Those old Lotus ads...

[RotoFlexible]

When I first started browsing this site, I was delighted to see the old Elan ads from Challman Motors. As a car-happy adolescent in Los Angeles, I read those ads in my father's Road & Track and got hooked on the Elan. That smooth, sophisticated, snob-appeal copy, along with the inherent appeal of the car, did it for me. Mind, I was 12 at the time... A little later, I saw my first Elans racing at Bryar Motorsports Park in New Hampshire - might have been 1965. I continued to read the ads as well as the reviews (also available on this site).
Fortunately, my father was a sports car enthusiast and was sympathetic. As I approached driving age, we road-tested an Elan coupe, and in 1967, he bought a '66 S2 roadster with about 19K miles. My driver's license was about a month old at the time, as I recall. Within a week, the starter jammed or failed, and my long education in automotive mechanics began. I still have that car, and I'm still learning.

[chrishewett]

Hi Andrew,
Nice to read your post, we must all get such a lot of our interests from our fathers.
Welcome to the forum.
Chris

[cliveyboy]

Hi Andrew
I am also a big fan of the adverts.
I have a very large collection of adverts and road tests for the Elans as well as lots of articles.
They are a great source of reference and insite into how the cars were perceived at the time.
A couple of my favourite adverts are two guys asembling their new Elan at the weekend then driving down the pub for a couple of pints to celebrate.
My other favourite which I do not have in my collection is "The assembly of the car is so easy even a women could do it".

They also look great framed and I have them hung in the house and garage.

Clive

[BillGates]

I remember those ads. They are pretty amazing considering what lotus has been doing for the last few years.