Lotus Elan - More Fun Per Dollar Than An E-Type Jaguar

Un - temperamental power, brilliant handling in an affordable road car. The Result: More fun per dollar than an E-Type.
That's how a much revered lotus elan was summed up by Aust performance car world magazine motoring journalists back in the 1960s when they evaluated 100 Years Of Sporting Cars - after which chose The Top Ten.
There probably wont be any surprises if you learn what one with the top ten was chosen because the best of the sixties sports cars?
No prizes for guessing that it was the indomitable Lotus elan, the lightweight lotus elan that provided simply amazing performance for the price. The late Colin Chapman had an uncanny capacity to make mundane materials work smarter in addition to a small bit harder.
What made the elan a milestone performance car in the sixties was the way it packaged a technologically advanced sheet metal folded & fabricated backbone chassis design which was in conjunction with a really willing & powerful twin cam engine which provided affordable, reliable and entertaining motoring.
Remember to, how the 1960's was the decade with the E-type Jaguar engine specialist & big banger exotic sports cars, yet none of those what are known as exotics came anywhere near the lotus elan for delivering maximum driving fun per dollar.
A willing twin cam engine coupled to an ultra close ratio four speed gearbox, a lightweight, yet torsionally ridged backbone chassis clothed within an equally lightweight fibreglass body provided incredible performance from a real small package.
The Chapman designed front & rear soft sprung independent suspension provided sure footed handling and frightening road adhesion and grip, increasingly remarkable whenever you consider that the standard tyres were of 70 series installed on 4.5" rims.
The remarkable design parameters in the lotus elan ended in a vehicle that delivered outstanding performance, it was, yet still is a car that is certainly capable of delivering very rapid indicate point travel times with no must explore it's top speed, nor will you should exceed the given road speed limits, there are few cars with the sixties era that provide driving enjoyment that can match the lotus elan can perform.
Today, the remainder from the surviving lotus élan's traveling are generally owned by those who are enthusiastic about the marque, they maintain them and also refine the cars to improve the daily driving enjoyment a lot more.
Production numbers of the lotus elan hovered round the twelve thousand mark, however the amount in existence today could well be a smaller amount than that, perhaps that augers well to the present day owners who know & appreciate the actual price of owning this kind of magnificent 1960's performance car, as increasing numbers of & more classic sports motoring enthusiasts wake as to the these brilliant lotus cars represent in motoring terms, the marketplace values continues to go up because last surviving cars are got by current and new lotus enthusiasts alike. In this over regulated, dumbed down arena of today, car enthusiasts round the world won't see another sports machine that can compare with the lotus elan.