LOTUS ELAN

If you were to only briefly glance at the history books, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Lotus took to building production cars like a duck to water. The Lotus Elan, one of the company’s earliest designs, is of course a renowned car for all the right reasons. However, its less spoken-of predecessor can’t quite claim the same legacy. Most at home on the racetrack, the Lotus Elite of 1958 didn’t quite translate so well as a road car. However, company founder Colin Chapman was anything but a quitter, and at his next attempt, the legendary engineer struck gold.

OVERVIEW

The biggest area that Chapman identified for improvement was the chassis. The previous unibody structure was thrown out, and instead, the new car – named Elan - would be built on a steel backbone platform, giving it much greater rigidity. From a driving perspective, this helped to keep