LOTUS Elite 1957-1963 Photos, engines & full specs

Just five years had passed since Lotus entered the car industry and, at the 1957 London Motor Show, unveiled the Type 14 – Elite as a road-legal race-car.

In 1957, most carmakers were still stuck with the body-on-frame construction. Their heavy vehicles needed big engines to move the car at a pace slightly higher than a train. Lotus was already involved in Formula 1 and learned very fast that significant power could get you in trouble, while a light car was most likely to evolve better, even though it was underpowered.

On the outside, the tiny Elite looked like nothing else on the show. Its rounded shapes, round headlights, and a bubble-like greenhouse created a shock for everybody. In 1957 it was challenging to create a profile like the one on the Elite. Its raked and curved windscreen and the arched back left no room for misinterpretation about the car's number of seats.

Inside, Lotus installed two bucket-seats and a tall transmission tunnel where the carmaker installed the gear stick and a straight-up hand-brake. Its aluminum dash panel featured pull-push buttons, very useful on a race-track but unpleasant for road use. The most important were the tachometer and the speedometer on the five-dial instrument panel, while the other three gauges showed information about fuel level, coolant temperature, and a clock.

Under the hood, Lotus installed a 1.2-liter, inline-four engine. A pair of double-barrel SU carburetors fed it. The light vehicle and its low drag-resistance coefficient of just 0.29 made the car incredibly fast for its small engine.