Lotus Design Technology

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#339933" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Lotus Design Technology</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=175 BGCOLOR="#336600" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Lotus Elite</B></div> <div> <B>1957-1963</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Fiberglass</B></div> <div> <B>Monocoque</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#00CC66" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>The Monocoque Elite</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="761" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 430 WIDTH="379"><div> In 1956 Chapman had envisioned a GT road car that was to be more advanced than anything available at that time. </div> <div> The resulting Elite, debuted in 1957, was a fibreglass-reinforced epoxy and polyester resin (FRP) monocoque that used a molded multi-piece chassis-body unit with bonded-in steel sub-frames for the suspension and some other components. There was no separate chassis and the integrated chassis-body was designed to absorb all stresses. </div> <div> It should be noted that this type of material has 1/3 the tensile strength of steel, but 1/5 the weight. Therefore, FRP is stronger than steel for its weight and, additionally, its thckness can be varied at any point to match the expected stress. </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="5ff72a80.jpg" border=0 width="370" height="424" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 54 WIDTH="379"><bR> <bR> <bR> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="371"><div> <B>Main Elite Chassis-Body Sections</B></div> <div> <B> (from Series 2 Service Manual)</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="763" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 180 WIDTH="755"><div> The Elite had a torsional rigidity (3000 ft-lb/deg of twist) equivalent to the Formula I racing cars of the day. The suspension was directly adapted from Lotus' Formula I car, the Lotus 12. The Elite was one of the best handling cars of its day. </div> <div> It also had a beautiful aerodynamic body (0.29 drag coefficient) that allowed high top speeds, 140+ mph on a small 1.2-liter engine in Stage 3 tune (105 hp) or 115 mph in the basic version (75 hp). </div> <div> It was a resounding engineering and competition success, if not really a sales success.  Probably due to its high cost, only about 1000 Elites were sold during its production life.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 648 ><NOBR><div> <B><IMG SRC="676f3810.jpg" border=0 width="755" height="641" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 20 ><NOBR><div> <B>Immaculate Series 2 Lotus Elite of Carl Whitney, Chassis No.1399 - Photo by Gary Anderson</B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus Design Technology"><U>Space Frame</U></A>   <A HREF="id293.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus Design Technology"><U>Backbone</U></A>   <A HREF="id294.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus Design Technology"><U>Formula I Monocoque</U></A>   <A HREF="id295.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus Design Technology"><U>Ground Effect</U></A>   <A HREF="id296.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus Design Technology"><U>Double Chassis</U></A>   <A HREF="id297.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus Design Technology"><U>Elise</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>