1959 LOTUS ELITE S1 FIA Lot n° 34

Historic Technical Passport valid until 2030 Careful and thorough preparation, file available Car eligible for many historic events French registration title Chassis n° 1101 In 1956, the brilliant Colin Chapman decided to design a 2-seater sports coupé, which would be the first small production car in the history of the brand. Even though it would be ‘civilised’, in the style of a Grand Touring car, it would allow its owner to drive during the week and race at the weekend. The Type 14, christened Elite, went on sale in 1958. With its fibre monocoque body and its structural elements embedded in the mass, the newcomer was audacious and succeeded in combining great rigidity with a very limited weight (560 kg on the scale), not to mention a remarkable aerodynamic efficiency of 0.29. Under the bonnet, Chapman chose the famous Coventry Climax FWE 4-cylinder engine of 1,216 cc which is very light and develops 75 bhp «without forcing», propelling the unit to more than 180 km/h. The father of Lotus has not skimped on braking, using four discs, while the independent wheels ensure excellent traction. This cocktail allowed the little bombshell to win six classes at Le Mans and two victories in the highly competitive Performance Index. In 1959, after selling only 280 cars, Chapman revised the car and introduced the Elite S2, which featured a revised rear suspension and a richer interior, while the engine was boosted to 85bhp with a different camshaft and exhaust manifold. Unfortunately for Lotus, the car was very expensive to build and each one was sold at a loss. 750 Elite S2’s were sold before the Elan took over in 1963. The car we offer is a rare Series 1, as it rolled off the Cheshunt production line on December 4, 1959. It immediately crossed the Atlantic and found its first owner via the American importer Jay Chamberlain. It made its return to Europe in 1987, when a British gentleman driver bought it and entered it in some races organised by the respectable Historic Sports Car Club. It changed hands in 1994, heading for Italy, where it benefited from a very thorough preparation, with hyper-lights panels and an optimised engine. This paid off, as the pretty red Lotus with white stripes won the Italian Mountain Championship in its class two years running (2001 and 2002). The car arrived in France in 2015, in the hands of its current owner, a confirmed amateur who is used to driving historic cars. He took over the entire preparation of #1101, and fitted a new engine developing 120 bhp, made at the English specialist Peacock Engineering. More recently, the gearbox has been completely rebuilt. The potential of this car, which has shown itself in some of the most prominent French historic competitions (performance index wins at the 2016 Grand Prix de l’Âge d’Or and the 2016 Dix Mille Tours du Castellet, several ASAVE participations including a second place in class at Le Mans in 2018), is no longer to be proven. Its future owner will only have to change the buckets and harnesses (which are coming to the end of their validity) before enjoying a genuine race car, usable on the road, intelligently prepared for a versatile use. This Elite is a great opportunity to take part in the next Tour Auto or Le Mans Classic...