Yahoo Autos 1972 Lotus Elan Roadster Is Today's Bring a Trailer Auction Pick
The light and nimble Lotus Elan was the embodiment of founder Colin Chapman's design philosophy.
This refurbished 1972 example is powered by a 1.6-liter engine paired with a five-speed manual transmission.
This Bring a Trailer online auction ends on Wednesday, July 19.
No company exemplifies a philosophy of Less Is More the way Lotus does. When its tiny Elan launched in 1962, it was Jaguar E-type money, for which you got a small-displacement four-cylinder engine and a featherweight chassis. But where the Jag was muscular and beautiful, the Lotus was mongoose-agile and hard to catch.
Up for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is a late-model example of that Lotus magic touch. It's a 1972 Elan Sprint, fitted with a five-speed manual for a little more livability, and painted in colors that recall the Gold Leaf-sponsored Lotus F1 racing team of the late 1960s.
The 13-inch wheels are fitted with 185/70 Avon tires, and behind them lurk disc brakes at all four corners. A limited-slip differential helps get the power down out back, and the cabin has been cosmetically refreshed (despite the small size, the Elan is surprisingly roomy inside).
The Elan wasn't the first roadgoing Lotus, but it remains one of the best of the breed. Certainly, Mazda's engineers thought so, as the original Miata is very nearly a modernized clone of an Elan.
But even a Miata looms over this Lotus. Measuring just under twelve feet long and with a curb weight of around 1500 pounds, the Elan is all about cutting every gram. For instance, the fiberglass hood doesn't even have hinges, but rather just slots into place.
Under that hood in this case is a 1.6-liter four-cylinder twin-cam engine good for a claimed 140 horsepower. When new, this engine was rated for 105 horsepower, and an Elan would sprint to 60 mph in a little over seven seconds, so this car should be very quick. The five-speed manual is from a later Elan 2+2 and should make highway cruising a little calmer.
But it won't be boring. The light weight of an Elan means that it has hardly any inertia to overcome when accelerating, braking, or turning. It flits and flickers over a winding backroad with its buzzy four-cylinder engine on the boil, an internal-combustion hummingbird. The closest driving experience to it is its descendant, the Lotus Elise, which ceased production in 2021.
The brand's most recent product, the all-electric Eletre, has strayed far from this ethos. It's as fast as you like with up to 905 hp, but it's also the size of a Honda Pilot and tips the scales at 5500 pounds.
Here's your chance to rage against the dying of the lightweight. Per pound, the Elan may look fairly expensive when the dust settles. But as a prime example of Colin Chapman's "Simplify, and add lightness" maxim, it'll be worth every penny.
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