Lotus Elan
(1962 - 1995)
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Country:
United Kingdom
Lotus Elan: All 14 models
Car articles about Lotus Elan by year
The Lotus Elan brought together ideas and components from Ford and Lotus. The small Lotus sports car benefited from Ford's marketing and sales power, especially during its launch. But much more was planned. This article reports on the beginnings and the prospects at the time.
The Lotus Elan is known as a lightweight British roadster with folding headlights and plastic bodywork. In 1964, Turin designer Pietro Frua created a ravishing-looking, Italian-style coupé made of aluminum and sheet steel based on the Lotus Elan, which he called the "Elan SS". Despite its good design, the pretty coupé never made it into series production; it remained a one-off that has been lost.
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Lotus Elan GT - Roof floor
Before Lotus itself offered a coupé version of the Elan from 1965, a small workshop in Surrey fitted the plastic roadster with a sleek aluminum roof and hatchback. However, despite its successful lines, the "GT by Shapecraft" remained a rarity. No more than 20 examples were produced within two years. In this article, we tell the brief history of the small two-component sports car and show an unrestored example that, for once, has not been converted into a racing car.
The Lotus Elan is one of those vehicles that every car enthusiast should have driven at least once in their life. This is the only way to understand what a small four-cylinder engine with an automotive lightweight of less than 600 kg can achieve. From 1962 to 1973, the Elan was built as a convertible and later also as a coupé, and it is still one of the most popular British exotics today. Even Emma Peel drove one in the TV series "With umbrella, charm and bowler hat". This driving report attempts to explore the appeal of the Lotus Elan and shows a coupé in many current and historical pictures, as well as in eight (!) sales brochures from back then.
From 1962 to 1973, Lotus built the Elan, a car with a plastic body and legendary handling. In 1971, Dieter Stappert was given the opportunity by the magazine "powerslide" to test drive the final version of the Elan, the "Sprint". This article reproduces the original wording and shows the Lotus Elan Sprint in historical pictures.
The Lotus Elan was continuously developed for 11 years, and the S1 finally became the Sprint with the "Big Valve" engine, which gave the sports car 25 percent more power and made it fit for the battle with its competitors Jaguar V12 or Fiat Dino. The most famous Elan driver was Emma Peel from "Umbrella, Charm and Melon", but she still had to make do with an S3 and do without the powerful four-cylinder engine. This driving report tells the story of a very special Lotus Elan Sprint DHC that has been used intensively throughout its life and is still unrestored.
When Lotus presented a new Elan in the fall of 1989, many fans turned up their noses. Front-wheel drive, a transverse engine from Japan and an ultra-modern design led to criticism, especially as Mazda was simultaneously reviving the original Elan of the sixties with the MX-5. In order to compete with the much cheaper Japanese model, the Lotus had to be significantly better. It was, but it still wasn't enough. And so it remained a rare milestone that is still a lot of fun to drive today. This driving report tells the story of the Elan SE/S2 of the nineties in detail and shows it in many pictures. There is also a sound sample.
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All 14 Lotus Elan models
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