Showcars have long been a place for manufacturers to showcase the latest offerings and hint at the future technology and styling with concept cars. A lot of concept cars fade away but a handful make it into production, albeit often watered down by the grey suits.

Looking back at the number cars that turned fifty in 2007 showed that 1957 must have been a cracking year for motorshows. There is however one car that stands out as the '57 show car of the year.

SA’s GSM Dart burst onto that year but I'm not talking about that. However the car I'm talking about does employ similar structural fiberglass thought. The car that stole the '57 show circuit, and in my mind ranks as the best 51-year old, is the Lotus Elite.

When Colin Chapman first saw the prototype he called for no Lotus or Elite badges as he felt that the shape was so distinctive and anyone not recognising it by its lines would never be a buyer anyway.

Call it a fluke, but I'll call it paying homage, when Rod Green's freshly restored Elite returned to the South African roads in November last year, a couple of weeks after the actual October birthday.

For Green there were a few teething problems, but that seems to be the Lotus way. With a week to go before the Earls Court show Lotus hadn’t received any Coventry Climax engines for its show car, the interior wasn't trimmed yet and the final painting had to still be done. A one-off windscreen was made but was cracked when fitting so with only a handful of days left a new one had to be made. Believe it or not all the obstacles were overcome and the Lotus slid into the show halfway through the first.

Instead of the usual aluminium body and steel chassis construction Lotus turned to fibreglass. Barring a hoop for mounting the door hinges and an engine/suspension sub-frame the entire Elite 'chassis' is made from fibreglass. This not only met Colin Chapman's lifelong desire for the lightness but also meant that production could be hastened to meet Chapman's larger than normal production requirements.

Peter-Kirwin-Taylor is credited with originally penning the Elite but a helping hand in the aerodynamics department came from Frank Costin. Costin, who was at the time chief aerodynamic engineer at de Havilland Aircraft Company, excelled and the Elite’s low drag coefficient is extremely low at 0.29.

Converting the Elite from two-dimensions to three fell on the shoulders of John Frayling. Frayling's expertise in clay modelling allowed for a full-scale plaster model and body mould. The first 250 bodies were produced by boat builder Maximar, but Chapman, dissatisfied with Maximar’s work, turned to Bristol Aircraft for the remainder of production. While very little in the way of chassis number history was kept it is widely regarded that a total of 1029 Elites were built.

In keeping with traditional Chapman thought the Elite weighs in relatively light 504 kilograms. Power comes from an SU fed 1216cc Coventry Climax engine that originally churned out 62kW at 6250rpm and 102Nm of torque at 3750rpm. This was good enough to propel the Elite from 0 to 100km/h in 11 seconds and a top speed of 190km/h. Power is delivered to the rear wheels via an MG A gearbox on early cars or, like this one pictured, a more robust ZF unit.

Stopping is handled by Girling discs all round, but you won’t find the rear ones tucked behind the wire wheels as they are of the inboard type. The front suspension is of the double wishbone type and features an anti-roll bar and co-centric coils springs while the rear uses a 'Chapman strut' system, first seen on the Lotus 12 Formula 2 single seater racing car.

Competition was never from Chapman's mind and the Elite showed a racing intent from day one and was built with the newly formed 1300cc GT class in mind. And it succeeded handsomely, especially at Le Mans and the fabled Nurburgring. Climax powered Elites secured six class victories at Le Mans and took home the index of thermal efficiency trophy twice. In a world where tubular frames, aluminium bodies and steel monocoque construction was the norm the Elite pushed the technology and performance boundaries and for this reason it was, and remained until Gordon Murray's McLaren F1, the ultimate road going race car.

As mentioned above this car is not the Elite Ian Fraser Jones pedalled around South Africa’s racetracks but it has an equally fascinating Southern African story. The car originally landed in Rhodesia where it was used as a race/road car. The Coventry Climax unreliability caused a few headaches for its owner and he ditched the engine and gearbox in favour of a Cortina GT combination. The original engine was sold and made its way into a Morris Minor racer that was campaigned by current HRCR racers Brian Evans and Gordon Law.

In the meantime the Elite had worked its way across the SA border and into the hands of Howard Robinson. Robinson was determined to find a Coventry Climax mill and a period correct ZF box so scoured the countryside. Eventually he laid his hands on a complete engine and gearbox unit in Durban. The find was made even more astonishing when it was discovered that powertrain was the original lump from the Elite and had somehow worked its way from Bulawayo to Durbs.

Robinson started a full restoration but sold the car to Rodney Green before completion. Green has now managed to get the engine, gearbox and body back into pristine condition and the return to a Southern Africa racetrack completed the Elite circle.