The Lotus Elan was launched in October 1962 at the British International Motor Show at Earls Court, just as the sixties started swinging. Jaguar had launched the E-Type the previous year, while AC had the Cobra and Ferrari the GTO. These were big, powerful, and expensive machines. The Elan was very different, and typically Lotus – ultra modern, lightweight, nimble and tremendous fun.
In the same year that Lotus revolutionized racing car design with the monocoque 25, they also packed the Elan with technically innovative features like the first backbone tube chassis of any road car, as well as a fiberglass body, four-wheel independent suspension, weight of 1750 lbs (670kg) and the new Lotus Twin Cam engine, produced by significantly modifying a Ford 116E block. Right away the new Elan proved a welcome replacement to the fragile, expensive-to-build Elite and proved to be Lotus’s biggest commercial success to that point, reviving the company’s overstretched finances.
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