[Moppie]

The Elise will be sold in the US, its doubtfull you will get the current model, but its very likly you will get the facelifted model, which has diffrent bumber hieghts, and revised suspension.
The Elise is actualy one of the safest cars to crash in, the bonded aluminum chassis is extremly strong, and will take a lot of punishment. The reason the US has not seen the elise before has more to do with Lotus finacial position, and a fear of getting burned by the US market.
The Eilse uses several versions of the Rover K series engine with the same G/box as the MGF and old MG Montego. There are at least 3 levels of tune, the standard ELise with around 130hp, the 140sport with 140hp and the 190sport with 190hp. However Lotus being Lotus im sure you could get the engine tuned to what ever power level you like by just asking and handing over the right amount of cash.