Lotus has created some of the most recognisable forms in automotive history. From the diminutive Elan through the wedge Esprit to the utterly original Elise, the marque’s back catalogue is filled with distinctive hits. But sometimes people have looked at the cars and decided they could improve upon what’s in front of them. Here are five restyled Lotuses from the Absolute Lotus magazine archives…

IWR Elan

Ian Walker Racing was best known for its motorsport links with Lotus, but the privateer team also created a road-going Elan coupé as an extra-curricular project. It did, however, have its routes in racing, albeit tenuously. IWR’s first Elan coupé was built with a view to entering the Le Mans 24-hour, but a serious crash during the 1964 Nürburgring 1000km put paid to that. For the next fixed-head Elan, IWR changed tack to create this one-off road car.

It was commissioned by Swiss enthusiast Hubert Hermann, but Ian Walker retained control over the car’s appearance. The result was an aluminium shape that resembled a Gordon Keeble at the front with hits of Triumph at the rear. There was little about its appearance that screamed ‘Elan’. Like its motorsport forebear, its body was constructed by Williams & Pritchard. The plush interior was put together by Harold Radford Ltd.

Colin Chapman was said to have been taken by the concept but the car received little publicity before being exported to its owner. It remained in Switzerland for 37 years, but is now owned by Ian Walker’s son, Sean, a former Formula Ford and Sports 2000 champion. It survives in unrestored condition, its light patina suggesting a pampered life. Today, it’s an intriguing offshoot of the Lotus Elan story.

The IWR Elan was featured in full in Issue 35 of Absolute Lotus, which remains available here

Elan Estralle

What do you do when you want to drive a Lotus everyday but there’s no practical estate car available? For serial Lotus owner Roger Makhlouf, the answer was to create a bespoke Elan Plus 2 shooting break. It was a chat with lifelong Lotus specialist Paul Matty that sowed the seed of the idea back in 2002, and together they worked to realise the vision over the next five years. 

While they were both well aware of the Hexagon-build ‘Elanbulance’ of the 1970s, they opted to base their Elan estate on the Plus 2. It would be a late 5-speed car, among other exacting standards set out by Roger. Shapecraft was employed to create the new bodywork and, just like its Elan fastbacks, the shooting brake has an aluminium roof in league with the composite bodywork. Clive Smart at Shapecraft tweaked the shape, but there were some areas where Roger put his foot down. Standard Elan lights were a must, as was a proper tailgate as opposed to a hinged window. That added to the complication of the build.

Once the roof was complete, the car was shipped back to Paul Matty where the wonderfully appointed interior was put together. A new burr walnut dashboard took centre stage, with the same material used for side panels in the boot. Other additions include central locking, electric mirrors and additional power sockets. For all its one-off detailing, this is a car that has been designed to be used – and it has been. The final piece of the puzzle was the name: Estralle, to follow Lotus’s naming convention.

The Elan Estralle was featured in full in Issue 5 of Absolute Lotus, which remains available via the Absolute Lotus app on GooglePlay and the AppStore

GS Europa

There was a time in the mid 1970s when the Lotus Europa’s rounded styling looked dated compared to its sharp-edged wedge successors. Given its separate body and chassis construction, though, an aftermarket restyle was relatively easy to achieve, and Mike Rawlings hatched a plan to give the first mid-engined road car a makeover that would keep it up to speed with contemporary fashions. Set square enthusiast William Towns was recruited to complete the restyle, and Bristol-based Lotus dealer GS Cars came on board to bring it to market.

As well as a styling update, the GS Europa also addressed the Europa’s poor visibility and lowered the wing height by introducing pop-up headlights. To keep the cost of the conversion under control, the standard glass was retained, as were the doors underneath the second skin. Looks are subjective but you can argue that the result is a sharp looking junior supercar that looked every bit as exotic as the Giugiaro-penned Esprit. 

GS would either sell you a complete converted car, or you could take your own Europa to them for a facelift. The price for a turnkey car was £2950 in 1975. Even when you consider the second-hand underpinnings, that compared favourably to the £3300 for a new MGB or £8000 for a factory-fresh Esprit. Sadly, the car-buying public didn’t take to the concept and only 15 sets of body panels were made. How many of those resulted in a converted car is unknown. Suffice to say a GS Europa is a rare sight nowadays. The example pictured here is owned by Martin Ricketts, who also has an early left-hand-drive Europe, the mainland continental market version of the Europa that predates the change of name. 

The GS Europa was featured in full in Issue 11 of Absolute Lotus, which remains available via the Absolute Lotus app on GooglePlay and the AppStore

Seven GT

In the special boom of the 1950 and early ’60s, glassfibre was the cutting edge innovation. One of the men in sheds putting the composite material to good use was Richard Seth-Smith and his North London based Fibrepair Ltd. He set up to repair glassfibre and offer accessories, and his Rallye seat was an early hit.

With growing ambition, he moved on to creating a GT roof for the Lotus Seven. It was a move founded in logic. Motorsport regulations were beginning to favour GT cars, so he reasoned the clubman favourite Seven could be converted into closed form to become eligible for more competition. Williams & Pritchard built the prototype from aluminium, and Fibrepair offered a glassfibre conversion kit from 1963. It consisted of much more than a bolt-on roof. The kit included a new scuttle, entirely revised tail end styling and gullwing doors to afford reasonable access to the tiny cockpit. The concept never really caught on, though, and very few cars underwent the change.

That first aluminium-topped prototype was bought for future Formula One driver Piers Courage by his father and brewery magnate, Richard Courage. In the Boxing Day meeting at Brands Hatch in 1962, he set the fastest time in class but retired from the race. As was the fate for so many Fibrepair Lotus Seven GTs, it has subsequently been converted back to roadster form. The car pictured here is a rare surviver in fixed-head form.

The Seven GT was featured in full in Issue 20 of Absolute Lotus, which remains available here

Excel Type 89B

What do you do if you like the front three-quarter view of your car, but not the rear three-quarter? If you’re Lotus Elite owner Marcus Horrell, you set about an 18-year project to thoroughly restyle the car. He actually used an Excel as the basis of the project and took inspiration from the Lamborghini Urraco. The end result is a convincingly coherent shape that could easily have come from an OEM design house in period. It takes cues from the 1970s, such as the Esprit-inspired slats across the rear window.

Marcus didn’t stop at altering the car cosmetically. This all-encompassing restomod also included a conversion to Rover V8 power, while the interior has undergone a thorough overhaul to includes red and blue trim and a host of modern additions including mood lighting, Apple CarPlay and even instrumentation that triggers reminders for the MoT and servicing. If you’re not distracted by the puddle lighting, you’ll notice an umbrella secreted in the door, a la Rolls-Royce Phantom. There are all manner of bespoke fittings to be found, including a picnic set with a made-to-measure container in the back seat and an oil container that’s shaped to fit into a nook in the boot. 

Marcus admits he wouldn’t have embarked upon the build had he known how much work lay in wait. The finished car is billed as the Excel 89B, the suffix mirroring the variants of the Lotus 72 grand prix car. Its creator quoted 89 alterations, and avoids the words ‘improvements’ as he’s aware it has been built to his own subjective taste. It’s an extraordinary project.

The Excel Type 89B was featured in Issue 37 of Absolute Lotus, which remains available here