Is the Elite really rubbish?

[zebedee]

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,2...

Says the suspension came through the monocoque and the chassis weren't up to the job. Not heard that before, and often admired them - is this true or an exaggeration?

[GKP]

"...winning it's class at Le Mans six times". I guess it must have been complete cack.

[16VJay]

Just bad journos re-hashing old ideas that support their agenda.

I don't think I've ever heard of one that actually had a strut come through the bodywork or have the diff come out - another one that is repeated so often I'm surprised they didn't include that as well.

[Sam_68]

To be fair, the problem of diffs breaking loose was genuine and well documented... as are the ways of fixing it, so there isn't any reason for remaining Elites to be so afflicted, these days.

[TIPPER]

Didn't Lotus use some slight of hand (as it was against the rules) to change a diff on Jim Clarke's Elite at Le Mans?
I also seem to remember reading that the problem with the suspension mounts was acknowledged as they were beefed up.
Pretty much Chapman's policy: build as light as you can then strengthen it until it stops breaking.

[wobblyweb]

I think the Le Mans thing was the starter motor, it was removed from the car and dropped into a bucket of water to cool it. The "cooled" starter was then refitted and worked perfectly !! It was against the regs to change a starter.

I also seem to remember the diff area was not fibreglassed correctly.Chapman asked for different thicknesses around the body, the lamninators made the diff support area the minimum thicknes and it failed.

Rae

www.mmcars.co.uk
www.lotus-seven.co.uk

Edited by wobblyweb on Thursday 7th May 13:14

[leorest]

I'm passenger in one going to Le Mans this year. It's been there and back at least half a dozen times. In my opinion the answer to your question is categorically no. If I had one I'd stick a bigger alternator in but that's all I'd change.

[RW774]

The Elite is for me the prettiest sports car ever made and we work on Jaguar cars!. Chapman did have problems with Elite diffs ripping out. The problems nearly broke the company, thanks to the laminators going on peace work at the subcontractors. World breaking car ,donkeys years ahead of its` time, as was the Elan. The Elan chassis was originally designed for the elite, finished up as the basis for the new car.

[Sam_68]

RW774 said:

The Elan chassis was originally designed for the elite, finished up as the basis for the new car.

I've heard that before, but it's simply not true.

The Elan was intended to be a 'budget' open sports car and was originally intended to use a glassfibre monocoque, like the Elite. It was also intended to use the 997cc Ford Anglia pushrod engine and compete with the Frogeye Sprite, until they realised that it wouldn't compete on cost and decided to take it up a league by increasing the engine size and fitting a Twin Cam head.

But I digress...

They couldn't get the monocoque of the prototype Elans anywhere near stiff enough without the roof, so the backbone chassis was introduced as a temporary measure to allow development to proceed whilst the stiffness problems were overcome. Ultimately, of course, it proved so successful that it was retained for production.

But the backbone chassis was never intended for the Elite...

[CK86]

i have an elite and find it so far to be a fairly heafty and well made (mostly) car, not that ive had it round a track yet but generally theyre a good car, as 1970's cars get anyhow ...

[Sam_68]

CK86 said:

i have an elite...

I think we're talking about the other Elite, here, Chris.

[CK86]

oh ... lol ignore me then.
the 1958 elite looks aright IMO but never driven one so count me out for any further opinions