In 1956 Chapman had envisioned a GT road car that was to be more advanced than anything available at that time. 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. 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.

Main Elite Chassis-Body Sections  (from Series 2 Service Manual)

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. 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). 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.

Immaculate Series 2 Lotus Elite of Carl Whitney, Chassis No.1399 - Photo by Gary Anderson