What the Lotus Elise has to do with Ducati
04/28/2019
When the two Lotus employees Richard Rackham (chassis designer) and Julian Thomson (head of design) set about laying the foundations for the Lotus Elise in 1994, they were certainly inspired by earlier Lotus models such as the Super Seven or the Lotus 23, but they were even more influenced by the motorcycles of the Ducati brand.
Both Richard and Julian rode Ducatis and they were obviously inspired by the performance and sheer focus that their designers had. "When you take the fairing off a Ducati, you see so many beautiful things," Richard explains in a video detailing the creation of the Lotus Elise.
There are indeed various parallels, such as the pursuit of lightness, which for the Lotus developers was not only a prerequisite for good driving performance, but above all for high efficiency and low emission values. This also gave rise to the glued aluminum chassis, which was unique at the time, but gave the car a high degree of stability despite its low weight.
It was clear from the very beginning of the M1-11 project initiated in January 1994 that the car had to be open, the engine had to be located between the axles and the car had to be developed primarily from the driver's perspective.
You should definitely take a look at the (longer) video (in English)!
