Lotus Elan

Lotus Elan at a glance

The Elan sits between the fibreglass Elite of the late 1950s and the mid-engined Europa and Lotus Esprit in the history of Lotus road cars. All models are listed in the Lotus catalogue, and the story of the company is told in our history of Lotus.

History and development

By the early 1960s Lotus needed a replacement for the Elite, a beautiful but expensive car with a fibreglass monocoque that had strained the company's finances. Colin Chapman's answer was simpler and cheaper to build: a separate steel chassis and a fibreglass body. The original Elan was designed by Ron Hickman, who also designed the first Lotus Europa and, later, the Black & Decker Workmate.

The Elan was announced in October 1962 as the Elan 1500. After a short run of 22 cars it was given a bigger engine and renamed Elan 1600 - these early cars are now usually called the Series 1. The S2 replaced it in 1964, followed by the S3, the S4 in 1968 and the Sprint in 1970. Production of the two-seater ended in 1973. "SE" (Special Equipment) versions of the S2, S3 and S4 had slightly more power and more equipment.

The car was built at Cheshunt and, from 1966, at the new factory in Hethel, Norfolk. In the United Kingdom many Elans were sold in kit form: a car bought as a kit avoided purchase tax, and Lotus advertised that the final assembly took about a weekend. The customer had to fit the engine, gearbox, exhaust, suspension parts, wheels and radiator; the chassis, body, electrics and trim came assembled.

Chassis and body

The heart of the Elan is its steel backbone chassis. Seen from above it looks like a double-ended tuning fork: the engine and gearbox sit between the front arms, and the differential between the rear arms. The backbone is the main load-bearing part of the car, and the fibreglass body sits over it like a saddle, bolted on at 16 points. This construction became a Lotus signature for nearly three decades. The chassis is light - about 40 kg according to the Workshop Manual - and most surviving cars have received a new chassis at some point.

Front suspension uses double wishbones with coil-over dampers and Triumph uprights and steering parts. At the rear is a Chapman strut layout with a wide wishbone on each side. Steering is by unassisted rack and pinion with only 2.7 turns from lock to lock. Girling disc brakes are fitted all round. Drive to the rear wheels goes through rubber Rotoflex couplings, which many owners have since replaced with constant-velocity joints.

Chapman's design target for weight was about 680 kg. According to the Workshop Manual figures quoted by Wikipedia, the S1 weighed about 640 kg and later series around 690–700 kg, as electric windows, carpets and bigger wheels were added.

The Lotus-Ford Twin Cam engine

The engine is based on the 1,498 cc Ford Kent four-cylinder with a new aluminium twin-cam cylinder head designed by Harry Mundy. Enlarged to 1,558 cc, it became known as the Lotus-Ford Twin Cam. Lotus also used Ford gearboxes and a modified Ford differential.

The two sets of figures are an interesting detail. Wikipedia notes that when the Sprint was launched, Lotus lowered the published outputs of the existing models, which made the Sprint's gain look larger. The Sprint's extra power came mainly from slightly larger inlet valves.

Performance and road tests

The Elan's performance came from low weight rather than high power. Wikipedia quotes several contemporary road tests:

Reviewers praised the steering, the handling and the roadholding above all. Gordon Murray, later the designer of the McLaren F1, singled out the steering and handling of the Series 3, and Sports Car International ranked the Elan sixth among the top sports cars of the 1960s.

Elan +2 and the 26R

The Elan +2 (Type 50) of 1967 had a longer wheelbase, a wider track and two small rear seats. It was aimed at families who wanted a Lotus and was larger and better equipped than the two-seater. Versions included the +2S of 1968, the +2S 130 of 1971 with the Big Valve engine and the +2S 130/5 with a five-speed gearbox. Production continued until 1975; estimates range from about 3,300 to about 5,200 cars.

Lotus originally described the Elan as a touring car, but customers raced it anyway, so the company developed the Type 26R from 1964. It had lightweight competition wishbones, sliding-spline driveshafts instead of rubber couplings, bigger anti-roll bars, dual-circuit brakes and a lighter body with flared wheel arches. The Cosworth-tuned engine produced about 104 kW (140 bhp) at first, and more was offered later.

Production numbers

Lotus's records from the period are incomplete, and sources disagree:

In April 2018 an owners' registry knew of about 1,100 surviving cars, including about 330 Elan +2s, in more than 30 countries.

Legacy

The Elan established the formula of light weight, a backbone chassis and a fibreglass body that Lotus used for nearly three decades, and its handling became a benchmark for small sports cars. Mazda studied two Elans while developing the MX-5 of 1989, and the chassis of the Toyota 2000GT closely resembles the Elan's. Diana Rigg drove an Elan as Emma Peel in the television series The Avengers.

Lotus revived the Elan name in 1989 for a front-wheel-drive roadster with an Isuzu engine, which shares nothing with the original. The spirit of the first Elan is closer to the later Lotus Elise.