The Lotus Elite chassis numbers ranged from 1000 to 2047. Car No. 1000 was the 1957 Earls Court Show Car, later dismantled. Cars Nos. 1001 - 1014 were pre-production prototypes. The production cars were delivered starting in early 1959. The Chassis-Body Units were manufactured by Maximar Mouldings Ltd: 1001 - 1280 & Bristol Aircraft: 1251 - 2047. There was an overlap of Maximar & Bristol cars in which duplicate chassis numbers pertain to 30 pairs of cars: 1251 - 1280. Earlier cars (1001-1250) were Series 1, followed by the Series 2 cars. These two types of cars differed mainly in their rear suspension.
The following data tables of Lotus Elite initial invoices give information on the sale of the cars to the first purchaser and lists current owners, if known. The invoice data were taken from photographs of copies made some 30 years ago by Warren King of original factory records. The photographs are published in the book Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road (LE3) by Dennis Ortenburger, Coterie Press Ltd, London, 2002. Complementary information is from Dennis Ortenburger's The Lotus Elite, (LE2) Patrick Stephens Ltd,1990, and from the Club Elite Millennium Register, 2000, (CEMR) David Blacklidge, Registrar.
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