Lotus Elan is the name of two separate lines of cars produced by Lotus Cars. The first series was produced between 1962 and 1975 and had rear-wheel drive. The second series was produced between 1989 and 1995 and was front-wheel drive. The Elan was replaced by the Lotus Elise.
The Elan was the first Lotus road car with a steel back chassis and a body made of fibreglass. This design was repeated in subsequent Lotus cars for nearly thirty more years. It had disc brakes on all wheels and independent suspension. The car was powered by a 1.5-litre I4 engine with outputs ranging from 90 hp (67 kW) to 113 hp (84 kW), mated to a 4-speed manual transmission. In total, around 12 000 copies were produced.
