Lotus of the Swinging Sixties

SIXTY YEARS AGO, Colin and Hazel Chapman presented their new Lotus model at the 1962 British Motor Show.

It was a small sportscar called the Elan – ultra modern, lightweight and with a promise to be fun to drive. Other sportscar had come out around that time – like the Jaguar E-Type, AC Cobra and Ferrari GTO – but the Elan was something different and appealing in its own way.

What drew attention to Lotus (which had been only in business for just 10 years) was the fact that its racing team had already won eight Formula 1 races and several times at the classic Le Mans 24-Hour race.

And just as the Mini was attracting celebrities, so too did the new Elan. Culturally, it was an icon as the Swinging Sixties embraced cool new design.

Introduced in 1962 as a roadster (Drop Head), an optional hardtop was offered in 1963 and a coupe (Fixed Head) version came along in 1965. It was the first Lotus road car to use a steel backbone chassis, a technology that continued until 1995 on all Lotus road cars including the Europa, Excel and the Esprit supercar.

The Elan was technically innovative with the backbone chassis, fibreglass body, 4wheel disc brakes, and 4-wheel independent suspension. Adhering to Chapman’s mantra “Simplify, then add lightness”, it was typically Lotus in being engineered to be light and weighed just 640kg.

The twincam 1499 cc engine, which produced 100bhp, was later uprated to 1558cc with an additional 5bhp being delivered.

The Elan Sprint, a more powerful alternative, could hit 60mph (92kph) in 6.6 seconds, which even now would be considered respectably fast.

In 1973, the year it was introduced, that was impressive performance indeed and with the low mass, it was almost unbeatable on a country road.

With a production run of 17,392 cars, the Elan family was one of the most successful in Lotus history, surpassed only by the Elise (35,124 produced between 1996 and 2021).