With a manual transmission, a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, unassisted rack-and-pinon steering, a spartan interior and a feathery 1,600-pound curb weight, the original Lotus Elise was a road-legal go-cart on steroids. A true driver’s delight, but not anything crazy. The U.K.’s Analogue Automotive is bringing the Elise into the bonkers realm with its new VHPK—the name being a “play on the Lotus VHPD (Very High Power Derivative) 1.8 K-Series [engine],” Analogue Automotive founder and CEO Steffen Dobke revealed to CarBuzz.
Essentially, the company is taking the sports car’s lightweight focus to an unmitigated extreme. Based around the Series 1 Elise, the VHPK saves weight in-part by cutting the occupancy to just one driver, employing a full carbon fiber exterior and interior, and equipping carbon ceramic brakes. In total, the vehicle will weigh an almost unbelievably light 1,323 pounds. As for the engine, it will run a higher-displacement version of the first-gen Elise’s Rover K Series inline-four that’s upgraded with bespoke billet and forged internals.
What makes this thing truly crazy is the power-to-weight ratio. While a specific output isn’t offered—the figure is somewhat vaguely quoted as “in excess of 250 horsepower”—Analogue Automotive does promise an absurd 400 hp per ton. That’s more power-to-weight than offered by the 518-hp Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the 565-hp Nissan GT-R, or the 670-hp Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
Analogue Automotive announced the VHPK exactly 30 years after the Elise was first unveiled at the 1995 Frankfurt Motor Show. While other details are scant, the company has already forged a stellar reputation with its Supersport, another Elise restomod that weighs around 1,541 pounds and features similarly modern upgrades. In a November 2024 review, the U.K.’s Autocar wrote, “Not every Elise owner would, I suspect, want to turn their car into something so devoted to flat-out, adrenaline-soaked thrill as the Analogue Automotive Supersport. But for those that do, I can’t believe there’s a better way.”
The Analogue Automotive VHPK, limited to just 35 examples, may have something to say about that when it arrives in 2026 with a price tag of around $475,000.
