I’m not going to be able to do the brilliant little Elan proper justice today; that may have to wait until I catch up with the one that has eluded me twice now here in town. But this shot posted at the Cohort by William Rubano couldn’t be passed up: one of the lightest and nimblest sports car ever, along with a giant Pontiac hearse. Darter fish meets whale.
The Elan was perhaps Colin Chapman’s most important car to date, inasmuch as it actually made money, something Lotus cars rarely achieved. Its predecessor, the beautiful Elite was much too expensive to build and sell profitably, with its complex fiberglass monocoque and all-alloy Coventy Climax engine.
The Elan had a very rigid steel backbone chassis and a fiberglass body. Thanks to that rigid frame, the Elan was a superlative handler, as its fully-independent suspension could work to maximum benefit. These principles eventually became commonplace, but in 1962, it was something of a revelation.
Under the hood, the Elan was more pragmatic too, using the 1557 cc Ford Kent iron block engine with a two-valve alloy DOHC head designed by Harry Mundy. Depending on model, between 108 and 126 hp were on tap, and given the Elan roadster’s 1516 lb (688 kg) curb weight, performance was sparkling: 0-60 in 7.9 seconds, and a 120+ mph top speed. The Lotus-Ford engine was later adopted and built by Ford itself, and used in the Ford Lotus Cortina, among others.
Emma Peel in the Avengers helped make the Elan a household word, and Mazda bought two of them to examine very closely when they designed their first Miata. I better stop now, or what will therebe left to say when I finally catch up with that pesky and noisy Elan in Eugene?
The Elan–second only in beauty to the Elite. Excellent find!
Yes the Lotus is fine…more because the InLine 6 3.6 Litre Lotus engine had been put into the GM’s Vauxhall/Opel Omega-Awhich is a V8 Monaro/GTO beater…but IS THAT a PONTIAC Hearse in the background?
Yep, a Pontiac. It appears to be a ’72 based on the parking light in the front fender. Last year I watched an old episode of Kojak that had a very similar ’72 Pontiac hearse in it, only it was gunmetal gray.
Both the Pontiac commercial chassis and the Elan are getting thin on the ground due to time and production numbers.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule/cc-capsule-the-pontiac-commercial-chassis-1971-to-1975-the-overlooked-rarity/
Ford only got to use that motor in the MK1 Lotus cortina by the time they built the Mk2 Lotus had moved on to Vauxhall OHC engines, so Ford had to design their own OHC arrangement
The Mk2 Lotus Cortina also used Lotus Ford engines.When the RS 1600 Escort came along Ford started making a version of the Ford-based 16 valve Cosworth BDA engine instead of using the Lotus one. Lotus designed their 2.2 engine around Vauxhall dimensions, with Vauxhalls’ consent, so that they could use some Vauxhall components, but it was a Lotus engine. Some Vauxhall competition cars were built with Lotus cylinder heads before Vauxhall built their own 4-valve competition heads.
It looks like a Superior Pontiac, I can never remember the model names for the different Superior models…it also has a vent in the left quarter panel, so it may nominally be a hearse/ambulance combination, as opposed to a straight hearse.
Yup – a combination car with side glass in the rear between C and D pillars.
My preferred car in the photo is the rose R107; it should be a 560 with those wheels.
Wheels won’t confirm 560, but the black door handles will.
KJ
Is that an early Yellow Coach double decker behind the Benz? If so, that would be the real rarity. Was Colin Chapman inspired by the ’58 Impala for that chassis design? Just sayin’…….
It’s 1966, and I’m a nerdy, under-developed, over-hormoned adolescent with such a pathetic reputation that no girl at my high school would be caught dead talking to me. One Friday night, I turn on the television and simultaneously discover Diana Rigg and the Lotus Elan.
And from that moment on, I understood the term ‘lust’.
@ Syke-
That sounds just like me, circa 1986. 🙂
Only in my case, I had KMEX Ch. 34 ( a local Spanish-language station- the biggest and most well known in Southern California ), and my neighbors’ ’77 Corvette.
I also had a huge crush on KABC-7 news anchors Angela Black and Joanne Ishimine. Remember them, Paul?
KMEX: hiss, boo!
When was that, re: KABC? We left LA in ’85. Maybe afterwards. I used to watch Connie Chung when she was the anchor at KCBS, in the late 70s. Not that she was all that hot…
I remember Connie from back when channel 2 was still KNXT rather than KCBS. I thought Connie was cute, but there were other gals out there that were indeed better looking.
Angela Black went to work for KABC around 1980 or so. She was particularly noteworthy because she was the first black female to anchor a major L.A. network primetime newscast. She was quite a hottie in her day.
Jessica Savitch was the hot anchor at the time:
i was on an elevator in the early nineties at the cbs broadcast center in new york when connie chung and her entourage got on. she was going over strategy and then suddenly noticing that i was there, she turned to me and said, “you realize we’re going to have to kill you now.” i looked her straight in the eyes and replied, “anything for the network.”
Emma Peel sure inspired me too. I even doodled the Elan in study hall.
A study in extremes indeed.
iirc, the R&T owner’s survey for the Elan set an all time record for number of problem spots. If an item could fail two different ways, it did. Starters that wouldn’t engage, and starters that wouldn’t disengage. Some, the headlights would not go up, some would not go down, in one poor sod’s case, the lights would come up, but slowly sink into the fenders when he drove up a hill.
The Elan’s record was unbeaten for about 10 years, until they surveyed the 78 Omnirizon.
Does look nice though.
LOTUS = Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious
+1
LOL, sadly
I finally gave up on any fantasies of ever owning an Elan when Peter Egan recently restored one. Even stripped to individual parts and carefully reassembled, he couldn’t make it work right. If HE can’t manage it, I’ve got no chance whatsoever.
Nah, it looks like bad trouble. Maybe the photo contrasts the least with most durable two seaters of my lifetime. I’d get in that R107 for a cross country trip but wouldn’t trust the Elan to make it down the block.
Did not know about the R107 door handle color but will research and learn.
The Elan is one of my all time favourite cars. Hard to see one in such tough shape. Still looks to be a good candidate for restoration though.
My wife’s Miata is about as close to a Lotus as I have had. But what I’d really like (once the crop of three high-schoolers finishes college) is a Europa. Similar backbone but mid engined, funny looking but unique. But why am I explaining myself? Lust just is…no reason needed.
Lust just is…no reason needed.
Yup. I’m lucky I have a one car garage. Otherwise I’d be inclined to drag all kinds of stuff home…like a Fiat X 1/9…a late one, 1980 or so..iirc they cleaned up the crash bumper so it wasn’t as huge as before, and it had more midrange torque than earlier versons.
A friend took me for a short ride in his Europa once.( we are talking 40+ years ago). The front tyres rubbed against the chassis or body on full lock, and he needed two hands to select reverse… The Elan is cream of the crop.
Entering and exiting an Europa is a challenge unless you have the same dimensions as the late Colin Chapman.
The great Smokey Yunick referred to Colin Chapman as Sir-Breaks-A-Lot.
I believe Chapman’s philosophy was that a car should be so light it’ll hold together just long enough to cross the finish line. If it fell apart immediately afterwards, so what? The race was over.
Colin built more winning Indy cars than Smokey did, so maybe he was right!
I love the overall shape but why the Brits couldn’t use frameless doors is mystery. It kills the looks for me.
The early Elans used frameless doors, with a nicer window profile. I guess they leaked water, as the “facelifted” version used these frames.
Want to match the MX5 to an Elan?
So cool; in terms of chassis technology, with the exception of electronic bandaids, we’re not much further than Chapman was in ’62, are we? And in terms of style, the Elan looks like it could’ve come from 1972, at least when viewed from the front. You certainly couldn’t say the same about the early ’90s Elan, though its front-drive chassis deserves more respect than it gets. Maybe one day, someone will incorporate its principles into a compact sedan, where they belong (yeah right).
Is it known whether Colin Chapman looked at other engines prior to choosing the Ford Kent-based Twin-Cam?
The following link below claims prior to settling for the Ford Kent engine as as basis for the Twin-Cam engine, the BMC A-Series was considered but rejected on the basis there was not a long term evolution plan for the engine.
However Graham Robson’s book on the A-Series (detailing experimental updates that never entered production) as well as David Vizard’s book, along with Nissan’s A/E engines, all show the engine could have been almost been a viable alternative to the Kent-based Twin-Cam. Vizard’s book and the Nissan A/E engines even demonstrate a better conceived A-Series or direct evolution of the A-Series could have been capable of further enlargement beyond 1275cc displacing from 1293-1380cc up to 1596cc.
http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=3551