[Perfectlap]

well the one thing you are not taking into account is that the very religion of Lotus racing was to make cars as light as possible. Deliberately putting modest power in their cars was a way of demonstrating that if the car itself was properly designed and a REAL HONEST effort was made to make the cars as light as possible(Unlike Porsche who put in Sunroofs in the 911 GT3's now) there would be no need put in a huge engine...the same religion as the pure roadster one.

At 190 hp the car is not underpowered because its light weight. Car magazines have convinced you into believing that a BARELY two tons car needs at least 250 hp. That simply isn't true. Go for a ride on the track with an experienced driver where you are going 10/10's for a full lap and you will NOT be saying 190 hp is not enough. The car only requires more power if its going to weigh more or compete on the track against cars that have a power to weight ration better than theirs. Since the Elise is intended to be a fun car and not a donor car for spec racing like 911 GT3, then a 1.8 serves its purpose more than adequately as the average driver will have his hands more than full with 190 hp on barely two tons.
Like the 73 911 RS that won overall at LeMans (not just class!!) and that thing only had a 2.7 with barely 215 HP.

Now whether or not $50K is a fair price for an Elise is another question altogether. Very few sports cars are classifieds as worth their price. If the ELise had a more exotic and powerful engine in it you would be paying WAY more than you can get it for today...which would limit the buyer pool even further. Lotus has to sell at least some of their cars! And I'm just guessing but I doubt their profit (if they even have one) is not coming from the engine area, more like because of the lower cost Japanese engines they are able to reduce their expenses as a boutique car builder. Believe it or not they did you favor putting in a Celica engine...Low Maintenace and racing/track engines are not really terms that go hand and hand. Good on the Lotus managers for taking matters into their own hands and just dumping the Celica engine in the car without waiting for either Lotus or Toyota corporate dudes to approve it. Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.