The Lotus Grand Tourers

I'd like to kick off this topic - looking at similarities of design aspects of the Elite, Eclat and Excel to other vehicles - by looking at this picture of the dash from the Bentley Continental R Coupe of 1992:

It is very similar to the Elite, Eclat and early Excel dash, yet almost 20 years later. Posh or what?

Cheers, Richard

That's lovely isn't it? If the Elite didn't have such a mish-mash of switch-gear it would look much more elegant.

Pete

Suddenly I'm seeing my Elite dash in a whole new light.

Yesterday I came across a Mini Sprite from around 1983. Look at the wheels:



They look great on the car too:



They are Exacton 5x10" jobs - just like the Elite Turbine wheels! I wonder if Oliver got a royalty?

Cheers, Richard

Those early dashes are FAB. I know Oliver W was a bit miffed about not doing the interior design but I think 'The G-Man' got it right for the era.

Also love the Elite 14 inch wheels. And the deeper rear buckets seats and head rests ..and the glass partition to the boot ...and the black bumpers ..and the SS window trims ...and the twin fuel tank caps ...and the roof spoiler lip ... and the door window swoop ..and the rear quarter swoop

All future resto's would do well to respect the key design-cues, now they are beginning (at last) to be recognised for them.

Lotus-e-Clan wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 07, 2020 19:03

All future resto's would do well to respect the key design-cues, now they are beginning (at last) to be recognised for them.

That's one thing I'm not even tempted to change - the appearance of the car, inside and out. Although I'm "fixing" some of the features of the car it will still look like it did when it left the showroom.

Pete

Peter, you are so right