SHAPE SHIFTER

Only three genuine Lotus 26Rs were given the Shapecraft aerodynamic treatment. This little beauty is one of them

- James Elliott

All Elans are equal, but some are more equal than others. Heck, with the rare beast we have here you could distil it even further to 'All 26Rs are equal, but some 26Rs are more equal than others. Probably best to start at the beginning...

It's 1962 and Lotus launches a road car, a follow-up to the groundbreaking blind alley that was the glassfibre monocoque Elite. This new one is cutesy in the extreme, designed not by Lotus's financiercum-skier-cum-draughtsman Peter Kirwan-Taylor but by South African engineer and Mr-Workmate-to-be Ron Hickman. The car epitomises Lotus philosophy in plastic, taking basic ingredients from Ford and Triumph (except Maserati air horns!), adding its own spices, and scorings Michelin stars for pep and handling. At its core, literally, is a simple, lightweight 18SWG folded steel backbone chassis, reputedly devised to test the Rotoflex couplings that Colin Chapman was so suspicious of but also to give incredibly smooth power take-up. Until they judder or snap.

Outriggers and side-impact protection? They are for wimps. That power? Initially 1500cc (1499 cc) for 20-odd cars, then 1600cc (though 1558cc in reality), it came from a Ford Kent five-bearing 116E lump with an intricate Lotus twin-cam alloy head (designed by Harry Mundy of BRM and Coventry Climax) on top that doesn't like overheating. It was fed by Weber 40s, though later you could end up with Dell'Ortos or Strombergs. In Blue Oval guise that workhorse engine was good for anything between 39 and 111bhp from anything between 996cc and 1599cc. For its Type 26, Lotus would come in just under the top at 105bhp but in a car that weighed only 640kg... or less.