LOTUS ELAN M100
Fancy a reliable Lotus for less? The M100 Elan might not have been a success when new, but it’s certainly compelling today…
Buying Guide
Lotus Elan (M100)
Lotus and Mazda were clearly seeing the same appetite for a modern spin on the iconic Elan in the mid 1980s, though, funnily enough, it was Lotus that chose a more radical re-imagining of the Sixties icon, with Mazda’s MX-5 far more derivative.
While enthusiasts were thrilled to see Lotus making a two-seater roadster again, however, the news that the car was to be powered through its front wheels was considered by some as a fatal deviation from the Elan blueprint. Those who judged the car so harshly missed out, of course, because the M100 set new standards for how well a front-wheeldrive car could handle ( better, indeed, than many rear-drive cars). So too, the controversial Izuzusourced engine might not have been a patriotic choice of powerplant but, being Japanese, it worked without issue – something that certainly couldn’t be said of many of Lotus’ own historic engines.
However, while the response was universally positive once prejudices were sidestepped, the project was beset with problems. UK sales were reasonably strong but buyers were hard to find in the US. Then Isuzu canned its 1.6-litre twin-cam engine, which is why just
3855 Elan Series Is were built. Production stopped for more than a year while Lotus scrambled for a solution to the engine problem, before 800 surplus Izuzu units were found. By then a catalytic converter was compulsory, so power dropped slightly and the handling was adjusted, too, but these Series II cars are otherwise very similar.
Most Elan M100s were sold in the UK, so there are plenty of really good cars to go around. Best of all, these start at just £6000, so start scanning those classifieds.
‘The M100 set new standards for how well a FWD car could handle’