Editor’s Choice: Lotus Elite Series 1

While this car was built back in 1960, in at least one regard it’s bang up-to-date: the current obsession for lightweight cars to reduce fuel consumption and increase performance. This light blue Lotus Elite weighs – amazingly – just 546kg.

Lotus is a trend-setter when it comes to reducing the weight of a car. It has been a Lotus philosophy from the earliest days of the marque, and how appropriate that has become to the modern car market. According to Dutch dealership Smiths-Veglia, which is offering the light blue car for sale, this very attractive Elite left the Lotus factory in March 1960 and headed for a new life in the USA, where it remained for 27 years, before returning to the UK in 1987. Since then, it has undergone a series of restorations and upgrades, and is now offered for sale in ‘superb’ condition. It is also, we’re told, one of just 450 examples of the model still in existence.