, leather door and centre console trim, carpet mats, noise insulation panelling, auxiliary driving lights and iPod connection. Air conditioning adds £1,000 if you want it and traction control is £300.

Driving it

With its 45mpg combined consumption and 149g/km of CO₂ the Elise is a sports car with supermini levels of economy and emissions. The 1.6-litre engine needs working a bit harder than its 1.8-litre predecessor, but that's part of its appeal. Against the clock it'll do 62mph in 6.5 seconds, while its top speed is 127mph. More than enough to have fun on UK roads. The six-speed transmission shifts with more precision than the old five-speed gearbox thanks to a firmer placement and slicker cable linkages. It's still not perfect though, the gearstick and its housing still wobbling around a bit, but it's a vast improvement over the old five-speeder.

The new engine delivers its best above 4,500rpm, which means for all but cruising you'll rarely be slipping it into fifth or sixth gears. On UK roads you'll be busy with third and fourth on the straights, and it's not unusual to find yourself reaching for second for extra punch out of corners. Keeping busy with the gears is no complaint, as the engine sounds a little flat until it's pulling at least 5,000rpm. With the pedals perfectly positioned for heel-and-toe shifts and the brake pedal delivering progressive movement and lots of feel, the Elise's controls continue to be pretty much unmatched for delivering information to the driver.

The chassis remains as composed and faithful as you'd expect from Lotus, the steering delighting with its precision, weighting and feel, while the ride manages to isolate the worst bumps in the road without diminishing the Elise's remarkable poise. If anything there's a bit too much grip, the lack of low down grunt making it difficult to get the rear to move around under power - on the public road at least.

It's the purity of response that remains the defining factor of the Elise: the linear steering response, the weighting at the wheel's rim, the enjoyable way the steering wheel writhes in your hands as the Elise tracks over the near lunar surfaces that pass as roads in the UK. All cars could learn from how the Elise rides and steers. Apparently Lotus' chassis people spent weeks trying out revised spring and damper rates for this 'new' Elise and kept returning to the original settings.

Worth Noting

Those sports car drivers among you with a green bent will be pleased that the 1.6-litre Toyota unit isn't produced in some Japanese factory and shipped here. It's actually built in Toyota's Deeside plant - meaning it's only a short drive over to Hethel rather than an intercontinental trip on a freight ship.

Summary

The green credentials of Lotus' Elise are a mere bonus and by-product of the company's obsession with keeping weight down. It's as much fun to drive as ever, the 1.6-litre engine actually meaning you have to get more involved for it to produce its best. The usual getting in and out compromises remain, but for the purest sportscar experience you can get then little comes close to the Elise for driver appeal. And perhaps more so at this entry-point in the range.