The 1973 Lotus Elite was the most expensive car ever produced by Lotus to that date, and the most luxurious.
Lotus tried to move into the luxury sport-car market with the introduction of the Elite model in 1973. It was a joint effort put together by the Lotus team and the ItalDesign Studio led by Giorgetto Giugiaro. The Elite was one of the last cars built by Lotus with direct input from its founder, Collin Chapman, who designed the suspension.

With a shooting-brake shape and a large glass in the back that served as a tailgate, the Elite was a different kind of sports car. It didn’t feature a sloped back but an aerodynamic shape close to a Cx of 0.30. That was an amazing achievement for those times. The fiberglass bodywork was placed on the same backbone platform used on the Elan and Europa models. Another unusual feature was the pop-up headlights system.

While the exterior was signed by Oliver Winterbottom (ex-Jaguar and the Lotus Eclat designer), the interior was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. Unlike most other sports cars on the market, the Elite offered four seats with enough headroom for the rear passengers due to the shooting-brake form.

Lotus installed one of its best engines ever under the hood: a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter that produced 155 hp. Later on, that engine was developed for the Esprit and built until 1981. The four-pot unit was paired to a 4-speed manual gearbox, while a 5-speed was on the options list. A 3-speed automatic transmission was introduced in 1976.