Lotus wrote an oddly specific design brief for its first four-seater: it had to carry two adults and two children 1,000 miles in comfort, luggage included — hence the stretched +2 body.
Lead trim: +2 1558 Twin Cam
Lotus Elan +21967–1975
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Lotus Elan +2 yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactLotus wrote an oddly specific design brief for its first four-seater: it had to carry two adults and two children 1,000 miles in comfort, luggage included — hence the stretched +2 body.
Introduced in 1967 with a longer wheelbase and a wider track, and two small rear seats suitable for children. The Elan was a two-seater sports car marketed to the single man or woman or young couple, while the +2 was aimed at a larger family.
Collectors Spotted in the Lotus Elan Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Lotus Elan yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
One published trim in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +2 1558 Twin Cam | 1967–1975 | 1.6 L Inline-4 | 118 hp | 108 lb-ft | — | RWD | manual | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
Lotus spent so much engineering this Elan's dashboard that it alone cost more than Kia's entire Excel production line — one reason the car could never turn a profit.
Lotus sold the Elan M100's design and production tooling to Kia after ending its own production run in 1995.
Colin Chapman sold the Elan Sprint's extra pace partly with a pen: he had Lotus quietly lower the published horsepower of older Elans so the new Sprint's number looked like a bigger leap.
Lotus wrote an oddly specific design brief for its first four-seater: it had to carry two adults and two children 1,000 miles in comfort, luggage included — hence the stretched +2 body.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
In 1974 Alfa built a one-off on this Spider: a Porsche-style solid rear window and lift-out roof panels, fewer than 2,000 made, the only Spider ever with a part-solid roof.
Over 100,000 people voted to name this car "Duetto" — but a chocolate-snack maker had already trademarked the word, and a Milan court ruling forced Alfa to sell it as the Spider 1600 instead.
After nearly 25 years of manual-only Spiders, the final Series 4 cars quietly added something Alfa purists never expected: an optional automatic transmission.
The mid-80s Spider's Quadrifoglio Verde trim went all-in on a single look: blood-red carpets and grey leather with red stitching, and it only ever came in three exterior colors.
This Spider was built not by Alfa but by Pininfarina itself, on a platform shared with General Motors.
The 916 Spider's strongest naturally aspirated engine, the 192 PS 3.0 12V Busso V6, was never offered in its GTV coupe twin.
The Frogeye had no boot lid at all — owners reached the spare wheel by tilting the seats forward into the dark cavity behind, a ritual they likened to potholing.
The Fairlady 2000's SR311 update came with a five-speed manual gearbox in 1967 — a genuinely unusual spec for any production car of that era.