10 of the best Lotus cars ever made

Are you new to the world of classic cars? Perhaps you’re a younger driver looking to stand out from the crowd with a stylish vintage motor? If so, we’d like to introduce you to the wonderful world of Lotus. Let’s take a look at some of your possible options - just remember to protect your new pride and joy with some classic car insurance for young drivers.

Lotus Europa

After the incredible success of the Elan, what next for Lotus’ designers? Well, by the time the mid-1960s had come around, it was well recognised in Grand Prix circles that placing the engine between the front and rear wheel axles was the best design for stability at high speeds. So, Lotus wondered, could this mid-engine configuration be achieved in a road-going production car?

The firm’s designers set about dreaming up a two-seater, mid-engine sports car, which could be produced and sold at reasonable cost. Like many other Lotus creations, the Europa was built according to founder Colin Chapman’s mantra: "Simplify, then add lightness".

They did a very good job, it turned out, and the Europa duly became the first mid-priced, mid-engined car that many buyers could afford. That bold move of placing the engine amidships gave the car brilliant handling and roadholding – indeed, some motor journalists at the time likened the Europa to a Formula 1 car for the street.

If the layout was all Lotus’ own, the engine itself was a known quantity. Lotus decided to use the engine and transmission from the very successful Renault 16. (The Renault was already making great waves as a brilliantly designed and packaged modern car, and had recently been crowned the 1966 European Car of the Year. We’ve written some more about this fascinating annual competition and its various winners, in this feature).

The 16’s light, modern 1.5-litre engine was perfect for Lotus’ new car: there was just a bit of re-engineering required to make it fit into the middle section of the car, including a rotation of 180 degrees.

Over its nine-year production life, the Europa was produced in some 9,230 examples. It remains one of the most striking cars from an adventurous era in car design.

Lotus Seven

We love the brilliantly simple Seven, made from 1957 through to 1973. Launched as a proper ‘no-frills’ sports car, the Seven sacrificed creature comforts for light weight, simple engineering, and astonishing on-road agility. Over its four generations, the Lotus car’s engine grew from 1.2 to 1.6 or 1.7 litres.

The Seven managed the brilliant combination of being entirely road-legal – and also eligible for certain race disciplines. Small wonder that, when Lotus decided to retire the car, Surrey firm Caterham acquired the rights.

And in case you’re wondering whether a kit car such as the Caterham qualifies for classic car insurance for young drivers, fear not – we’re proud to provide insurance for kit cars as well as factory-built classics. Read more on our page on kit car insurance.

Lotus Elan

One of a couple of candidates for ‘most iconic Lotus’, the Elan is the Norfolk firm’s era-defining (and hugely influential) 1960s two-seater. After all, when you think of that decade’s Swinging London era, and also of the joy of two-seater motoring, this is very likely the car that springs to mind.

The Elan revived Lotus’ fortunes after its predecessor, the Type 14 Elite, had stretched the company’s finances rather thin. The latter had been a superbly elegant, and also (at just a fraction over 500kg) an extraordinarily light and nimble little car. However, the Elite was priced too cheaply for its relatively expensive production costs, and also had one or two problems – such as a persistent annoying engine buzz at 400 revs per minute.

As such, the car brought the company’s finances to a pretty perilous state. But the brilliant Elan, a huge sales success and a defining car of its era, pulled things back from the brink.

It also set the tone for almost three decades of Lotus production car design, with its combination of fibreglass body and steel backbone chassis. The Elan may have gained a tiny bit of weight over its predecessor, but at 680kg this was still one seriously light and agile two-seater.

It was also technologically advanced, with its double-overhead-cam 1.6-litre engine, disc brakes on all four wheels, fully independent suspension, and rack-and-pinion steering setup. Small wonder, given all this brilliance, that the Elan was the runabout of choice for many of the era’s prime movers and shakers, including comedian Peter Sellers, racing driver Jim Clark and actor Paul Newman. The two-seater was also, famously, driven by Diana Rigg in that acme of 1960s British cool, The Avengers.

In short, the Elan was a rival for best sports car of the 1960s, alongside the likes of the Miura, Ghibli, 911, DB5 et al – and was also significantly more affordable than some of these.

Lotus Cortina

A couple of decades later, with the Vauxhall Carlton, Lotus would hit upon its most famous and wildly successful example of upscaling a standard family car to provide supercar levels of performance. But the practice started in the 1960s, with the Lotus Cortina.

Legend has it that Ford’s Walter Hayes approached Lotus’ Colin Chapman after finding out that the Norfolk firm had put a Cosworth-tuned Ford 116E engine into one of their Elan roadsters. Ford UK wanted to compete in Group 2 racing, and wanted Lotus to build 1,000 special-edition Mk1 Cortinas, complete with twin-cam engine, for homologation purposes.

A deal was promptly struck and Lotus developed a new twin-cam unit, displacing 1577 cubic centimetres, for the car – which now became the Ford Lotus Cortina. The Norfolk engineers also stiffened the car’s suspension, gave it independent suspension, and replaced the Cortina’s steel body panels with some lighter aluminium alloy pieces. The resulting car could get from 0-60 in 9.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 105mph – pretty impressive statistics for the mid 1960s.

Back on the track, the car dominated competitions around the middle of the decade. Indeed, Jim Clark won the 1964 British Saloon Car Championship in a Lotus Cortina. The production car, meanwhile, was sold in Ford dealerships as ‘The Consul Cortina Sports Special’, and went out in around 7,400 examples.

Lotus Elite Type 75/83

Whisper it: this, not the Esprit, might be our favourite Lotus. There’s something about the combination of those sleek, space-age ‘70s Lotus looks – all sharp edges and pop-up headlights – and a shooting-brake body style that make the Elite both impossibly of its time and impossibly cool.

The 1960s and 1970s were a good time for shooting brakes – small, sporty two-door estates, so named because they could fit a few guns and/or a hunting hound in the back. These cars somehow managed the best of both worlds: estate practicality (or most of it), and sports car performance. Yes, cars like the Elite, Reliant Scimitar GTE and Volvo 1800ES were real ‘have your cake and eat it’ vehicles – beautiful and moderately practical to boot.

This was a genuine four-seater – well, you could definitely pop a couple of kids in the back there, and you would effortlessly win the ‘coolest car in the school car park’ contest.

Elsewhere, the car sported a number of desirable mid-70s features such as air conditioning and an automatic gearbox. It was the curtain-raiser for a new generation of angular, sexy Lotuses, where straight lines and angles took over from the Elan’s sinuous curves. There was continuity, though in the shape of the fibreglass body shell mounted on a steel backbone chassis, making for an impressively light and nimble four-seater.

An absolute gem of a car, in short, that evokes the very best of adventurous 1970s style. That sense of fun and adventure makes it a great starter or young driver’s classic. Just be sure to pair it with some specialist classic car insurance for young drivers.

Lotus Éclat

For those who found the looks of the Elite just a little too cutting-edge, Lotus promptly produced a more conventionally beautiful sibling. The Éclat had much in common with the Elite – indeed, below the waistline, the two cars were identical – but replaced those eye-catching looks with a ‘fastback’ body.

This meant, somewhat counterintuitively, more (not less) boot space, albeit with reduced headroom in the rear seats. So: taking looks out of the equation, if boot space was a priority, the Éclat was for you. On the other hand, if you were commonly carrying passengers in the back, it was the Elite you needed.

Both cars got the same engines: a 1,973 cc, 160hp Lotus four-cylinder, later replaced by a larger 2,174 cc unit. Oddly, the latter produced the same power output as its predecessor (it was an emission regulations thing). However, it did produce more torque, and both cars’ performance improved somewhat as a result.

Early cars either had a four-speed Ford gearbox or the five-speed ‘box that Lotus had built from Austin Maxi components. That was an interesting example of parts-sharing between otherwise incompatible cars – we’ve got more examples in this feature.

You could also spec your way up from the Base models of both the Éclat and Elite, adding air conditioning, power steering and an automatic gearbox.

The Éclat was produced in slightly smaller numbers than the Elite – 1500 to the latter’s 2500 – and, as such, is a rarer find today. If you do get your hands on an Éclat, some suitable classic car insurance for young drivers is even more essential.

Lotus Esprit

With apologies to the wonderful 1960s Elan, the Esprit might just take the crown as the most iconic Lotus. That’s partly, of course, down to a famous appearance in a Bond movie. Yes, few can forget the car’s appearance (in its original, Series 1 guise) in the 1977 Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me. As if appearing in a Bond film weren’t enough (and we’ve looked at some of the other brilliant cars that did in this feature), this particular Esprit got endowed with a very special function, namely turning into a submarine.

Those futuristic looks, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn, came from the pen of the great Italian designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro. The latter met Lotus founder Colin Chapman quite by chance, at a motor show in 1971. At this time, Giugiaro was arguably at the peak of his form. He had recently designed the likes of the Maserati Bora, and was now at work – for the same Italian marque – on the extraordinary Boomerang. This low, purposeful, prowling wedge of a car was an obvious inspiration for what the Esprit would soon become.

The car got its first public launch at the 1975 Paris Motor show, and was in production by June of the following year. To a motoring public fed on a daily diet of Morris Marinas and Austin Allegros, the Esprit must have looked like something from another planet.

That shape was arresting enough for the car to continue in production, with various minor modifications, for almost three decades. Maybe not the most practical daily driver we can think of, but if you want a real head-turner as your first classic, this could be the one for you. Protect your Esprit with some classic car insurance for young drivers.

Lotus Excel

A new Lotus for the 1980s, the Excel owes much of its DNA to the firm’s close ties with Toyota at the time. This partnership began at the start of the decade, when Lotus supplied engineering assistance on the second-generation Toyota Celica, while in return the Japanese giant supplied some components for the Excel, the replacement for the Éclat.

The Excel used the manual transmission, driveshafts, alloy wheels and even the door handles from the second-generation Toyota Supra. And indeed the two cars, produced within months of each other during 1981-82, look somewhat similar at first glance. Under the bonnet, meanwhile, the Excel got the aluminium, double-overhead-cam 2.2.-litre unit that was currently doing service in the third generation of the Esprit.

By the way, if you’re wondering where the Esprit and Elite/Éclat/Excel family fit together in the Lotus hierarchy, the answer comes down to passenger space and driving dynamics. With its two seats and mid-engine layout, the Esprit always looked upwards towards the supercar end of the market. The Éclat and companions, meanwhile, were everyday cars that could seat four in varying degrees of comfort (quite decent, in the Excel’s case).

The Excel debuted various new technologies and approaches, including its vacuum-injected resin bodywork. This was manufactured in upper and lower halves – these were then joined together, as the black trim that surrounds the car demonstrates. The body itself was mounted onto a chassis made from galvanised steel – a process that gave the Excel very good structural rigidity. In layman’s terms, this was a great car for chucking around corners.

The car also had one of our favourite rear ends of all time, with the rear lights set low, giving it a distinctive retro-futurist look.

Used values for the Excel haven’t tended to skyrocket like those of its Esprit sibling. They are surely set to rise, though, in recognition of what was one of the best-handling, sharpest-looking and, we have to say, most practical coupés of the 1980s. Get yourself a slice of Excel-lence now, and protect your investment with some classic car insurance for young drivers.

Vauxhall/Lotus Carlton

Back in 1990, the second generation of the Vauxhall Carlton (and its German twin, the Opel Omega) was four years into its production life, and the bosses at Vauxhall / Opel decided it was time to inject a bit of extra life into the large saloon.

They duly contacted Lotus – who, as we’ve seen with the Cortina above, had form when it came to souping up sensible family cars. Taking the three-litre, 24-valve engine found in the Carlton’s (then) sportiest variant, the GSi, Lotus enlarged the unit to displace 3,615 cubic centimetres. They also added a pair of Garrett T25 turbochargers and performed their own distinctive Lotus magic on the suspension, brakes and aerodynamics.

Result: one of the most ferociously quick cars of the 1990s, with supercar performance dressed in family saloon clothes. Yes, the Lotus Carlton could top out at around 180mph – more than a match for a Ferrari or Porsche from the era.

That mix of colossal speed and everyday looks (and affordability) made this a controversial car. It was, for instance, frequently stolen – and then, the problem was that even fast police patrol cars often couldn't catch a stolen Carlton. There was even a campaign to have the car banned in the UK – unsuccessfully, as it turned out.

The car had a relatively short production life, built from 1990-92 in some 900 examples, all in the unmistakable Imperial Green Metallic. That combination of rarity and enormous cult appeal makes the Lotus Carlton a bolted-down classic nowadays. If you do manage to get your hands on one of these, get some classic car insurance for young drivers that includes static show cover because you’ll want to show it off.

Lotus Elise

It’s funny to think that, when it was first conceived, the Elise was designed to be a low-production model. In fact, over its 15-year lifespan the Elise proved a strong seller, and put Lotus back on a firm footing after the relative failure of its predecessor, the M100 Elan. That car had been a decent effort, but had involved huge development costs which its modest sales never recouped.

It was an altogether different story, however, with the Elise. For one thing, Lotus’ new roadster, like the original 1960s Elan, took some bold new steps that ended up impacting on the wider world of car manufacturing. In the Elise’s case, these changes included an aluminium chassis, lightweight composite body panels, and an energy-absorbing front crash structure.

As ever, Lotus’s mantra of agility through lightness was in strong evidence. Indeed, across its three generations, the Elise never weighed in at more than 915kg – that’s significantly less than even a Fiat 500, and around half the weight of a typical family car.

That featherlight quality brought with it pretty extraordinary acceleration and handling. The first generation got the 1.8-litre Rover engine that also found its way into standard family cars such as the Rover 200. No great shakes, you might think: but the Elise’s light-as-air composition meant that even a modest power output like this allowed for grin-inducing driver thrills.

All three generations of Elise are noted for their wonderful driving dynamics, with the second generation making perhaps the best used buy (and already a qualifier for classic car insurance for young drivers and older, wiser heads alike).

Buying your first retro ride? Get classic car insurance for young drivers

If you’re just setting out on your classic car ownership journey, we imagine that a few of these classic Lotuses may be tempting you. And we’ll be proud to help you along the way with some dedicated classic car insurance for young drivers.

Our policies can include:

• Choice of repairer
• Car Club member discounts
• Historic rally cover

Contact us for a quote today.

Policy benefits, features and discounts offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.