The Lotus Elite

Colin Chapman's Lotus Elite is considered by many to be the most beautiful design ever to emerge from a British car-maker. It was also extremely advanced for 1957, and its then unique fibreglass monocoque construction and Coventry Climax engines, set new standards in design and performance. As at home on the race-track as on the road, it gained six consecutive class wins at Le Mans as well as countless victories in international and club events. Dennis Ortenburger has owned Elites for many years, and literally took his Series I and II models to pieces as part of the research for this remarkably comprehensive portrait of the car. Starting from the humble Lotus works in North London, he traces the fortunes of the car, the company and the men behind it through the difficult development stages, the problems with the manufacture of the fibreglass body shell, and early sales and marketing crises at home and abroad — all laced with fascinating and entertaining personal reminiscence, anecdotes and insights from the people involved. But the story does not end with the demise of Elite production in 1963. It is a measure of the ultimate success of the car and the affection with which it is regarded by motoring enthusiasts worldwide that today almost half of all Elites built still exist. So Dennis Ortenburger goes on to describe the subsequent histories of many famous Elites and their owners, as well as discussing replicas and lookalikes. He examines in valuable detail the pleasures and pitfalls of Elite ownership, restoration and running, culminating in a complete list of all Elite chassis ever built, giving where known the details of the original and present owners as well as the whereabouts of the cars. Supported by numerous historic and informative photographs, it all adds up to the Elite owner's bible, as well as a complete account of a truly milestone automobile and listing of the original chassis records.