Lotus Elite (Type 75) History

Reviving the Elite name on a completely different car, the Type 75 (1974–1982) was a four-seat, front-engined luxury hatchback with a wedge profile — a deliberate move upmarket for Lotus, away from spartan sports cars toward refined grand touring.

It introduced the all-aluminium 2.0-litre Lotus 907 engine (the first Lotus-designed engine) on a galvanised steel backbone chassis with a fibreglass body. Its fastback sibling, the Eclat, and the later Toyota-co-developed Excel were built on the same architecture.