Since the arrival of the Elise in 1996, Lotus has rarely dipped below the high bar it set for itself. You could argue that the Europa revival in 2006 wasn’t the company’s finest hour, with few buying into the prospect of a heavier, marginally more GT-focused Elise, but it was still underpinned by the Series 2 chassis and put out north of 200hp. And while the Emira hasn’t enjoyed the smoothest introduction, the car itself is wonderful to drive and rounds out the end of the company’s combustion era nicely.
Before the Elise, of course, there was the car we have here: the Elan M100. Sit the two side by side and it’s clear to see just how much of a giant leap the Elise represented, with the Elan looking clunky, chunky and downright frumpy by comparison. Lotus resurrected the Elan as a small, affordable sports car to help bump up sales, with parent company General Motors chucking tens of millions at its development in the hope that it would crack the US market. It didn’t, however, with the Elan reputedly costing the same as a brand new Corvette in early 1990s America. Hardly a fair fight, is it?
It's not like the Elan did itself any favours either. The range-topping SE like the one you see here did pack a punch with a 164hp turbocharged Isuzu four-pot, but with power being sent exclusively to the front wheels it didn’t exactly scream exotic sports car. In truth though, the Elan was actually a cracking little roadster - even by Lotus’s lofty standards. Matt noted in his PH Heroes piece on the M100 that the car’s “ability to put down a decent wodge of power and torque is seriously impressive.” That’s in part thanks to its trick ‘interactive wishbone’, which mounted the wishbones to a ‘raft’ that was then bolted to the chassis. This essentially kept the geometry in check while under acceleration to mitigate the effects of torque steer. If anyone can crack the front-wheel drive sports car, it’s Roger Becker.
At launch, the Elan was met with critical acclaim (at least in Europe), with reviewers praising its sublime chassis; perhaps it didn’t drive like any other Lotus before it - and none since - but it was still a riot in its own right. Unfortunately and famously, the Elan arrived just as the original Mazda MX-5 arrived on the scene. Weighing about as much as a teabag, and having its engine in the front and naturally aspirated power at the back, made it seem to some buyers like a better spiritual successor to the Elan than the Elan itself. Sales weakened and with fewer than 5,000 examples shifted Lotus pulled the plug in 1995. We all know what happened next: the Elise would take the world by storm a year later, while the Elan would eventually be rebadged as a Kia and sold in South Korea until the end of the decade.
Since then, the Elan has lived very much in the Elise’s shadow, yet it deservedly earned a cult following and there are plenty of cherished examples still tearing across British roads (and South Korea’s for that matter) to this very day. Few, however, will be in as good nick as this 1992 example. The car has undergone an extensive restoration, including the complete rebuild of the chassis with either existing or new components. It’s also been given a new tub (one of the last produced by the factory, claims the ad), that’s been treated against corrosion with a wax seal.
That’s not all. The running gear was stripped and rebuilt, too, while all the brackets and fittings were re-coated and painted where needed. Add to that an overhaul of the brakes, replacement hoses inside the engine bay and the fitment of new 16-inch OZ alloy wheels. Even the light pods have been given a once over. The seller’s asking £26,950 for it, which is admittedly big money for an M100 and firmly in Series 2 Elise territory. But there’s a lot of effort (and a lot of money) that’s gone into making this Elan the best it can possibly be. Surely it’s worth taking a punt on? For old time's sake.
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