But as the Elite disaster continued to unfold, by 1960 it was necessary for the Type 26 to become the replacement for the Elite. In spite of the Elite problems, monocoque was still the preferred Lotus structural design, and perhaps lessons learned on the Elite would help make a better car. All initial design for the Type 26 was based on a monocoque body shell with two doors and open top. Initially, Hickman set out create the Lotus 26 as a replacement for the Lotus Seven, which had been an impractical (sunny days only) specialty car with minimal benefit to Lotus’ bottom line. This in turn necessitated that he delegate initial design work on the next sports car on the drawing board entirely to Ron Hickman. The fallout was that Chapman spent much of 1959 totally absorbed in salvaging the Lotus reputation from the Type 17’s problems. The front design as implemented was a disaster on the track and had to be scrapped. He specified MacPherson struts both front and back of the 17. While he busied himself arranging for his racing engines to swap ends of the car, and at the same time planning for the production of his first sports coupe, he was forced to delegate design of the Type 17, the last front-engined Lotus racer. The Austin-Healey Sprite revived the concept of a simple sports car based on readily available parts.Ĭhapman was doing double duty trying to keep Lotus Cars and Team Lotus above water. Deep suspicions of its impracticality of manufacture began to wash over Lotus Cars as early as 1959, when Ron Hickman began to write design notes about a new production car. The Elite was never commercially successful for Lotus. Further, the manufacturing process for building a double-skinned FRP monocoque structure was sufficiently beyond current available techniques that the learning curve extended entirely through its production life. But it retailed for $6,000, and more satisfying grand touring vehicles could be had for that price.Īlthough on a race track its limitations could be overlooked, its fragile nature, vibration and noise characteristics, and quality control issues caused it to compare poorly with the best efforts of the competition. It was a successful racer, winning its class six times at Le Mans. Performance was gratifying, due to its lightness and its inheritance of suspension bits and brakes from various competition models including the Type 11, 12, and 16. The Elite weighed less than 1200 lbs., utilizing a Coventry Climax FWE all-aluminum SOHC 1.2L engine providing 75 bhp in basic tune. Type 14: Lotus Elite (image from an Autoweek article) Many consider it to be one of the most beautiful cars ever, partially influenced by the Karmann-Ghia. Thus, suspension components and the engine were secured directly to the glass body. It utilized a monocoque, fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) body rather than a chassis. Lotus’ first attempt at such a car was the Lotus Type 14, called the Elite (conceived in 1955, prototyped in 1957, manufactured 1959-1963). It describes the detailed groundwork from which the Elan (Lotus Type 26) blossomed.Ĭhapman realized that to afford his racing habit and to make himself rich at the same time, his company would have to be successful in building commercial sports and touring cars. The book Colin Chapman’s Lotus (1989 Robin Read, inputs by Mike Costin) provides an insiders’ glimpse of Chapman the person in the early years while taking Lotus from a private garage operation in 1948 to the founding of Lotus Cars in 1952, then through the fifties, the early single seat machines, the Elite saga, up to the early design work for the M2 project (Elan) in 1961.