Python Elites were Pythons made in the Colt custom shop toward the end of the Python's life. Their quality is markedly inferior, on the whole, to that of Pythons made in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, although individual Python Elites may be excellent.
The Python in its last 15 years serves as a classic example of the fallacy of trying to grow a business by cutting costs.