At $12,500, Is This 1974 Lotus Elite A Classic Bargain?

While nowhere near as pretty as the contemporary Esprit, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Elite still carries the same 907 engine and taut, sports car handling. Let’s see if we all can handle this well-preserved coupe’s price.

‘Ride of Your Life’ Sneak Peak: Widebody Fox-Body Mustang

High mileage can be seen as a badge of honor when it comes to a work truck — or a truck for just working around the house. Over-exercising the odometer demonstrates dependability and exemplifies a truck’s value as it obviously has been employed to do stuff on a regular basis. That was likely the case with yesterday’s 2001 Ford Ranger SuperCab, which rocked 200K on the clock but was presented by its seller as reliably able to do many more. At $5,500, that resonated with enough of you to give the Ranger a narrow but solid 53 percent Nice Price win.

It’s rare when a car company creates a model so special that takes on a life of its own. I can think of only two models — the AC/Shelby Cobra and Lotus 7 — that continue in various guises long after their original makers have moved on or gone belly up. In the case of the Lotus, that favor of flavor has imbued numerous knockoffs, both from hand-me-down manufacturers like Caterham and backyard builders emboldened by the original design’s simplicity.

Lotus Cars proper, however, gave up on the 7 way back in 1973. In fact, the discontinuation was part of a pivot the small British carmaker undertook at the time to cast off its image as a kit-car maker and be seen as a fully realized if modestly exclusive auto manufacturer.

Today’s 1974 Lotus Elite 501 represents the first fruits of that effort. Larger and more powerful than any production Lotus that had come before, the Elite also offered a design, unlike that of previous Lotus models. Jarring as they might have been, the angular lines and shooting brake style are fully emblematic of the 1970s era when the Elite came to be. The nose, with its popup headlamps and horizontal air extractor ahead of the bonnet, even makes the car easily mistaken for a contemporary Ferrari 308 GT4 when seen head-on. The profile, on the other hand, is like nothing else out there.

While the looks were all new, the Elite’s mechanicals proved to be a mix of both old and new. The basic design — a fiberglass body riding saddlebag-like on a steel backbone frame — was a derivation of the design that debuted on the Elan in 1962 and which carried (literally) Lotus cars throughout the 1960s and on into the ’90s. The car’s drivetrain, though, was all-new at the time.

The DOHC four-valve 907 four-cylinder displaces 1973 ccs and, at the time, was the first fully Lotus-designed engine to be used in any of the company’s cars. The 907 had originally debuted in the Jensen Healey two years prior to the Elite’s launch. That partnership provided Lotus with some much-needed cash for its own cars’ development. In either marque, the engine makes 144 horsepower in U.S. Zenith-Stromberg carb’d trim.

Lotus established the Elite as the company’s top car, expanding the model line in 1975 with the fastback Éclat. Both models were succeeded in 1982 by a heavily revised version of that car, branded Excel.

As much as Lotus wanted to be taken seriously as a car manufacturer, the Elite showed evidence of the company’s lack of experience and, more importantly, lack of money, in its build quality. That means that finding one today that hasn’t fallen completely apart or had major work done to keep it alive is a rare occurrence. This car looks really good for its age and origin and has done so for many years now since it has apparently been a hot potato on the classic car circuit at least once in the past decade.

According to the ad, the car is in good shape overall but is not a show car. The major issues of upholstery wear, flaky vacuum-operated headlamps, and engine cooling have all been addressed over the years with fixes, meaning it should be a solid driver.

The work has all been done to keep the car operating and looking passable, however, the seller notes that it remains “far from perfect.” Quite rightfully, the seller tempers that slight denouement by noting that the car is better than the “rest of the 1970s Elites that are left out there!” Another plus, the car still wears its original blue and gold California license plates. The removal of the rear bumper is another nice touch.

The ad notes a clean title and lists the mileage as 18,617, but that’s immaterial as the odometer is said to be broken. Mileage doesn’t really seem to matter with Lotus cars as they tend to return to their base elements as a natural course regardless of whether or not they are actually used.

As we noted, this isn’t this Elite’s first rodeo. It was offered for sale on eBay back in 2016 at a Buy It Now price of $6,495. That was almost a decade back and today’s market is much different than in pre-COVID times. It’s not unexpected then that the current owner is asking quite a bit more for the car. The question is, could it be worth the $12,500 asking?

That’s the asking price and now it’s time for you to ask yourself if that’s a deal for a rare classic car of this caliber, or if that’s just a bunch of malarkey.

You decide!

Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at remslie@kinja.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.