Lotus is synonymous with racing cars and it came out with an amazing vehicle in the 1960s. It showcased such smooth handling and racy styl-ing, combined with raw and powerful performance, that drivers felt they were behind the wheel of a formula machine.

Enter the red-hot Lotus Elan, initially designed and released by Lotus Cars in 1962. In the mid-1950s, the company obtained the expertise of Ron Hickman who was famous for inventing the WorkMate® for Black & Decker.

Elan was the first Lotus creation to utilise a steel backbone chassis with a fibreglass body. And that decision helped increase the car manu-facturer’s growth and racing ambitions over the next three decades.

More than 50 years later, the Lotus Elan is still considered one of the best handling cars ever made. This particular model, which is owned by Rohan De Silva, is sitting in a warehouse. It had taken about a year and a half to restore the car to its original glamour. The engine was completely remade abroad and shipped here to complete this stunning red devil’s renovation.

With its 1.6-litre Lotus-Ford Twin Cam engine, the Elan is capable of zipping past the 100 kmph mark in about eight seconds with a maxi-mum speed of 180 kmph, which is more than enough to thrill any speed junkie!

The Lotus Elan, which was a game changer in the world of mass-produced vehicles, is still found in almost 30 countries. And at some point in time, these beauties have been driven by celebrities such as Peter Sellers, Jay Leno and Paul Newman.