Lotus Elite & Eclat 1974-1982: Road Test Portfolio (Brooklands Books Road Tests Series)

Very good read, it,s interesting reading about what was then a "new" car. The fortunate thing for me is after reading this book I decided not to buy a Lotus. I didn,t realise they where such bad cars. Super service from this seller.

I fell in love with a Lotus Elite and I thought it would be the type of car I'd own once I'd made it with its balance of style, sportiness and practicality.Unfortunately I never made it to the extent that I was prepared to blow a significant proportion of my savings and Lotus dropped the Elite and their presence in the 4 seater sports car market. I may have grown too big anyway.This book reproduces articles from 1974 to 82 about the Elite and its sister, the Eclat which took away much of the headroom in the back seats. Unfortunately all are in black and white which means some detail is lost.These single model rather than marque based books can become too repetitive since each article originally stood on its own. Sometimes more articles don't really add much to the reading experience so I don't mind that this book ends at 104 pages.I like to see group tests because they add to the variety and show how well the car compared to its closest rivals. Here we have:Eclat vs Porsche 924 and Lotus Esprit vs Porsche 911 Carrera.I'd have liked more but the Autocar and Motor road tests of the period carried one page summaries with four or five other cars.I'm biased towards the Elite but I wish there were some colour photos to really stir up my emotions. They are still cheap second hand so I only need to worry about where to keep it and my lack of mechanical ability.Perhaps I could make it, after all.