Did you ever wonder who buys Lotus cars? Aside from the Brits, I mean? Well, I’m starting to think it’s the Japanese. Last month, I caught three (an Elan, an Europa and an Esprit), and I’ve seen a few Elises about on occasion. That’s a lot of sightings for such a small specialist marque. And then last week, I happened upon this one. There’s something going on here.
And I’ll be very frank, as always: I’m really not a fan of the Chapmanmobiles. Plastic sports cars with dreadful reliability and questionable styling (except the Elan, styling-wise) are not my cup of tea, and Mr Chapman’s obvious skill at designing chassis was matched by his well-documented deviousness in business dealings (see Jensen-Healey and DeLorean for more details). But still. A violently green wedge like this shows up, you take what pictures you can and ask questions later.
The Excel came out in October 1982, a couple months before Colin Chapman died. According to what I’ve read online, these are not half as terrible as their immediate forebears in terms of reliability, chiefly thanks to Toyota’s involvement.
I admit I was not too clear on Excels when I photographed this one. The Excel was basically an Eclat with added Japanese bits, such as the gearbox, the rear suspension and brakes, which were shared with the Supra, or the pop-up headlight motors, which came off the MR2. Also, the chassis was galvanized. In fact, it was so much like a revamped Eclat that Lotus called it so for its first model year.
Then, in 1984, the front wings grew a slight bulge and the bumpers were painted over. A rear spoiler was also added. Wheels seen in this particular example seem to have been directly shipped over from Toyota. Our feature car’s wheels are more interesting, as they are model-specific.
Our feature car is an SE version, which premiered in 1986 with a bigger rear spoiler and a high compression engine churning out 180hp. There was also an SA variant with a 4-speed ZF automatic. Then, the Excel plateaued for a few years, until it got a facelift in 1989. But by this point, the front-engined Lotus was getting on in years and production slowed to a crawl before quitting altogether in 1992.
I’ll let this 1991 brochure excerpt do the talking for the Excel’s vital statistics. This “Hethel Celebration” special edition (40 units made) is pretty much equivalent to the SE.
Given the car’s English provenance and its current location, I was not expecting a left-hand drive, but there you go. Looks like the leather trim option box was left unchecked. That seat fabric is about as uninspiring as it gets, though. And the burl walnut on the dash, which is kind of hard to make out in this photo, has no business being here, in my view. You’re a Lotus, not a Jag.
I didn’t take a picture of the rear seat, but as luck would have it, Lotus did. Nice place to sit if you’re shaped like a Lego guy with a square ass.
The ultimate origami Lotus may be the Esprit, but the Excel was the last new model launched by the marque’s founder and the last front-engined RWD model they ever made. And they didn’t make too many of them, either – only 2074 came out of Norfolk, of which something like 10% were left-hookers like this one.
A rare beast, this one, then. But is it worth anything? Well, intrinsically, not very much. It’s incredible how cheap these are, in the UK anyway, compared to what they cost when new: a standard Excel cost £18,000 in 1983, but you can find a decent one for less than £10,000 today. The SE was even more expensive. But if you like green…
Wow, what an unusual car! Great title, and I love the color. The overall condition of the car is wonderful. The back seat is truly bizarre, looks like they provide an ashtray, at least. Very Japanese parking, crawling in and out of the passenger side can’t be easy.
Is that back seat even a legal seating area? I don’t see any seatbelts.
The fitting of rear seatbelts in the UK became madatory in 1986, so this may have been one of the last without (maybe old stock, built before the cut-off date). By the looks of it you could quite easily get wedged in pretty firmly though!
Lovely car in great condition! The ’80’s updates really work on this car, it’s amazing what is just sitting in carports in Tokyo.
Leather is not a luxury interior option its, for jackets and miniskirts, Why would you want slippery seats in a sports car?
The Excel was really a fastback development of the earlier Type 75 Elite hatchback.
I can’t say I care for the colour, or for those wheels. I haven’t heard of those Bridgestone Regno tyres before – are they Japan specific ?
These were very expensive cars in their day, and the buyer might expect some wooden decor.
The photo with the Toyota(?) wheels really highlights how much this car looks like a Celica or especially Supra. Which is not a bad thing compared to some of the wedge-era Lotuses. And I just love this color!
Great find — and being a complete oddball, I love it, especially the color.
Now the interior… how bizarre. The upholstery looks like the same durable stuff as in a base-model 1990 Camry DX. And combined with the burled wood…. oh my. Neither of those two accouterments really belong on a Lotus, let alone both of them together.
LHD for prestige ,even British imports. The Japanese don’t like leather in their cars.
Cloth is more suited to a Lotus, I think. Weighs less than leather.
Burl walnut is never out of place.
I find myself warming up to these cars, although I still like the earlier / previous versions more. Of course the earlier versions had even more shortcomings but also more “character”, that unexplainable thing.
My favorite would be the first gen Elite from 1974-80.
A good thing is that all of these (Elite, Eclat, Excel) are not worth much money so maybe there is a chance I will find one for reasonable money. That said, I also have my eye on a Jensen GT. Which has many similar virtues as the Elite, like a bit off/awkward styling but had a steel body: easier to repair / paint so more practical to me. Same engine!
Lhd & non leather not surprising for Japan as they connote foreignness & luxury
Japanese car culture has strong Anglophile component, which sometimes diverts to the weird as in the Japanese love of the Allegro Vanden Plas, or the more common like the popularity of the original Mini. Lotus cars are a natural choice being, interesting, rare and connected with Toyota
They have a limited appeal in the u.k too. They are great cars when they are running, as such you need deep pockets and your eyes firmly open if you take one on. Plastic body maybe, but there are steel strengthening plates in the A post for the door hinges which rot away happily and are inaccessible. Electrical problems galore, usually earthing issues. Then there’s chasing down parts, trying to find out which manufacturers parts bin got raided for which components. Switchgear and door fittings was usually BL, (rear lights are Rover sd1 units mounted upside down) but who knows? Lotuses used for a while Citroen SM gearboxes…good luck finding one.
Nonsense! I owned a 1983 Excel and found it to be an excellent car. Parts are easy to come by, the GRP shell is very high quality- there wasn’t a single crack in mine, the running gear is over engineered, 912 engine robust, proper dip galvanised backbone no cheap electro galvanising, hand built so easy to take apart by hand. A FANTASTIC induction roar and surprisingly quick for a mere 160 bhp.
Yes, small issues will abound on a 40 year old cat that’s been sat about- here though, the Excel does better than most due to its simplicity, cleaning up a few contacts is hardly a slog.
Suggest you do a bit better research of Colin Chapman. The DeLorean was not one of his projects.
I beg to differ.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/12/16/definitely-a-genius-allegedly-a-rogue-the-secret-life-of-colin-chapman/
Indeed. Chapman’s fingerprints were all over the DeLorean car, as eventually sold, and at least one of Chapman’s cohorts spent time with Her Majesty after the scam unravelled. IIRC, the judge said Chapman would have had a longer visit, has the grim reaper not got there first.
Hey, alleged Professor T, the Elan isn’t the only lovely Lotus, the prior Elite is mostly lovelier than the vaunted Jaguar Type of E, and my opinion is neither humble nor to be questioned.
It is good, therefore, that you agree with my rightness that they did nothing since those cars to even approach them, visually. Bunch o bloody recycled bin-liner plastic nonsense-mobiles, really, though at least they’d added sufficient Mr Blandings to the Eclat yuk by the time of this somewhat insipid-looking machine.
No, not sure who or why anyone purchased the later stuff, and maybe it was all-Nippon in sales. God knows they like oddness enough there generally, and the English at their most determined are nothing if not odd (Bond minicar, anyone? anyone?)
These are great photos, albeit also useful for the purpose of teaching an art class what colours clash with anything resembling decency and which such should never be applied to anything (and quite why Lotus ever made Lotus The-Porcelain-Bowl’s-Now-Overflowing Green an option is yet another Eastern mystery surrounding an Anglo oddity wrapped around a Lotus concealed inside a garage). I think it is otherwise called “Irish Linen”, though neither Irishman nor any linen-maker wanted anything to do with it, and for certain, no-one apart from the very English Lotus has ever used it (here in what one presumes is an attempt to excitify and/or controversialize a dullard half-Toyota that is intrinsically not).
Do keep searching and popping off the lens cap, dear T, but perhaps on a future occasion, best to try find a part of Japan that shall be forever England that isn’t also as green as the undermould of a winter’s drain in Hounslow.
I’ll give you the Elite – if we’re talking of the late ’50s one, a.k.a Type 14. I assume you’re talking about that one, otherwise this conversation is not going to end well, but it will end quickly.
The Elan is still a more refined shape than the Elite. Though I do like the older car’s delicate features, the Elan’s slightly more aggressive face, with those hidden headlights, is a great improvement. Plus, Diana Rigg in leather.
Oh, come now, do I look like Don “The Wedge” Andreina? Yes, ofcourse the late ’50’s one.
And, yeah, it’s true, the original Elan (sans the later too many seats and such) is ultimately the better looker.
Even without a leathered-up Diana Rigg, whose headlights, incidentally, were usually fairly raised.
Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious