Start with what the Lotus Elise GT1 is: a 2-door coupe with 5.7 L Chevrolet Chevrolet small-block engine (first- and second-generation)#LT5, built from 1997, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Julian Thomson.
How it came about
The Lotus Elise GT1 (also known as the Lotus GT1 and known internally as Type-115) is a race car developed for grand tourer-style sports car racing starting in 1997.
The hardware
The engine is 5.7 L Chevrolet Chevrolet small-block engine (first- and second-generation)#LT5; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1050 kg. Drive goes through a 5-speed Renault manual (road car), 6-speed sequential. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 2675 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Lotus line-up the Lotus Elise GT1 has a clear place: it replaced the Lotus Esprit GT1; the factory was Hethel, Norfolk, United Kingdom. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Toyota Prius, the Subaru Forester, the Škoda Auto Škoda Octavia. Its Lotus stablemates include the Lotus 100T and the Lotus 101.