A fragile beauty
I drove a lilac Series 1 Lotus Elite back in the day (C&SC, September). With full harnesses, part of the fun was to take unsuspecting passengers down a local hill and brake hard for the roundabout: the body flexed and the doors opened; two flicks, foot down and away, with the doors closed. It was okay to be a hooligan then.
Later, I had a white Series 2 and, like Max Mosley, was impressed on a night of heavy snow: the Elite simply cruised up the notorious hill from Warter village to Malton, passing stranded motorists on both sides of the road. The Elite was beautiful but fragile – rather like my Eleven and most of Chapman’s creations in those days.
Memorable, too, was a fast run home from an Oliver’s Mount meeting in Scarborough, in procession with two friends also in Elites. My white car, one red and one yellow with a silver roof, doubtless scared the other vehicles as we passed in a high-speed convoy. Richard Milner
Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire