This Modded Lotus Elise is Ready to Hit the Trails

An off-road evolution for a classic roadster

Lotus is known for its agile sports cars with nimble handling, at least on paved roadways, but a new company called “Get Lost”, based in London, is taking an Elise S1 where it’s never gone before: off-road. Dubbed Project Safari, Get Lost has made some major upgrades to the two-seat roadster, including an upgraded suspension and revamped interior. The Lotus Elise S1 already brought a sense of adventure to the road, but now it’s taking that personality off the beaten path.

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Project Safari is a true off-road machine

Modding sports cars into off-road monsters isn’t exactly new, but it isn’t often we see something like Project Safari. Get Lost, founded by automotive photographer George Williams, took a Lotus Elise S1 and made it into the ultimate off-road machine that’s capable of tackling trails and making some sweet jumps.

The Lotus Elise has always offered a thrilling driving experience thanks to its combination of intense performance, lightweight design, and agile handling. Project Safari builds on that groundwork with a new suspension that increases the Elise’s ground clearance by around four inches. All-terrain tires help the roadster get a grip on loose ground, while a reinforced underplate protects vital components when the going gets rough.

Four yellow lights and a roll bar seem to nod towards off-road buggies, and a custom-designed rear engine cover houses a spare wheel. The central air intake features a wide opening that splits into two ducts in order to reach the mid-mounted engine. White exhaust tips routed through the rear bumper match the white wheels as well. The modded Lotus Elise even features a hydraulic handbrake and limited-slip differential to make the most of sliding on loose surfaces.

“The idea of taking an Elise off-road might sound ridiculous, and that’s exactly why we leaned into it,” said George Williams, founder of Get Lost. “That one silly idea gave us real creative freedom. Every element was considered from the ground up, not just to look good in isolation, but to enhance the character and capability of the entire car.”

The original Lotus Elise S1 came stocked with a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, but that’s probably not Project Safari’s powerhouse. Interestingly, Get Lost isn’t exactly forthcoming with performance specs at this time. The London-based company hasn’t released pricing either, but they plan on building customer cars later this year.

The first-gen Lotus Elise was never sold in the United States

Lotus originally launched the Elise back in 1996, but it never officially made it to our shores. Now that it’s over 25 years old, however, it’s no longer subject to Department of Transportation regulations and can be imported. Per Lotus, only around 12,000 Elise S1 examples were produced between 1996 and 2001.

The Lotus Elise S1 was named after the granddaughter of Romano Artioli, chairman of Lotus at the time. The sports car weighed in at just 1,598 lbs., making it one of the lightest vehicles on the road. It came powered by a 118-horsepower engine mounted behind the seats that pushed the Lotus Elise S1 to 60 mph in just 5.5 seconds. Later on, Sport Elise models saw performance increase to 135, 160, and 190 horsepower.

Final thoughts

Taking a sports car and creating an off-road monster is a trend I’ll never grow tired of. The Lotus Elise S1 set the standard as a lightweight performance car in its day, and that makes it the perfect candidate for an off-road transformation. There’s no pricing out for the modded Elise S1 just yet, and, frankly, I can’t even fathom a guess at what to expect. There are so many upgrades mixed with unknowns that we’ll just have to wait for Get Lost to release Project Safari’s official pricing info.