ELAN S4 PRODUCTION NUMBERS

[tonycharente]

Hello everyone,
A new question, please. I have a RHD 1969 ELAN S4 SE FHC on Stromberg carbs, and I am trying to find out how many of this exact model was made, or failing that how many RHD S4's, or S4 SE's, or S4 FHC's or S4's on Stromberg carbs, or any combination of these different S4 characteristics. In my numerous Lotus books I have found figures for total Elan S4 production, but nothing that breaks it down, not even into the split between FHC's and DHC's. Can anyone shed any light on this please? If you can, please can you also provide the source.
Many thanks
Tony

[1964 S1]

I've read where both hard and soft top S4's were introduced in March of 1968 beginning with numbers 36/7895 and 45/7895 respectively, after that things get murky in a hurry concerning RHD and LHD, and carbs, etc. Even the +2 could be bought in kit form back then and who knows what carbs and heads have been modified since? In January 1970 a new numbering system went into effect, 36/9824 being the last coupe and 45/9824 the convertible. This is according to Mike Taylor's book Lotus Elan The Complete Story, I recommend buying this book but I'm not sure about the final numbers in this chart. Were the exact same amounts of coupes and convertible S4's built? Another great source to answer some of your questions is, The Original Lotus Elan by Paul Robinshaw and Christopher Ross, A MUST READ FOR ELAN OWNERS! Detailed changes took place at specific ID numbers but I believe as this thread grows the vague Lotus production procedure will prevail.

[tonycharente]

Thank you 1964 S1,
I have these excellent books. I believe the reason that the 7895 and the 9824 numbers are the same is that they are part of the SAME series of chassis numbers. So from March 1968 to December 1969 there were 1929 S4's made, FHC and DHC combined. Add to this those made under the new (January 1970 and on) numbering system and we get to something like 3000 S4's excluding the Sprints. These are the combined total Elan S4 production figures I have so far found. But can anyone help with the break-down of this total figure, please?
Thanks,
Tony

[john-c-elan+2]

According to Robinshaw & Ross (section near rear called Production milestones) Strombergs were introduced at c/no 8600.

[garyeanderson]

Frank at Sports Car World has production numbers listed on his web page

http://www.sportscarworld.com/

look under
ALL LOTUS SERIAL NUMBERS AND INFO
and then select Elan


The type is left out unfortunetly, but it does list engine numbers for the most part and have the prefix listed so with enough eye strain you could count them.

Gary

[1964 S1]

Thank You Tony, that makes sense concerning chassis numbers. Unit numbers I know are a better way of counting Lotuses but I haven't been able to dig up that info yet in my library. Mike Taylor's book does list some of the carb change points. There are some amoungst us that may have coupe/roadster build numbers, maybe they'll respond. Good Luck, Eric

[garyeanderson]

I did some more looking into this and have come up with the following. It may have some truth to it but as with anything that you have incomplete data for, its not going to be real useful. I took all of the S4's from 7895 to 9832 (because I don't know when S4 production stopped and sprint production really began and I am too lazy to take the eye strain for making shure its all correct).The data for engine types looks like

C, D, E, F of wich there is a listing for only C and D weber types = 234
G Stromberg Federal = 437
H Super S/E = 2
K Standard Domestic = 145
L S/E Domestic = 343
LP Probably all weber as I didn't see any serial # higher than 8600 = 174
M S/E stromberg domestic = 2
------------------------------------------
1337 total engines out of 1929 chassis

You can do the percentages if you want...

As far as a total for DHC and FHC I think you are on your own, If I were to wild ass guess, it would be 2/3 DHC and 1/3 FHC

Gary

[tonycharente]

Thank you so much Gary for the excellent site link and for all the counting. It was fascinating to find my own car in the list!

My own car being an "L" (S/E Stromberg, non-Federal) I have picked up on your 343 figure. I then carried on to the end of the listing counting the remaining "L"'s, which I made to be 101, all in 1970, which makes sense, the Sprint commencing in January 1971 as far as I can gather from my reading. So that makes 444 S4 SE non-Federal Stromberg Elans. So if I take 1/3 to be FHC's, that would make around 150 cars just like mine.

So thanks again Gary - I have an answer!

But all further help and comments / information still very welcome please! Anything more about the split FHC / DHC for example?
Tony

[garyeanderson]

Hi Tony

I have a S4 S/E like yours, But I am in the U.S. and I swaped it over to LHD and the very nice L motor went into another Elan S4 DHC. I still have the Coupe and it now has a 1700 tall deck twincam with a weber head in it. Someday I will finish it. It was built in April 1970. So there are at least 2 that are still around.

Ps I really didn't count, I put it into a excel spread sheet and just did the differences between, as I sorted through it.

[Elanintheforest]

My S4 is an 'L' engine, but has webers. It's a 7001 chassis prefix, and as there have only been 2 owners from new, and they haven't changed it from stromberg, I guess that this was one of those that the customer requested webers from new...apparently it could be done right through to Sprint production for UK market cars. That makes sorting the mumbers by category a little tougher!
Mark

[garyeanderson]

Hi Mark

Sounds like a dealer thing to me, I wouln't think that the Lotus factory would have had the time, unless there was someone with very deep pockets coming around. Does the cylinder head number stamped on the back of the head match the engine number above the RH motor mount?

Gary

[tonycharente]

Gary: How did you get the table into Excel please - I was unable to copy it in any way. Alternatively, do you think you just could e-mail me your Excel version, please? My e-mail address is [email protected]

Mark: Equally, according to the late Graham Arnold's BUYERS GUIDE booklet, they reverted to Webers from August 1969, chassis 9524, yet there were plenty more on Strombergs after that, including mine. I get the impression that they didn't have ISO9000 !!!!!

Tony

[garyeanderson]

Anything was possible in those days, and everything probably did happen

[Elanintheforest]

I'll check the number on the head. I guess that the weber head was being made all the while as the Lotus Cortina and Twincam Escort never went to strombergs (in the UK at least), and of course the Plus 2s and Sprints reverted to the weber head but with dellortos in 71 or so. There was certainly something in the Ross / Robinshaw book about weber heads being used throughout the S4 production for the UK market for 'some customers'. About as definitive as Lotus records get I guess.
Mark

[fasterbyelan]

Gary: How did you get the table into Excel please - I was unable to copy it in any way. Alternatively, do you think you just could e-mail me your Excel version, please? My e-mail address is [email protected]

Mark: Equally, according to the late Graham Arnold's BUYERS GUIDE booklet, they reverted to Webers from August 1969, chassis 9524, yet there were plenty more on Strombergs after that, including mine. I get the impression that they didn't have ISO9000 !!!!!

Tony

Yes Tony my Elan is in the list, an SE FHC Elan on Strombergs and the date given is 7 April 1970 (my birthday - I was 8 ).

And did you get a reply regarding copying the data to Excel, I would be interested.

Regards,