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The Man and the car In
the early 1950’s Colin Chapman developed and raced
his own cars, demonstrating that power was not
everything. He left his mark on every race and
competition. The cars were legendary for their handling
and their power to weight, these cars were racing cars
for the road. The Lotus Elite was an exceptional example
of his work, by using fibre glass for the body and
chassis it was ahead of its time. As a consequence there
many examples of the Elite still in existence today which
have not fallen to the cars enemy rust.
Colin Chapman - 1928 to 1981 The In the late 1950’s the sports car market was overwhelm with small manufacturer producing low spec and low cost sports cars, The Lotus Elite was being undercut and sales started to fall. Colin Chapman decided to produce a small sports car based on some of the features of the Elite. |
The Elan (or M2) would have the glass body and
small powerful engine. The engine was a collection of
contributions from Keith Duckworth, Mike Costin (Cosworth
Engineering), Richard Ansdale (Former BRM Gearbox man)
and Harry Mundy (freelance designer). They took a Ford
105e Engine threw away the head and pushrods replaced it
with a twin cam cross flow cylinder head with amazing
power. The car used a steel backbone chassis to improve
the rigidity but was still light weight, 10" disk
and hydraulic callipers front and rear provided the
braking. The Elan was launched at the London Motor show in October 1962 at a price of £1095 unassembled (Tax reasons) or £1499 fully assembled. The Elan and the twin cam engine when on to win numerous races through out the sixties. |
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