Cars

Following on from his early commercial success with his lightweight competition cars, Colin Chapman announced in 1957 an innovative “road-going” production model with a reinforced plastic monocoque body. Light and well shaped, with very well calculated ground connections, precise and stable, the Elite proved to be fast (nearly 200 km/h), sober and efficient with a Climax engine of only 1,200 cm3. In 1960, the Series 2 offered improved suspensions and a better stepped ZF gearbox. Two Elite cars won the fuel efficiency classification at Le Mans in 1962, the first at an average speed of over 160 km/h.

This series 2 of English origin (chassis 1412) was totally restored in the 2010’s by the Lotus Hexagon dealer in London. It was originally equipped with the Coventry Climax 1200cc engine and two SU carburetors developing +/- 90 hp.

This Elite was acquired in 2016 from Lotus Hexagon. In 2019, the engine was replaced by a Coventry Climax, prepared at Peacock Engineering, of 1500cc equipped with two Weber DCOE 45 carburetors, all developing 136 hp. The original MG gearbox has been replaced by a Ford Type 9 – E7 gearbox (5 gears).