Racing car constructor Colin Chapman´s first proper car was true to Lotus core values: light, agile, fast and technically advanced. Sadly it could also be fragile, and because of its higher cost of manufacture it wasn´t the financial success that Chapman had hoped for.

The Elite was a monocoque design in an era when separate chassis were still common, but what made it even more unusual was that the entire body/chassis unit was made from a glassfibre reinforced plastic. The spectacularly pretty styling, by John Frayling, was also very efficient aerodynamically. Suspension was all-independent, by wishbones and coils at the front and struts at the rear. Disc brakes were fitted all round, the rears inboard.

A race derived all-alloy engine from Coventry-Climax provided the power, at first about 71bhp from just four cylinders and 1216cc. The 1960 Special Equipment model was tuned to give 85bhp and also had a close-ratio ZF gearbox.
The super 95, Super 100 and Super 105 models came in for further tuning, which increased power to as much as 105bhp.

It was a compelling package, though not always a reliable one. Quality control of the bodyshells was sometimes lacking (not least because Lotus chose cheaper suppliers over better ones) and the Coventry-Climax engine could be somewhat temperamental if maintenance was skipped.
In the end a little over a thousand were sold. The model was replaced in 1963 by the Elan, which promised more performance and more reliability thanks to a steel backbone chassis and a bigger-capacity twin-cam engine based on Ford components-and also offered the option of a convertible body.