Fiberglass was the '50s carbon fiber — tough, versatile, lighter than
steel and more affordable than aluminum. The Kaiser Darrin and Corvette
sports cars were wrapped in fiberglass bodies, for instance. Colin
Chapman, the founding engineer of Lotus, was bonkers for weight savings.
It was inevitable that he would be drawn to the material. And so, the
Elite. Weighing just 1,100 lbs and powered by a punchy, 75-hp Coventry
Climax engine, the Elite (Type 14) was a successful race car, winning
its class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times. It was also a lovely
little coupe, which made the moment when the suspension mounts punched
through the stressed-skin monocoque all the more pathetic. The
unreinforced fiberglass couldn't take the structural strain. In
Chapman's cars, failure was always an option.
No comments:
Post a Comment