Aside from the Esprit V8, Lotus cars almost never had an exceptional power plant. In fact, they usually used somebody else's workaday four banger, most often something leftover from Rover or Ford of Europe. What has always made a Lotus special is its power to weight ratio and excellent handling, driven in large part by an emphasis on keeping the curb weight to an absolute minimum. This tradition continues today, and aside from that aforementioned V8 that they bolted into the thirty year old Esprit just a handful of years ago to keep the car young, that Toyota four banger might just be one of the better engines ever bolted into a Lotus. And, in pure Lotus tradition, that Elise posts unbelievable numbers for so modest an engine.