S1 Elan Dealer advertisment

[garyeanderson]

My friend Jim was moving south after he retired and gave me some of the Lotus dealer Advertisements. I think its a S1 as the reg number looks like the early numbering scheme. Most folks have an issue with writing on collectable stuff like this but I think its great as Jim has written the price of various options including the optional painted hardtop at $330 with a total of $4789 including heater, close ratio gearbox and Dunlop tires.

[paddy]

You can't easily tell the date from the plate although I would guess it is 1963. The new "suffix" registration scheme (ie AAA111A) was introduced in January 1963, but since at that time registrations were issued by local authorities they were not obliged to issue numbers in the new format if they still had spare numbers in the old (111AAA) format. So during 1963 a good number of these old format numbers were still issued (including my car which was June 63). Seemingly some authorities continued to issue old format numbers until 1965 but this was very much the exception.

Paddy

[johnsimister]

PJH is probably as early as 1962, so the pic is most likely of an original Elan 1500.

John

[garyeanderson]

Tough (near impossible) to read the Elan 1600 on the side but that?s what my guess is.
I don't think the hardtop was available straight away and wasn't available until the Elan 1600 was announced.
If it were Elan 1500 it would be 0ne of 6, 10, 15 or 23 choose your own figure if it makes you happy.

[johnsimister]

Yes, but the car may have been made before the hardtop. Badges may have been changed along with the engine. Hertfordshire County Council, whose registration marks were AR, JH, NK, RO and UR, would have been at 'P' late 1962 to early 1963, from what I remember as a sadly car-number-obsessed child growing up in Herts. I remember a cook at my school had a new Triumph Herald in 1963 which was 429 UJH, so this Elan's registration is clearly older than that. I shall now take off my anorak.

Great find, by the way.

John

[garyeanderson]

This advertisment flyer must have been in use for a while. The U.S. Post Office implemented Zip Codes in 1963. I guess the telling tale is that Jim has some prices penciled in for the Elan SE at $4864 plus $315 for a total of $5179 and they were not available until January 1966.
As for whether its a 1500 or 1600 it doesn't matter much, they look the same to me. I can say that the photo looks to be taken in the winter as the leaves are off of the trees.

[mrob]

I've got a copy of the same folder, except that "Lotus Cars Limited" is printed at the top and the picture is of an Elan, photographed from the drivers side, approaching a two lane road. No license plate is visible. Further down is a picture of the cockpit of a left hand drive car--unless the picture is flipped.