First Look to The 2014 Lotus Elan - Review, Pricing and First Drive

This 2014 Lotus Elan won't just have a 450 HP V8, but its design was inspired by Mario Andretti's 1978 Formula One car. We didn't realize F1 used to have roofs, but who cares when there's a lotus this hot.

First, a bit of history: The Elan badge dates back to 1962, when Lotus was a fledgling concern known largely for its motorsport success and a laughably impractical sport

s car called the Mark VII, or 7. That year, Hethel launched a gossamer wisp of a rear-drive roadster, one that weighed just over 1700 pounds and sprinted to 60 mph in 7.1 seconds. It would prove to be one of the defining moments in sports-car history. The Elan was a massive success, injecting much-needed cash into Lotus's coffers and serving as the benchmark for the modern sports car. A host of derivatives followed, both in-house and out (the firs

t-generation Mazda Miata was an unabashed Elan tribute), and although Hethel revived the name in the late 1980s for a front-wheel-drive convertible with

an Isuzu-sourced powertrain, the first-generation Elan is

widely hailed as Lotus’s masterstroke, and one of the greatest cars ever built.

Although the new Esprit will be a fitting halo car for Lotus, the revived Elan is arguably the most important product Lotus will bring to market in 2013. The Elan has far greater appeal, and a much lower price, than the Esprit and was designed to be the ultimate daily driver as well as a delight on the track.

The new Elan is really a significantly revised Evora and the changes should delight die-hard Lotus fans. Perhaps the most important figure is the 192 pounds shaved from the car, resulting in an impressively low 2855-pound curb weight. If that weight loss isn't very impre

ssive, consider the fact that the car also grows 4.3 inches longer, a full two inches wider, and 2.3 inches taller at the same time. Lotus wants the Elan to be even easier to live with on a daily basis than the Evora, so the A-pillars move forward, and the door sills are lowered to make ingress and egress much easier for the driver and passenger. We ex

pect the 2+2 to appeal to a much larger audience than the current Evora for this reason alone.