Peter Kirwan-Taylor had connections with Lagonda cars, Folland aircraft and westland Aircraft through his stepfather who was a director of Lagonda. Lagonda came under the same ownership as the aircraft companies, and Kirwan-Taylor was influenced by the aircraft design work of Teddy Petter, as well W.O. Bentley's engineering for Lagonda. His own efforts began by changing the body on the Lotus MkVI kit which he ordered, and later buying a Swallow Doretti from the bankruptcy sale and turning that into a coupe. Kirwan-Taylor met with Colin Chapman and told him that he would like to put a coupe body on a Lotus Eleven for the Le Mans 24 hour race. Chapman didn't want to do this to the Eleven and proposed instead that they start with a clean sheet for the Type 16, which became the Lotus Elite. The design was refined by aerodynamicist Frank Costin and developed by Ford employees Ron Hickman and John Frayling who later left Ford to join Lotus. Kirwan-Taylor went on to work with the Lotus 18, 23 and 26 (Elan S1). His final car design was the fibreglass Citroen Bijou coupe which was built by Citroen Slough on 2CV mechanics.