After a 26-year production run, the final customer-order Lotus Elise rolled out of the British sports-car manufacturer’s workshop late February 2022. Almost immediately after, the keys to that bookend car were deposited in the hands of the very woman who inspired the car’s model name — Elisa Artioli.
Elisa Artioli is the grand-daughter of the one-time owner of the Lotus marque, Roman Artioli; when, in 1996, the company began its renaissance with a new sports car designed by Julian Thomson, it was Roman who suggested the car be named “Elise,” in honour of Elisa, then two-and-a-half years old.
She picked up the last customer-bound Elise on February 24 from the firm’s Hethel, U.K. headquarters (the very last car built will live in Lotus’ museum). Hers is a 240 in Championship Gold, with smoked anthracite alloy wheels.
Elisa, now 28, has an affinity for gold on Lotuses, she told CAR Magazine, “not least because of the fabled John Player Special liveries. ‘I think it’ll go really well alongside my silver S1,’” she said.
Her ending up with the final customer car wasn’t a certainty: she landed the build slot because she’d heard a rumour from a dealer in 2019 that the model might be nearing its end. “I asked back then if I could have the final car,” she explains. “I’m lucky I got in so early, as lots of people asked once the end was confirmed officially.”
Keyword: Final Lotus Elise built gifted to woman that inspired its name