ok rev and anyone else that needs clearification,
the elise and exige STOCK are not legal in the US. for the reasons stated (emissions, body panels, safety equiptment, ect ect ect). in order for the car to be legalized, these things need to be converted to be up to US specs.
the b18c5 is obviously NOT the stock engine, but if it does have that engine it will already be up to US spec and not need conversion(provided all the emissions controls were there).
and just this year lotus produced a US version of the elise.
clear enough for everyone? good. now stfu.