Why does the Cup weigh more?

[Eureka]

Apologies if this has come up before...but why does the final edition Elise Cup 250 weigh more than the regular model? 930 v 922kg?

I would have expected the Cup to be less due to lighter battery, rear window & seats etc.

[Delhard]

Aero bits I suppose

[AndyM]

I think the configurator maybe wrong it seems to be showing the 2016 weight ... I found this in a recent Evo regarding the 2017 250 CUP which is the same as the FE specification:

"As is the way with Lotus, the car’s weight is very important. Generous use of carbonfibre, plastic and aluminium has reduced the Cup 250’s weight to 917kg, 14kg lighter than previous model. As standard, the hardcore Elise gets carbonfibre seats, forged alloy wheels, a lithium-ion battery and a polycarbonate rear screen."

[CocoPops]

@JG220weighed his 2018 cup with full tank of fuel.

[MrP_]

Lotus also got in the habit of measuring 'dry weight' in the JMG days so taking all oil, coolant, charge cooling coolant to hide the weight creep. So I wouldn't trust the figures too much, previous cars would be measured wet

[Eureka]

On 03/03/2021 at 16:16, Delhard said:

Aero bits I suppose

Even with the added aero bits I would have still thought the Cup would weigh less due to lighter battery, rear window & seats etc? I'm no expert but would be surprised if the aero parts add up to the 8kg difference (actually it would be more than 8kg because of the Cup's lighter components).

15 hours ago, AndyM said:

I think the configurator maybe wrong it seems to be showing the 2016 weight ... I found this in a recent Evo regarding the 2017 250 CUP which is the same as the FE specification:

"As is the way with Lotus, the car’s weight is very important. Generous use of carbonfibre, plastic and aluminium has reduced the Cup 250’s weight to 917kg, 14kg lighter than previous model. As standard, the hardcore Elise gets carbonfibre seats, forged alloy wheels, a lithium-ion battery and a polycarbonate rear screen."

Interesting, that's a good find and could well be the reason. This would make it 5kg lighter than the 220/240FE, which sounds about right to me.

10 hours ago, MrP_ said:

Lotus also got in the habit of measuring 'dry weight' in the JMG days so taking all oil, coolant, charge cooling coolant to hide the weight creep. So I wouldn't trust the figures too much, previous cars would be measured wet

I understand car companies doing this...but it would seem strange for them to weigh the two Elise models differently?

Does the Cup come with any additional/heavier underbody items e.g. extra bracing, suspension or anti-roll bars etc? I thought it was just stiffer springs and different dampers?

If the front tyres are a touch wider then I guess there's a bit of weight gain there...

[MrP_]

My point was more that I wouldn't read too much into official lotus figures, they have the habit in recent years of changing measurement. 

No bracing, subframe changes, roll bar etc like cups used to get, its just a slight change in damper these days, so really any changes if they are apples to apples are just on the extra bits they bolt on, aero tyres etc

Pick up a 10KG weight and feel how light that is, now spread that around the car, tyres can easily be close to that - I think my tyres weigh more than my wheels these days, variation from brand to brand (even at same size) is also a massive variation

[MrP_]

15 hours ago, Eureka said:

Even with the added aero bits I would have still thought the Cup would weigh less due to lighter battery, rear window & seats etc?

Aren't all the Elises on plastic rear screens since about 2017, the Cup doesn't have any unique part numbers for any of the glazing it just seems to swap to Poly screen at MY17.5? The Exiges all swapped over around that time.

[CocoPops]

No, the Sport220 has glass rear screen.

[CocoPops]

https://www.deroure.com/diagrams.asp?TBL=11672&MAK=1&MDL=22&SMA=0&SMO=0&ST=&SC=0

Shows a Glass and a Polycarbonate.

£68+vat for glass
£287+vat for Polycarbonate

[MrP_]

I wouldn't call that definitive for the MY220 sport, the poly screen on that list only is attached to MY17.5 sprint on the deroure list, and the cup is not listed as having the poly screen even though we know it has (not complaining at Deroure, there are lots of little anomalies that come through) - I'll grab the parts list from VSIC at some point to check

Either way assuming its still glass in the current 220 and poly in the 250, it doesn't explain the OP's question of why the CUP is heavier not lighter

[CocoPops]

Ok, so from experience... my 2018 sport 220 has a glass screen.