First seen in 1962 – The Elan put Lotus on the map as a make of World Class road cars.

Central to its design was a Steel Backbone Chassis, Fork shaped with Wishbones and Suspension Coils at the front, Chapman Struts and lower Wishbones at the back with Centre Lock Steel wheels. All of which gave the car amazing agility as well as an excellent drive. The Elan’s 105bhp Engine had Twin Chain – Driven Cams, The block and bottom end came straight from Ford as did the four speed gearbox.

This Classic Car was powerful, light, perfectly balanced and furiously quick – It set the standard for the perfect B- roads dicer. Current for 10 years it spawned a Coupe and a bigger Two-plus-Two sister, with quality and reliability constantly improving.

The 1971 Sprint was the final offering of the 1962 Elan with Tony Rudd developing big valve engines which resulted in 25% more power – 126bhp at 6500rpm. Acceleration that was once rapid was now explosive, in comparison the big valve Sprint could reach 60mph as quickly as a Lamborghini Islero and in top gear had an edge on the likes of the 246 Dino and the Porsche 911E at up to 80mph. It was a more oil-tight and quieter engine claimed Lotus, with a less raucous exhaust than earlier cars.

The production of this Classic – The Elan ended in 1973 which is when Lotus tried to move away from its kit car image -The Elan had always been available in its do it yourself in weekend form from the very beginning –which is why it moved towards more upmarket machines like the Elite and the Espirit. These days the spirit of the Elan had been revived in the Lotus Elise.