Autocar

Lotus at 70

Glorious past, bright future (at last)

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It is as well that Lotus was not founded a year or so earlier. For had we come to write about its 70th birthday in the early part of last year, we may not have found too much to celebrate. A glorious past, yes, but a stuttering present and highly uncertain future.

But now – under new ownership and management, and with Phil Popham, who was instrument­al in turning Jaguar Land Rover into such a success story in the early part of this decade, in a key role – it is fair to say its future has rarely, if ever, looked brighter. How bright? You need only look at what new proprietor Geely has done with another of its acquisitio­ns, Volvo, to see the potential. During its tenure, Volvo has been catapulted from perennial also-ran status to being a truly aspiration­al brand with a world-class product line-up.

For now, though, let’s enjoy a few pages celebratin­g the greatest Lotuses (and a few of the not so great ones) and the greatest drives we have had in them. For when it comes to Lotus, the drive has always been the thing and, whatever happens to the marque in the future, that’s how it must remain.

Lotus greats

You can argue the toss over when Lotus actually came into being. The 1948 date refers to Colin Chapman’s first car, which was a modified Austin Seven. But Lotus Engineerin­g itself didn’t appear until 1952, the same year in which the Lotus Mk VI became the first to be sold to the public.

But our homage to its very greatest road cars begins in 1957 with the Lotus Seven, because it remains the most enduring sports car design still in production. Look at a modern Caterham and a 60-year-old Lotus and the architectu­ral similariti­es are impossible to miss.

It was the car that put Lotus on the map so far as road cars were concerned, for while Lotus was already building racers for Formula 1, Formula 2 and sports car racing (Chapman himself raced in a Lotus at Le Mans as early as 1955), the Seven developed the thinking behind the Mk VI sufficient­ly for it to be of equal appeal to club racers and recreation­al road users.

Built in a factory behind the Station Hotel in Hornsey (a Jewsons the last time I looked), the spaceframe Seven with its aluminium body espoused pure Chapman thinking, especially in its ultra-lightweigh­t constructi­on. Weighing as little as 420kg, Sevens were frequently banned from racing because nothing else could keep up, or they were forced to race in classes of their own.

Oddly enough, given the purity of its design, Chapman got bored of his game-changing miracle and sold all rights to its design to Graham Nearn of Caterham Cars in 1973. I expect that if he’d realised the car would still be going strong 45 years later, he might have thought twice about that.

When you see the two cars together, it hardly seems possible that the Seven and Lotus Elite came from the same mind at the same time. But they did. Like Enzo Ferrari, Chapman regarded road cars as a means of financing his racing, and although Elites raced with great success, it was primarily for road use that they were intended.

Innovation was everywhere: Audi used to boast in the 1980s that its 100 saloon had a world-beating drag coefficien­t of 0.30 – but the Elite measured 0.29 a quarter of a century earlier. Its rear suspension was the so-called Chapman strut that used the driveshaft as its lower link. Most notable, however, was that it was the very first car to be constructe­d around a glassfibre monocoque, making it ridiculous­ly light for a closed, surprising­ly spacious road

car. True, it’s just about the last car in which you’d choose to crash, but back then, people didn’t think that way. It wasn’t a lack of demand so much as escalating production costs that killed off the Elite in 1963, by which time its successor, the Elan, was already on the market.

The Elan is rightly regarded as Chapman’s masterpiec­e. It was introduced in 1962, 10 years after the foundation of Lotus Engineerin­g, and its engineerin­g continued to influence production Lotuses into the 21st century. The key to providing low-cost, lightweigh­t constructi­on was its backbone structure, a design that went on to endure on the Esprit

Sevens were frequently banned from racing because nothing else could keep up

The Elise was a car of which the late Colin Chapman would have been truly proud

until 2004. Glassfibre was used only for the bodywork.

The result was a still superlight car, but better finished than the rather rudimentar­y Elite, available as convertibl­e and with a hard-top and more practical and civilised, too. It was a formula that worked at once. By the time of its introducti­on, Lotus had the fastest F1 car in the world (the Lotus 25), the world’s fastest driver (Jim Clark) and the most enjoyable, affordable sports car on the market (the Elan). The Elan stayed in production in various guises (including a rebodied 2+2 version) until 1975, with more than 10,000 units made in total, 10 times the number of Elites that were built.

It’s hard to believe the last Elans were sold in the same year that the Esprit was shown, for the wedgeshape­d, mid-engined, Giorgettog­iugiaro-styled supercar looks like a car from another generation and possibly a different planet.

It came as part of Chapman’s plan to drive Lotus relentless­ly upmarket, and while the two other components of the plan – the second-generation Elite and Eclat – were less long lived, the Esprit had staying power.

Why? ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ Bond connection undoubtedl­y helped (as did getting Lotus chassis guru Roger Becker to do the driving), but so did the fact that the car was gorgeous to look at and even better to drive. To this day, it remains one of the most exquisite-handling cars, never better than in either Sport 300 or GT3 guise. Yes, the fit and finish of the earlier cars were lamentable, right down to their Morris Marina door handles, but once on board, you’d find yourself forgiving its every foible. As Lotus contemplat­es its future, it is a replacemen­t for the Esprit that should lead the charge forward.

But it was a car far simpler and more affordable that got Lotus to where it is today. By 1996 and following the failure of the M100 Elan, Lotus was left with one car, the Esprit, and that was already 20 years old. Everything hung on the Elise and, boy, did it deliver. Back then, what Lotus needed was a car to remind everyone what had made Lotus great in the first place.

A simple, affordable two-seat sports car that achieved lightness through innovation. And the Elise, with its bonded aluminium tub, was a car of which the late Colin Chapman would have been truly proud. Here was the real successor to the original Elan, a car that was more fun to drive than anything out there, with the purest steering, yet not so crude and impractica­l that it could only be used for short journeys on sunny days.

The formula was an instant hit, so much so that, 22 years later, it and its Exige sibling remain the core components of the Lotus range. It, too, must be replaced in time and by a car inspired by exactly the same philosophy that created the Elan in the 1960s and Elise in the 1990s.

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Colin Chapman, 1928-1982, was an inspired innovator
Colin Chapman, 1928-1982, was an inspired innovator
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Elise: so good that it has endured for 22 years – so far
Elise: so good that it has endured for 22 years – so far
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? James Bond knew a novel way to tackle an overheatin­g 2.0
James Bond knew a novel way to tackle an overheatin­g 2.0
 ??  ?? Narrow, nimble Elan was still on sale when the Esprit made its debut
Narrow, nimble Elan was still on sale when the Esprit made its debut
 ??  ?? Track-biased models sharpened the Elise formula even further
Track-biased models sharpened the Elise formula even further
 ??  ?? Lotus 25 in the hands of Jim Clark was uncatchabl­e
Lotus 25 in the hands of Jim Clark was uncatchabl­e

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