The only thing better than one awesome Lotus Elise is two, and that’s exactly what we have lined up at PH Annual Service this weekend. As well as HPE’s R500 build, there’s also something new from Analogue Automotive, makers of the wonderful Supersport. This is the Terra (earth or land in Latin), commissioned by the Raw Bike Company and Cannondale, designed to take all that was good about AA’s incredible Elise into a very different dimension.
To achieve its off-road goals, the Terra now has Kevlar underbody protection, in case drivers use up all 200mm of ground clearance. The Elise now sits 60mm higher than usual on custom Ohlins dampers, so expect all the lovely old Lotus sensations to be even more accessible with the car raised up. Not that this will be some cushy off-roader, of course; the Terra keeps the widetrack suspension upgrade that makes the Supersport such a joy, and is said to be inspired by rally raid builds. There’s more Kevlar used for the body panels, to make the Terra as tough as it looks, onto which there’s that Seasucker mount. No way Cannondale and the Raw Bike Company were going to spec a car without one of those.
Under the bonnet sits the same 200hp evolution of the K Series that made the Supersport so thrilling; we’d assume the manual is being carried over also, unless they’ve gone full rally car and fitted a sequential. Power reaches the road through Michelin Cross Climate all-season tyres, with 16-inch wheels. So it all sounds like an absolute hoot and looks it too – in much the same way that the Project Safari Elise does, perhaps, but there’s surely no such thing as too many rally raid roadsters in the world.
We’re still waiting on final details from Analogue about the Terra, this being from its Special Operations division and the very first time it’s left HQ – but the firm has already confirmed that ASO projects like this one start at £200k plus donor and taxes. Expect it on the road (and hopefully off it) in the coming months.