Elan S3 colours

[Dieschelan]

Hello

I have bought a Lotus Elan S3. The car was built in December 1966. I want to respray the car. But I don't know in which colour. In Lotus archives they don't know the colour of the car.
I think in this period there was avalaible following colours:
- Cirrius White
- Medici Blue
- Carmen Red
- British Racing Green
Ar? there more colours avalaible? Can someone show pics of these colours?

Regards

[Concrete-crusher]

Sorry not an answer but a question. We're the cars all painted at that time ? Or was the colour in the gel coat ?

My S3,gel coat is a mid green colour although subsequent paint jobs have been yellow , white and now red.

I have also noticed the better looking paint jobs now are not cellulose but synthetic ?

Steve

[Dieschelan]

These colour was the avalaible colours by Lotus. I think there was also a light Yellow.
My car is now a metallic green and I think it was red. I don?t know if Carmen Red in this period it was also Monaco Red,

[MarkDa]

The VIN plate may give you the colour in the bottom right hand corner?

[StressCraxx]

My 67 Elan was delivered in "Carnival Red". There was a thread long ago that indicated it was the same as "Guards Red" from Porsche of the same year.

[trw99]

I have posted this list of all Elan colours before; you will find the answer to your question therein.

LO 5 Carnival Red was a Rootes colour, code no 39. It's possibly the same as Porsche Guards Red as Lotus used a few other Porsche colours at the same time, but best to get that checked out by an expert paint shop.

Steve, the cars were painted. Some, mostly Federal market cars, were left in their gel coat for dealers/importers to paint according to customer preference. A customer could ask Lotus to paint their car any colour they wished, for a price!

Tim

[Dieschelan]

Thank you Tim!

Which colour looks better in the S3 dhc? I think Medici Blue will be te best option.


Regards

[elanfan1]

Is there a code on the bottom right of your VIN plate?

[MarkDa]

That'll be the second time we've made that suggestion!
I guess it rather depends on vehicle age or in Steve CC 's case whether you've got a vin plate anyway.

[trw99]

Mark, it depends mostly on whether the car was originally supplied built by the factory or in component form. Factory built cars tend to have the Unit, Engine and Colour numbers on them. Component cars tend only to have the Unit No.

Tim

[Dieschelan]

The problem is that the VIN Plates only shows the chassis number and the engine number.

[elanfan1]

Your only other option is to try to trace the first owner and ask the question. Alternatively you choose a colour you like.

[Gordon Sauer]

It's nice to get the Provenance letter from the archives at Lotus as I didon my 67 build S3 but even it will tell you that there was no factory notation of the color so best to just find it from places that were never touched or PO. Gordon Sauer

[Elan45]

There's no space at the bottom right corner of the VIN plate to put a color code, at least not for cars during this period, say 1965-67.

Roger

[dgym]

Hi Dieschelan,
my car was also built in Dec of 66, what is your chassis number? we may have very close cars.

mine was originally green which i discovered through DVLA records that came with the car. also there is green under all the scratches in the current yellow paint. It seems to have been a green similar to the cars pictured below. (I think it also had the gold bumpers)

Does your car have air vents on each side of the dash?
cheers,
Jim