THE BOURNE SUPREMACY

When the engineering gurus at BRM got their hands on the little Lotus Elan, they turned an already brilliant sports car into a sensation

- GREG MACLEMAN

The back catalogue of the automotive industry is filled with examples of crosspollination. These products of tie-ins and collaborations between manufacturers, drivers and racing teams are sometimes successful, but more often not. Who could forget - or should that be remember? the lukewarm Healey Fiesta, Vauxhall Viva Brabham or, in later years, Fiat's decidedly lame Cinquecento Schumacher? Sometimes, however, the stars come into alignment, such as in 1967, when one of the world's best-handling sports cars was breathed on by one of Britain's greatest motorsport institutions. And what better moment to jump behind the wheel of a hugely rare Lotus Elan BRM than the 60th anniversaries of both Colin Chapman's seminal model and British Racing Motors' first and only F1 World Constructors' Championship?

Few cars need less of an introduction than Chapman's roadgoing masterpiece, the Lotus Elan. Better in every regard than the Type 14 Elite that it replaced, this glass fibre-bodied sports car with its separate backbone chassis is rightly regarded as the best of its breed of any generation. Its technical brilliance is only brought into sharper relief when you consider that it was launched in the same year as the rudimentary MGB and Triumph Spitfire, whose cart springs and heavy overhead-valve engines were hangovers from an earlier time. The Elan was - and is – simply in a different league.