The Lotus Elite. A 4-seater luxury sports car, combining a back-boned chassis and wedge shaped GRP body, designed by Oliver Winterbottom. The car had the new 1973cc Lotus 907 alloy engine, which produced 160bhp (originally used in the 1971 Jensen Healey). The body was created using a new construction technique, that was less labout intensive than the traditional process of hand laying the glass fibre. The process was called Vacuum Assisted Resin Injection (VARI), where pre-cut glass fibre matting was laid into moulds and the the air expelled as the resin was injected in under pressure (the technique had been used by the boat industry). This meant the body was produced in 2 halfs, top and bottom and joined together. The joint was covered with a rubber strip running the length of the car. The car was praised for it's excellent handling and ride, however it was heavy at 2240 Ibs. The models consisted of the 501, 502 and highest spec 503 models.