From the archives: This car—to be blunt—is the first Lotus that doesn’t, in some detail, remind me of a kit car.
In the bright little lunchroom of Lotus USA’s headquarters near Atlanta, R&T photographer Bill Warner and I sipped coffee, trying to condense our opinions of the U.S.-specification Elan. We had just finished two days of dawn-to-dusk driving, first testing the brilliant-yellow Lotus at Road Atlanta, then exploring the beautiful rural country of Georgia between rain squalls. A few feet away, Roger Becker, who directed the Elan’s creation, was studying the lunchroom’s linoleum floor. Every few seconds he’d tip up on his toes slightly, in nervous, buoyant fidgets. Rather like a schoolboy who knows he’s aced the final, I thought.
Not looking up, Roger finally asked us, “So, what do you think of it?” Under other circumstances, Roger’s passion for Lotus (he habitually says, “We’re all little Chapmans, you know”) would make breaking bad news difficult. Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary. The Elan—despite ominous delays and some knife-sharpening in the automotive press over Hethel’s choice of front-wheel drive—is a marvelous sports car.
I began, “Well, it’s terrific,” but my response was cut short.
This story originally appeared in the April 1991 issue of Road & Track.
“It is, isn’t it!” Roger interrupted, his eyes flashing a boyish enthusiasm particular to British sports-car engineers. Old photos of W.O. Bentley and Donald Healey capture it, and it’s there in images of the young Colin Chapman before financial tangles finally wore him out.
Many of those early photos of Chapman capture him fussing over the original Elan (built from 1962 to 1973), a car designed to save Lotus from an early cash-flow bind caused by the beautiful but expensive Elite. The Elan was to be simpler, cheaper and a big seller. Nearly 30 years later, the Elan name and formula have returned, though Lotus is far from a cash crunch. Currently, Hethel is building roughly 1200 $85,000 Esprits per year: Elan productions is expected to hit 3000 per annum, split among Asia, Europe, and the U.S.
At $39,040, the Elan’s price is steep for its mechanical specifications, especially considering the tabs of its rivals, the more powerful and complex L98 Corvette, Nissan 300ZX Turbo and Mitsubishi 3000GT. However, exclusivity does count for something, as do its sophisticated road manners.
The Elan’s chassis follows Lotus’ traditional practice of bolting a molded composite body onto a steel backbone frame. In fact, this practice began with the original Elan, when, as lore has it, Chapman became impatient with the slow progress of the prototype being constructed as an all-fiberglass monocoque. To quickly test his latest suspension ideas, a simple steel backbone frame was built, and to Chapman’s astonishment, it proved to be twice as stiff as a complete Elite.
The new Elan’s structure differs in that the backbone’s cross section is octagonal rather than rectangular, and the composite reinforced floor-pan (including steel runners at the doorsills) adds extra rigidity. At around 6500 lb.-ft./degree of torsional stiffness, this is a very rigid open car.
Though the backbone is back, Chapman’s famous strut suspension is not. Instead the Elan’s rear comprises upper lateral links and lower A-arms. A quick glance under a front fender suggests essentially the same arrangement, except both upper and lower elements are A-arms. But a closer look reveals that the entire front suspension is hung from an aluminum casting Lotus calls a raft, and this has an extraordinary effect on the Elan’s ride and handling.
Ordinarily, a compliant ride requires soft suspension bushings, primarily to allow the wheel to move slightly backward when a bump is hit. The trouble is, soft bushings also toss accurate suspension geometry out the window. Here the Elan goes its own way with A-arm bushings that are quite rigid (to retain proper geometry). But three additional soft bushings between the raft and the chassis allow the suspension (as a unit) to twist rearward up to a half inch. Steering direction is unaffected by the motion because the tie rods, in the manner of a parallelogram, keep the wheels correctly pointed. But, of course, the real aim is consistent and predictable handling.
Front-drive sports coupes and sedans are one thing, but can a real sports car be driven by its front wheels? The Elan proves that it can—conclusively. On the track, performance credentials are in perfect order: Through the slalom, around the skidpad or lapping Road Atlanta, the Elan’s pace suggests highly efficient use of its modestly sized tires. Likewise, its brake pedal is firm, sensitive and ideally placed for heel-and-toeing. Only rarely is front-drive evident, and then only as a presence. Repeating what we said in our October 1990 Driving Impressions, “The car tells you it has front-wheel drive, but never penalizes you for it.”
That the Elan is front-driven is merely a footnote to its handling, characterized by modest understeer. Lift off the throttle in mid-corner and at most, its nose tucks in. The new Elan is no hairy-chested 4-wheel drifter, but don’t mistake that for timidity when attacking a twisting road.
During the Elan’s development, Lotus experimented with front- and rear-drive versions of the same test platform, and found most drivers were quicker through a slalom course with front drive. To a large extent this reflects the average driver’s lack of experience with rear-wheel drive near the limit. And in fact, Lotus’ research has found that most owners of the new Elan come to it with no rear-drive experience whatsoever.
For the U.S. market, the Elan has received several chassis alterations from the European version. Most obvious are bigger 16-in. wheels and lower-profile 45-series tires, adopted primarily for appearance. You’d better be a good shot if you try to kick these sidewalls—they’re the shortest currently available on a production car. Nevertheless, the Elan manages a supple ride. Tweaks to the U.S. version also include such suspension modifications as redesigned upper A-arms up front and a massaged steering system (for quicker turn-in, given slower North American driving speeds).
To keep the car’s handling balance intact, the rear suspension’s responsiveness to abrupt handling maneuvers has been appropriately subdued. The U.S. Elan’s spring rates are higher (9 percent at front, 14 percent rear), together with recalibrated shock valving. Tuning shock absorbers is nearly a religion to Roger Becker, and riding in the Elan for any length of time leads you to believe he’s right. Road ripples that you’d expect to pitch the relatively short Lotus violently produce instead easy vertical motions, nearly absent of pitch.
Frankly, the Elan’s weak link is its turbocharged Isuzu engine, which is not of the same caliber as the rest of the car, one costing nearly $40,000. Essentially the same engine as that used in the awd Impulse Turbo, it’s technologically replete. Displacing only 1.6 liters, the alloy-head inline-4 produces 162 bhp at 6600 rpm (more than 100 bhp per liter) and 148 lb.-ft.of torque at 4200 rpm. Like many other engines, its pent-roof combustion chambers are topped by four valves per cylinder. But unlike the average 4-valver, the Isuzu/Lotus power-plant is fitted with a mechanism that partially blocks the intake tract at low rpm, creating a ram effect for better filling at part throttle. Under full throttle, the turbo delivers a maximum of 9.4 psi of intercooled boost.
On the road, the engine is a solid workhorse, as responsive as any turbo and happy to spin up to 7000 rpm with minimal complaint. Surprisingly smooth, given that Isuzu engines have generally been a step behind their Japanese brethren. The Elan installation has impressively isolated tremors. No doubt Isuzu engineers have taken note of this.
Unlike the friendly-looking Miata, the Elan’s body and interior design doesn’t build on familiar notions of a sports-car’s appearance. The cabin is boldly sculpted with at all instrument pod atop an expansive dash; the seats are contemporary-looking leather buckets, and all gauges and controls are marked in orange on black. There are also such standard features as air conditioning and electrically actuated windows and mirrors. One thoughtful feature is a removable AM/FM stereo/cassette player, something all open cars should offer. Garish stripes running laterally across the seats and up the door panels (as seen on the European Elan) are optional in the U.S. version.
Although the Elan interior is comfortable, there are a few ergonomical quirks. The speedometer and tach are somewhat blocked by the new airbag-equipped steering wheel. Legroom is limited by reduced seat travel, the result of interference between the seatback and folding-top mechanism. And recessed armrests are so narrow that they invite your elbow to slip off. On the positive side, the folding top, though not a one-hand affair, goes up in less than a minute and is snug fitting.
Even the Elan’s wedge shape has been tinkered with for the U.S. Up front, a federally mandated 2.5-mph bumper blends gently into the nose, adding 2.5 in. to overall length. Federally mandated side markers are recessed into the front and rear bumpers—not just tacked on. And the body split line between the rear fender and trunklid (actually, the edge of the wing) now runs longitudinally instead of down the fender’s side, as demanded by Lotus USA to improve appearance.
Taking another sip of coffee, I offered Roger Becker a studied observation, “This car—to be blunt—is the first Lotus that doesn’t, in some detail, remind me of a kit car.”
Roger quietly and proudly agreed.
Keyword: The Lotus Elan SE Will Change Your Mind about Front-Wheel Drive