Special Sundays: The Lotus Elan

Welcome back to Special Sundays, where we re-visit automotive history, and take you back in time to the automotive legends from the 20th century!

Yes, it’s a Monday, we apologise. This week, we take you back to the 1960’s, to one of Lotus Cars’ big hits, the first generation Lotus Elan (S1). Launched in 1962, around the era of Ferrari’s famous GTO’s and Jaguar’s famous E-Type, this car wasn’t like the rest. It was like… Lotus! Light, fast and fun! A convertible two-seat/two-door sports car that somewhat resembles a Miata, if Mazda made Miata’s in the 1960’s. Lotus made a hardtop one year later, and a Coupé (+2) in 1965.

Not only was the car oddly light (weighing only 688kg), it also came with rare luxury features including electric windows, an air conditioner (heater), and a wooden trim. The ‘Lotus Twin-Cam’ 1.6 litre inline-4 was quite a powerful engine back in its time too! With a front engine, rear-wheel drive setup, this car handled like a charm.

In 1967, a Coupé version was made, and the 0-100kph time was measured at 7.9 seconds The top speed was 190kph. 5,200 were made, but now only around 1000 are left. In 1973, the ‘Elan Sprint’ was made, in roadster form, and it measured a very-quick-for-its-time 0-100kph time of just 6.6 seconds! The Elan was taken off production in 1973, and the Elan +2 in 1975, making a total production line of 17,000.

A new Lotus Elan (M100) was brought around in 1989, and it was the most costly car that Lotus had ever developed. Around $55 million dollars was put into designing this car, and it ended up using an Isuzu 1.6 litre inline-4 engine paired with a 5-speed manual. Once again, front engined, but this time, front-wheel drive. The non-turbo version weighed just less than 1 tonne, and the turbo version weighed just over a tonne. The 121kW (162 hp) engine gave it an acceleration time to 100kph in 6.5 seconds, and a tested top speed of 220kph. The car wasn’t nearly as a success as the first Elan back in the 60’s, and after six years and around 4,600 units, the car was taken off production and sold to Kia Motor-technology. Between 1995 and 1999, Kia produced the car in its own domestic market (Korea), badged as a ‘Kia Elan’.

So what made the first generation Elan such a success?
Three main reasons:

FIRST: The first generation Elan was Lotus’s first production breakthrough and arguably most successful creation to this day!

SECOND: The Elan S1 was the inspiration for the first generation (NA) Mazda MX-5.

THIRD: Well, the car was amazing in pretty much every category. It was fast, good looking, handled well and had a nice and polished wooden interior. What more could you ask for?