LOTUS ELAN SE (M100)
RUN BY Steve Cropley OWNED SINCE October 2020 PREVIOUS REPORT March
Buying this car happened late last year on the spur of the moment. I got talking to my pal Paul Matty (famous as one of the world’s greatest old-lotus experts) about how we were approaching the 30th anniversary of his Lotus hillclimb series in 2021 and how, despite me having owned eight Lotus cars over the years, I had nothing to run in the big commemorative event at Prescott.
We began chatting about cars to buy and settled on the M100. They were cheap, I’d never had one, and I have the fondest memories of the development of the car – having covered it for C&SC’S sister weekly organ, Autocar – and especially of numerous meetings with the late racer-turned-engineer John Miles, who was such a kingpin in its development. And, like the hillclimb, it’s 30 years old.
So I bought a well-owned 1991 example that Paul sourced in Scotland, stored it through the remainder of the winter and freed it from its slumber several months ago. It was a £10,995 car then, but I reckon it might have gained a little altitude since, because that’s what’s happening to affordable classics.
I guess I’ve done 6-700 miles by now, even though it has to compete with press test cars, because it has proved to be one of those cars you can just jump into and go. If you keep it clean it cuts a fine figure anywhere, generating far more interest than the purchase price implies. People love the colour and the 17in Rover wheels fitted to my car. Even the M100’s designer, Peter Stevens, prefers them to the 15in or 16in originals. And it always works. There’s a 2015 Mazda MX-5 in our family – a 1000kg two-seater with 160bhp and almost the same dimensions, but with a longitudinal engine and rear-drive instead of the Elan’s transverse front-drive – and the comparisons are endlessly interesting.
I love the MX-5, but the unvarnished truth is that the Lotus rides better, is quieter at speed, goes as well, feels a bit more directionally stable and – get this – feels like the more expensive product, even after three decades. Far from being a racing car, it’s a cruiser – not least because the cockpit keeps you well protected at quite high speeds. It has excellent steering and grip, mind, even on the previous owner’s new but oddball Aoteli tyres.
There are issues with body and trim rattles (especially if you don’t stash the hood properly), and the various roof and door seals aren’t the best, but it’s a completely viable car, better engineered and more modern than any Lotus before it. The 1.6-litre turbo Isuzu engine is intriguing, too – so decently torquey down at around 2500rpm that you don’t expect it to take off the way it does between 4000rpm and the 7000rpm redline. Even in modern terms it’s still quite brisk. I often wonder how quick (albeit busy) it would have felt on slightly shorter gearing.
The M100 will always be a curiosity in Lotus terms (they didn’t make many), and the Elise soon came along more or less to sweep away all signs of the Elan. But mine’s doing well, and even after Prescott I reckon it’ll stay.