Kaji's Car

A snippet of the manga showing Kaji's Lotus, note the rear lamps, bumper, trunk lines, and door hinge lines A picture of a Lotus Elan 1600 S1 showing the rear lamps, bumper, trunk lines, and door hinge lines

Kaji's Car, as it appears in Sadamoto's Manga and the Girlfriend of Steel 2 game, is a Lotus Elan 1600 S1 convertible. Kaji is depicted with his car in manga chapter 33, pages 11-13. The similarities between the real Elan S1 and the one that appears in the manga include the general shape of the body, the non-fixed headlamps, the trunk lines and door hinge lines, the rear bumper. The nail in the coffin is the fact that Sadamoto drew the car to have a Elan 1600 badge on the right side of the car and a Lotus Elan badge on the left rear.

The 1600 (also referred to as Series 1) is a Type 26 Lotus that was sold between 1962 and 1966. It sports a 1558cc water-cooled inline 4 engine producing around 105bhp. The car shares many visual similarities with the Series 2 and later Elans of the same type. Many Type 26 Elans also have a 3rd set of tail light assembly but the ones on either side of the rear plate are only reflectors. Originally, all Elan S1's were open 2 seater convertibles, but in 1964, a fixed head coupe was made that had slightly different body. Later versions of the 1600 squeezed an extra 2 seats into the back.

External Links

• Lotus Elan article from LotusElan.net
• Lotus Elan article at Wikipedia