RE: new Elan

[White Anthony <anthony.white@domain.elided>]

Lotus always rifled through everyone else's parts bins.  Colin Chapman was omnivorous in that regard.  On the original Elan, a half enthusiastic car-guy can spot parts from a dozen different British manufacturers from a hundred yards.  And that's just on the outside.  Inside, the early Europa had a Renault engine and gearbox.  The original Espirit ran a gearbox from a Citroen SM, though by that time, Lotus had built their own two litre 'slant' four.  The current Elise has an engine and gearbox that started as a humble Rover K-series 1.4 litre 16 valve in an econobox, with a shifter linkage pirated from the MGF.  

Maybe the Isuzu engine in the reborn Elan did put people off, but they couldn't have appreciated Lotus' heritage.  The whole genius of Chapman was to take parts from everyone's scrapheap, and build them into wonderfully quick, nimble little devices on near perfect suspension, draped in a body as pretty as life itself, and light enough that the parts could be worn as jewellery when they broke. 

Regards,
Anthony.  
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