Lotus Elan: ‘The fab sports car of the Swinging Sixties’

[jonwat]

Today's Sunday Times classic cars:

No carmarker could come up with anything to rival this lively roadster

Paul Newman raced his. Britt Ekland and husband Peter Sellers buzzed around Mayfair in theirs, and Diana Rigg, as Emma Peel in The Avengers (the TV series, not the Marvel superheroes) outran baddies in hers. The Lotus Elan was the fab sports car of the Swinging Sixties.

Other carmakers tried but none could rival the genius of Ron Hickman OBE, a South Africa-born inventor who turned the idea of a basic two seater with engine at the front and rear-wheel drive into a lively – hence Elan – roadster whose design inspired the Mazda MX5. The Elan was an example of the mantra expounded by Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus, that weight begets weight — the heavier the car, the bigger the engine required. His solution: “simplify, then add lightness”. The Elan’s fibreglass body helped it tip the scales at a mere 640kg — about a tonne less than a modern two-seater such as the BMW Z4.

Pop-up headlamps, also copied by Mazda, gave the car — which cost £1,317 in 1963 — a sleek and expensive look; and a range of exciting colours including Carnival Red, Pistachio Lime Green and Lotus Yellow ensured it stood out in Britain’s sepia city streets. It had no power steering but was light enough not to need it; the supercar designer Gordon Murray expressed disappointment that his £540,000 McLaren F1 didn’t steer the way the Elan did.

Car wags joked that Lotus meant Lots of Trouble, Usually Serious, though problems under the bonnet were often blamed on the Ford (Fix Or Repair Daily) engine. For all its foibles, the Elan stayed in production with various derivatives, including hardtops, a four-seater – the Elan +2 – and a delightful two-tone Sprint, for 13 years until 1975; during which production shifted from Cheshunt, Hertfordshire to Hethel, Norfolk.

The Serious Trouble generally happened if you crashed or rolled it. The fibreglass body, which was also prone to cracking, offered little protection. The Beatles’ song, A Day in the Life, included the lines, “He blew his mind out in a car/ He didn’t notice that the lights had changed.” It was written after the death in 1966 of Tara Browne, a friend of Sir Paul McCartney and an heir to the Guinness fortune, who died after driving his Elan at high speed through a red light in London’s South Kensington and colliding with a parked lorry.

Lotus revived the Elan name in 1989 with a different, front-wheel drive model it hoped would rekindle the Chapman-era magic. The company was eventually taken over in 2017 by the Chinese conglomerate Geely. Expect to pay between about £15,000 and £65,000 for an early Elan, depending on condition — a bit extra for two-tone.

 

[Elite 4.9]

Always loved the Elan and now I would like to find one in great restored shape.

There was a guy who raced one here in the states and I actually sponsored his car (minimal actually) but he did things to make his Elan a Corvette killer. Very quick !!!

One race track, which was near my home in Kent, WA in which I saw many races over the years, At Kent Pacific Raceways, I witnessed his Elan frustrate this Yellow big block Vett to his demise. The vett would pass on the long straight but the Elan would repass in the tight corners of the rest of the track, lab after lab this happened  until the Vett spun out and ended the dual. Very cool to witness and one memory what stays with for a lifetime .

 

Cheers,

Richard

[jonwat]

Jay Leno has always been an Elan fan 

[Elite 4.9]

One of Jay's Elans he built was a modified ( 26R ) It has a sequential 6 speed transmission like in a motorcycle. Has bigger brakes and more power among other things. Jay usually goes over the top with his cars and this one is no exception. 

 

cheers,

Richard