Last month Lotus introduced another special edition, the Elise Type 25. The
original Type 25, the car that made Jim Clark a legend and established Lotus as
a major force in F1, broke both technological and innovative boundaries just as
the Elise does today.
Turning away from the 'then standard' tubular spaceframe, Colin Chapman,
inspired by the Elan chassis, created the first monocoque racing car by
sketching the design on a napkin over lunch with Mike Costin (also of Cosworth
fame). Virtually built around Jim Clark, the car was secretly constructed in a
small area of the then Lotus headquarters at Cheshunt and made it's debut at the
1962 Dutch Grand Prix. The end of the season saw Lotus failing to win the
championship by one point, a fantastic achievement by a radically new and
different car, but the following season was to get even better. Clark and Lotus
finished the 1963 season with maximum points securing both the Drivers and
Constructors World Championships.
The same aluminium chassis and GRP body panel principles that were used in
the construction of the Type 25 race car are now used to create the Elise, with
the same principles of performance through lightweight and low capacity, high
output engines at the heart of it's engineering.
The Elise Type 25, built to commemorate the revolutionary racecar, mirrors
its design, painted in Lotus Racing Green with twin metallic yellow stripes
running front to back. Unique black Lotus styled six spoke wheels complete the
racing look from the exterior. Inside, echoing the original, the interior
includes perforated Ruby red leather seats, door panels and steering wheel
centre. The heritage look is continued with red laurels embroidered onto the
headrest of each seat and a Heritage Type 25 ID plate confirming it's limited
edition status as only 50 of these cars will be produced for the UK market. The
car is also supplied with both hard top, maintaining the twin stripes, and soft
top as standard.
Each Elise Type 25 will entitle the owner to an exclusive tour around Classic
Team Lotus, home of the original Lotus F1 cars, an exclusive tour around Group
Lotus plc, a copy of The Lotus Book signed by Johnny Herbert, certification of
the cars details and its limited edition status, a Classic Team Lotus heritage
model and personalised print of the Type 25 race car.