Last Lotus Elise Cup 250 Final Edition: From factory to delivery

The Lotus Elise Cup 250 Final Edition rolled off the assembly line one last time earlier this year. The Lotus factory at Hethel, UK, marked the end of production with a rather special car finished in one-off Luminous Orange (RAL 2005). It will also go down in Lotus’ history book as the last hand-built car, the last out of 62 Final Editions and the last Elise Cup 250 worldwide. Therefore, it was a special day not just for those involved in the ‘Final Edition’ project but each and every person who has toiled to create some of the finest sports cars on the planet.

The owner of the final Elise Cup 250 was kind enough to send us these images so that petrolheads from all over the world can follow the complete assembly process of the car. We really appreciate him sharing this set with us.

The Elise Cup 250 is based on an extruded and bonded aluminium chassis (seen in pic.1). Once it arrives at the assembly line, the next step is to install the firewall, followed by the engine, which is mounted transversely. You can clearly see the double-wishbone front suspension in these images.

Workers then start putting together the lightweight body panels, which in the case of the final Elise Cup 250, went through a 14-step painting process. The result is the extremely luminous finish that we’ve been told, appears much brighter in person. The colour is inspired by the Lotus Indy 500 cars from the 1960s.

The special build was finally completed and signed off by Lotus on February 28, 2022. Here’s the team from Lotus posing with the last Elise Cup 250 Final Edition:

In fact, the paint finish is so unique that Lotus has confirmed that it does not meet UV standards and will fade over time. That’s where the experts at Topaz Detailing come into the picture.

We spoke to Gautam from Topaz to learn more about the paint protection process and his team’s plan of action for the task at hand:

“We are first testing our PPF on a sample panel. Once satisfied with the level of protection, we will begin to create our own bespoke templates for the car. Each panel of the car will usually undergo two/ three templates before we are satisfied with the fitment and coverage. Before any application of PPF, the car will undergo a full decontamination wash and, in most cases, some paint correction. Once we are happy with the outcome, we will begin to fit our bespoke patterns with our very own Paint Protection Film that has been produced specifically for us.”

With the paint corrected for minor blemishes and the PPF installed, Topaz then shipped the car to Bell & Colvill (Horsley) Ltd. It was registered and received its special plates – ‘F1NAL’, on April 29, before being handed over to the owner on May 5, 2022. Tim Burton (Shmee150) was also present during the handover. You can check out the detailed video over on his Youtube channel.

Jamie Matthews – Sales Director at Bell & Colvill, Chris and Tim posing with the last Elise Cup 250:

In my 14 years at Bell and Colvill, I’ve never seen a paint get such a reaction from customers and staff alike. – Jamie Matthews

Here’s a pic of the magnificent Elise Cup 250 Final Edition with Andy Elliman, Group Chairman of Railsite Holdings and owner of Bell & Collvil together with the Bell & Collvil team. A historic day indeed for the dealership.

“We’re very proud to hand over the very last Elise Cup 250 off the Hethel production line. It seems fitting because we handed over the very first customer Elise S1. So to hand over the very last Elise Cup 250 is a real bookend car for us historically and a very significant moment for Lotus,” Jamie said.

It’s worth noting that Bell & Colvill is the oldest Lotus dealer and the biggest retailer in Europe. It won the dealer award for UK and Europe in 2021.