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The answer is mostly in gearing. The difference between 4 seconds to 60 and 6 seconds to 60 can be as little as the second gear ratio of two different cars. If you have to shift at 58mph, you're going to add near an entire second to the time.
Not all cars are geared to win in 0-60.
Beyond that, there's no magic to the Lotus formula, outside of them being light cars with good weight balance, short gearing, and a lot of tire.
I previously had a Honda Insight I had swapped a K24 into. It weighed almost exactly the same as a 2005 Elise, with around 40 more horsepower, but I chose to gear it differently, for fuel economy. 2nd would top out near 80mph. It was considerably quicker in the quarter mile than an Elise, but slower to 60 real-world.
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