Lotus Elite

1958 to 1963
Overview
Manufacturer	Lotus Cars
Production	1958–1963
Body and chassis
Class	Sports car
Body style	2-door coupé
Powertrain
Engine	1.2 L Coventry Climax Straight-4 75-105hp
Transmission	4-speed manual
Dimensions
Wheelbase	2,242 mm (88.3 in)
Length	3,759 mm (148.0 in)
Width	1,506 mm (59.3 in)
Height	1,181 mm (46.5 in)
Kerb weight	503.5 kg (1,110 lb)

The first Elite or Lotus Type 14 was an ultra-light two-seater coupé, produced from 1958 to 1963.

History

Making its debut at the 1957 London Motor Car Show, Earls Court, as chassis #1008 ,the Elite had spent a year in development,  before going on sale.

The first Lotus Elite, the Type 14, was a very light, two-seater coupe. It was presented at the London Motor Car Show in 1957 and was produced from 1957 to 1963.

After the Berkeley Sports of 1956, the Elite is the second series-production automobile with a self-supporting body made of fiberglass- reinforced plastic . The aerodynamic body with a drag coefficient of 0.29 was designed by Peter Kirwan-Taylor and Frank Costin . It is made up of three shells. Two of them form the outer skin and the third the engine and the interior. The material of the plastic matrix was the then new epoxy resin and the body panels were hand laminated from fiberglass mat and resin. A laminated steel frame pulled around the windshield and strengthened the A-pillar, supported the door hinges and its lower ends served as a jack mount. The engine and front suspension were also on a laminated subframe. The body is prone to breakage at the force application points and the successor model Elan got a central tubular frame made of sheet steel, albeit a light (34 kg).

The Elite was the only overhead cam sports car made in England from the time. The manufacturer Coventry Climax supplied the type FWE motor , which is derived from the motor of a portable fire service pump (type FWfor "feather weight"). The housing and cylinder head were made of aluminum and were therefore very light. The short-stroke (67 mm / 76 mm) four-cylinder in-line engine with a displacement of 1216 cm³ has dry cylinder liners, three crankshaft bearings and two parallel hanging valves per cylinder that are actuated by bucket tappets. The forged crankshaft drives an intermediate shaft via a straight-toothed pair of spur gears at half speed. The inlet and outlet are on the same side of the cylinder head, the combustion chambers are wedge-shaped. With a compression of 8.5: 1, it delivers 55 kW (75 bhp) at 6100 rpm. Only this engine was offered over the entire construction period, but there were different tuning levels with up to 77 kW.

PERFORMANCE:
ENGINE CAPACITY: 74.37 cu in, 1216 cu cm;
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 28 m imp gal, 23.3 m US gal, 10.1 1 x 100 km
MAX SPEED: 111 mph, 178.7 km h
max speed in 1st gear: 30 mph, 48.3 km / h
max speed in 2nd gear: 50 mph, 80.5 km/h
max speed in 3rd gear: 83 mph, 133.6 km / h
max speed in 4th gear: 111 mph, 178.7 km/h
power-weight ratio: 15.0 lb/hp, 6.8 kg/hp
useful load: 353 1b, 160 kg
acceleration: standing 1/4 mile 14.8 sec, 0—50 mph (0 80 km/h) 8 sec
speed in direct drive at 1000 rpm: 15.7 mph. 25.3 km h.

Coventry Climax was a leader in racing engines at the time, but made a living from engines for forklift trucks and fire engines. Some individual pieces were built with the Lotus TwinCam engine - even after the Elite's official construction period - and in the USA there were relatively many conversions to Ford Kent engines, since the Coventry Climax engines after the insolvency of the importer Jay Chamberlain no longer had a functioning spare parts supply.

The power is transmitted to the rear wheels via a four-speed gearbox. The front wheels are suspended from double wishbones, a "Chapman axle" is installed at the rear, i.e. wheel-guiding suspension struts with the drive shafts as wishbones and trailing arms, later triangular wishbones arranged diagonally (with two suspension points on the wheel carrier and one further forward in the middle). The brakes are from Girling, hydraulically operated without servo, with discs on all wheels, inside at the rear.

The Elite, of which a total of only 988 units were produced, was intended as a sports car and was successfully driven in races. The Elite achieved first and second place in its class at Le Mans between 1961 and 1963.

The Elite's most distinctive feature was its highly innovative fiberglass monocoque construction, in which a stressed-skin unibody replaced the previously separate chassis and body components. Unlike the contemporary Chevrolet Corvette, which used fiberglass for only exterior bodywork, the Elite also used this glass-reinforced plastic material for the entire load-bearing structure of the car, though the front of the monocoque incorporated a steel subframe supporting the engine and front suspension, and there was a hoop at the windscreen for mounting door hinges and jacking the car up. The first 250 body units were made by Maximar Mouldings at Pulborough, Sussex. The body construction caused numerous early problems, until manufacture was handed over to Bristol Aeroplane Company.

The resultant body was both lighter, stiffer, and provided better driver protection in the event of a crash. Sadly, the full understanding of the engineering qualities of fiberglass reinforced plastic was still several years off and the suspension attachment points were regularly observed to pull out of the fiberglass structure. The weight savings allowed the Elite to achieve sports car performance from a 75 hp (55 kW) 1216 cc Coventry Climax FWE all-aluminium straight-4 engine with fuel consumption at 35mpg. All production Lotus Elites were powered by the FWE engine. (Popular mythology says that cars left the factory with a variety of engines, but this is incorrect.) The FWE engine, derived from a water pump engine usually found bolted to a fire truck, was used by Lucas Electric for electrical component life testing in the presence of intense vibration.

Like its siblings, the Elite was run in numerous formulae, with particular success at Le Mans and the Nürburgring. Elites won their class six times at the 24 hour Le Mans race as well as two Index of Thermal Efficiency wins. Les Leston, driving DAD10, and Graham Warner, driving LOV1, were noted UK Elite racers. In 1961, David Hobbs fitted a Hobbs Mecha-Matic 4-speed automatic transmission to an Elite, and became almost unbeatable in two years' racing – he won 15 times from 18 starts. New South Wales driver Leo Geoghegan won the 1960 Australian GT Championship at the wheel of a Lotus Elite.

The car had independent suspension all round with transverse wishbones at the front and Chapman struts at the rear. The rear struts were so long, that they poked up in the back and the tops could be seen through the rear window. The Series 2 cars, with Bristol-built bodies, had triangulated trailing radius arms for improved toe-in control. Girling disc brakes, usually without servo assistance, of 9.5 in (241 mm) diameter were used, inboard at the rear. When leaving the factory the Elite originally fitted Pirelli Cinturato 155HR15 tyres (CA67)

Advanced aerodynamics also made a contribution, giving the car a very low drag coefficient of 0.29 – quite low even for modern cars.This accomplishment is all the more remarkable considering the engineers did not enjoy the benefits of computer-aided design or wind tunnel testing. The original Elite drawings were by Peter Kirwan-Taylor. Frank Costin (brother of Mike, one of the co-founders of Cosworth), at that time Chief Aerodynamic Engineer for the de Havilland Aircraft Company, contributed to the final design.

The SE was introduced in 1960 as a higher performance variant, featuring twin SU carburettors and fabricated exhaust manifold resulting in 85 bhp, ZF gearboxes in place of the standard "cheap and nasty" MG ones, Lucas PL700 headlamps, and a silver coloured roof. The Super 95 spec, with more power, from a higher-tuned engine with raised compression and a fiercer camshaft with 5 bearings. A very few Super 100 and Super 105 cars were made with Weber carburettors, for racing use.

Among its few faults was a resonant vibration at 4000 rpm (where few drivers remained, on either street or track)and poor quality control, handicapped by overly low price (thus losing money on every car produced) and, "perhaps the greatest mistake of all", offering it as a kit, exactly the opposite of the ideal for a quality manufacturer. Many drivetrain parts were highly stressed and required regreasing at frequent intervals.

When production ended in 1963, 1030 had been built.

VARIATIONS AND OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES:
axle ratios 4.875 - 4.22 : 1
limited slip final drive
gear box ratios (I 2.50, II 1.67, III 1.23, IV 1, Rev 25 -1 2.53,II 1.71, III 1.23, 1, Rev 2.59)
GT engine, max power (DIN) 104 hp at 7200 rpm, max speed 130 mph, 209 km/h servo-brake
Elite Super 95, max power 95 hp at 7000 rpm, axle ratio 4.2 : 1, max speed 125 mph, 201.2 km h