Lotus made its name in road cars with the raw handling Seven Kit car in 1957, following that up with the small, light and fine handling Elan in 1962. Despite the famous maxim of founder Colin Chapman ‘For better performance, add lightness’ Lotus’s road car program lurched through the 1970s based around powerful supercras and coupes. Developing and building such cars to increasingly stringent mass market standards was a constant struggle. The commercial was the catalyst for a whole new approach. The Elise went back to Lotus’s first principles. It was a very simple, very light very innovative roadster, designed to deliver a supercar style driving experience at a much affordable price. Based around an incredible all aluminium chassis, made of large box section extrusions, the Elise was remarkable for its chassis rigidly, incredibly complaint ride and super sensitive steering. It was around 30 percent lighter than the MGF, with which it shared its 118 bhp engine, so while it was very quick, the Elise was managed so be very economical.
The chassis was skinned with fiber glass panel work influenced by chief designer Julian Thomson’s Ferrari Dino, and the interior was left in bare aluminium with some beautiful ‘engineered’ details. It was a revelation. The Elise was one of the most innovative cars ever produced. It did impossible by offering 95 percent of the supercar experience for a mere 20 percent of the price.
