Kia Elan?

[Meluion]

5 or 6 years ago someone showed me an article about a sporty looking car named "Kia Elan".
The thing I can remember best was it's engine; a 1.8 straight four with like 200hp.

Does anyone have any info or pics about this car?
(Or even KNOW of it?)

[Kossy]

Trust me, its nothing worth talking about.

[Aych Es Vee]

neva heard of it.

[Roy Visser]

The Kia Elan is the same car as the Lotus Elan, but then build by a factory owned by Kia, do a search on Lotus Elan, and youll see what the car looks like! Very Good FWD sportscar!

[Meluion]

Thanks for the info! I really apriciate it.
I never really thought of that before; I thought that the word was so common that every manufactorer could name a car "Elan".

[IBrake4Rainbows]

This car makes me laugh.......

It is an ancient design that lotus came up with in the 80's! Then Kia decides it can build a better one.....In 1998, thus completely stripping the original of any credibility at all. Now i like lotus, and i could have guessed they were in trouble when they sold this design, but come on, Kia??????

[hotflank]

yes...kia has not become good enough for this

[escort mexico]

Kia will never be able to build a better elan than Lotus!

[Comunista]

a friend of mine, his dad had an Elan (Lotus) until a few years ago, he used to take it Autocrossing. it did well for what it was worth

[kennyknoxville]

but the big question remains, can Lotus ever build a better Sedona?

if it wasnt for the closed threas id temporarily own the Asian car forum.

[Lets Gekiga In]

If anybody has any pictures or more information on the Lotus Elan or Kia Elan, please post it here or give me a link! Thanks!

[Matra et Alpine]

search for lotus elan m100 and you'll find it.

1989 design used Isuzi engines and FWD meant that many Lotus snobs didnt' give it any attention. UNTIL DRIVEN. One of the best sorted FWD chassis ever.

Did Kia ever actually build the new version ? I wasn't aware. I thought it was still "in planning "

[Esperante]

Oh, so this is the Elan II everyone is talking about? I assumed that building one off kits of the original Elan would be fairly profitable, but the Elan II was just a failure on so many levels.

The only thing that the company actually suceeded in was the body. For just the design sake, it's a very well crafted car.

[Matra et Alpine]

Esp, if you ever get a chance, drive one of these puppies.

THe handling really is superb. it had a variable geometry bottom front wishbone which endowned it with hadling on a par with the original RWD Elan.
It really is a revelation.

BUT Lotus owners (esp. snobs) didnt' want to know and at the time the company just didnt' have the funds to produce higher HP variants

[Esperante]

Really? I could imagine the part about being good at handling (for a car that light and small I could only expect it to) but from the reports I've read on it it was simply sub par.