Lotus Estralle: how to make a family-friendly Elan

By James Elliott

| 9 Sep 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Lotus Estralle: how to make a family-friendly Elan

Madness. To take a Lotus Elan +2 and spend an amount of money that the owner doesn’t even want to think about on turning it into a bona fide shooting brake.

Not just your run-of-the-mill tailgated baby Range Rover-alike either, but the luxuriously appointed real deal, boasting bespoke cubbyholes designed specifically for decanters and all the other accoutrements of the most opulent coachbuilt hunting vehicles of the pre-war years.

Madness? Definitely (although in a rather endearing way), but certainly not folly because this unique car – four years and around 1000 hours in the making – is far more than a novelty or an experiment.

The Lotus Estralle has plentiful space for skis or country-pursuit paraphernalia

It was built for a purpose, and one that it is expected to serve.

And that is to cope with all the demands of modern life – be that a day’s country pursuits or blasting off to the Alps for a week’s skiing and loading up all of the equipment, including skis, for someone who couldn’t bear the thought of forsaking their classic daily driver.

The mastermind behind the Lotus Elan shooting brake is Roger Makhlouf, a multiple Elan owner who wanted a car that was equally at home on family holidays or coping with the daily commute in dense London traffic.

He suggested it in passing to specialist Paul Matty, and it kick-started a long-running obsession with the unique project, finally called the +2es or Estralle.

What do you do if you love Lotus Elans but can’t fit your children in? Turn one into an estate car, of course

Well, Lotus road cars should start with an E and Paul had always liked the name Mistral, but don’t look beyond that for an explanation.

Google the name and you will come up with a mountain ranch and various vague references in languages with an awful lot of Ys and Zs and precious few vowels.

Cyprus-born Roger explains: “My history with +2s goes back to my childhood when I had a ride in one of the earliest examples imported into Cyprus.

“Since then I’ve owned several, but with a family on the way I was worried that they might no longer be able to fulfil my needs.”

Lotus specialist Paul Matty played a part in the creation of this unique Estralle

“Paul was quite taken with the project,” he continues, “which started with an off-the-cuff comment along those lines that I made to him back in December 2002.

“I just said wouldn’t it be fun to do something like this, and he grasped on it.

“He called me back in the New Year to say he’d found a donor vehicle, so we grabbed the bull by the horns and went for it.”

It is not as if remodellers have previously restrained themselves from reworking the Elan’s shape: the centrality of the backbone chassis and the properties of glassfibre make changes easy.

In practice it proved rather more difficult, even on a new galvanised Lotus chassis.

The Lotus Estralle’s dashboard wood matches the panelling in the boot

To start with, at the top the roof is aluminium – bonded to the glassfibre wings – and was fashioned by Shapecraft, which has previous when it comes to Elans.

The original roof was sliced off just behind the ’screen and the new section let in to form a stylish estate shape reminiscent of a BMW Z3M Coupé or Jensen GT.

Roger’s insistence on retaining the tail-lights – “without them it just wouldn’t be a proper +2 to me” – and that there should be no lip on the boot floor made designing and building the tailgate a real challenge.

Glazing the new outline was another potential trauma: the job was nearly farmed out to Poland, where producing 25 pieces of each section was as cheap as having one made in the UK.

The Lotus Estralle’s rear glass was specially made by Pilkington

Pilkington came to the rescue with three unique pieces of glass.

It’s a shame they couldn’t be made to match the existing windows a little more (a chromed surround would make all the difference), but needs must.

Inside, the car is equally transformed. The lengthy rear cabin is bedecked with Jaguar E-type floor runners to stop the sumptuous carpet being damaged.

The headlining is Bentley woolcloth and everywhere there are changes and improvements.

Let into the opulent wood panelling in the load bay are two 12V sockets, plus lights in the rear of the roof and the edge of the boot floor, the latter exposed only when the effortlessly latching tailgate is smoothly raised on its hydraulic struts.

The Lotus Elan donor car’s original Lagoon Blue was replaced by ’80s Mediterranean Blue

Push the two side panels – which match the dashboard, naturally – and a pair of sizeable cubbyholes are revealed: one for electrical maintenance, the other merely to house your drinks and game pie.

A large portion of the boot floor lifts, too, with space to stash other goodies.

If the cavernous boot isn’t enough, ingenious use of early +2 rear seats means they fold flat to give even more space.

Creating the long, flat load bay required some clever reworking and triangulating of the rear frame and bracing.

Underneath, the exhaust and silencer had to be redesigned, too.

The Lotus Elan estate’s +2es tag; it has also been dubbed Estralle

Even when the lapbelt-equipped back seats are upright, they are easier to access and offer rear passengers more room thanks to the use of Éclat fronts that – unlike the original +2 items – tilt as they move forward.

The later chairs are also more comfortable, and are joined by other details such as a period-correct radio with an iPod connection, a maplight and more.

Mechanically the Estralle is largely standard Big Valve +2S 130/5, which offers more planted handling than the ‘baby’ Elan – although here the extra weight takes the edge off the pace.

Performance is still thrilling, though, and the steering equally sublime.

The Lotus Estralle’s pop-up lights are from an M100 Elan

The baulky, Austin Maxi-derived five-speed gearbox gives motorway civility but loses the snappy precision that makes the four-speeder so enigmatic.

There was, however, one big technical change, one that could be done to any Elan and would be welcomed by any owner: gone are the crossmember airwell and vacuum-operated pop-up headlights; in their place is transplanted the modern system – complete with a handful of inner wing-mounted relays – from the M100 Elan.

That means not only reliable headlight operation, but also no drooping eyelids and the ability to single-flash in an instant. This conversion alone would be costly, but it transforms the car’s usability.

Such demand for practicality also prompted the late inclusion of a rear wiper – requiring removal and meticulous replacement of the headlining – and then an accompanying window washer. Headlining off again…

The Lotus Estralle’s angular rear ’screen makes it look a little like a BMW M Coupé

Roger adds: “It seemed like a good idea at the time, but that was four years ago.

“I would be a liar if I said that I didn’t take inspiration from the photos of Emerson Fittipaldi being ferried around Brands Hatch in one in 1972, or another estate that featured in C&SC in the ’80s.

“Actually, I nearly bought that car, but it had been crashed and I wanted to use a later model because they are much more luxurious.

“I must say I am delighted with the result, it really is a very fine car to drive and to be in, and it should be able to perfectly keep pace with the modern world and all the various tasks that cars are expected to take on now.”

Lotus Éclat front seats and early, fold-flat Elan +2 rears improve space and access

“The body shape was left very much at the discretion of Shapecraft,” he adds. “I just told them what I wanted and didn’t want, and left them to it.

“When it was finished, Paul and I okayed it and started to worry about the rest of the car. There was an awful lot of exploratory work and experimentation, but that saved time in the long run.

“I think any Elan owner would appreciate the headlight conversion. Now I just want to use it and enjoy it.

“It’s a classic car, but at the same time some of the details, such as the headlining, bring it right into the 21st century.”

You may not approve of what Paul and Roger have achieved, and you may not like the end result, but you have to respect their determination and gusto, and their refusal to accept that it couldn’t be done or that logic or precedent should ever stand in the way of creating something truly remarkable.

The Lotus Estralle project was a labour of love for owner Roger Makhlouf

All sound a bit Kevin McCloud? Well, if Grand Designs were about cars, that programme’s great arbiter of good taste would more than likely approve.

In those closing monologues, when his tone betrays what he really thinks of that week’s dreamers (and their creation), he would be using words such as ‘vision’ and ‘positive recycling’, followed possibly by a shudder and a tart comment on the money spent (in that way that he always seems to sneer slightly at the wealthiest aspirants for having the cash to make it too easy).

But nothing to detract from overall approval for the dream being realised.

Tempered or begrudging approval maybe, but with that rare twinkle in his eye that indicates his most cherishable reactions: admiration and affection.

Images: James Mann

Thanks to: Chris Heyes; Paul Matty Sportscars; Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings

This was first in our July 2007 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

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