ELAN S4 PRODUCTION NUMBERS

[tonycharente]

Karl,
Yes, Gary emailed the Excel file to me. If you let me have your email address I'll forward it to you.
Cheers
Tony

[CBUEB1771]

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

Gary,
Thanks for the tip. There is a transcription error at least in the case of my +2. The chassis number and color for 0170N are correct and I am sure the date is reasonable. All the date codes I can find agree with August 1971 but I can't confirm the day (29th). The engine number is correct except the list has a prefix of "V" while the chassis plate and engine block are clearly "U" instead. The back side of the glove box has a signature of "Paul" followed by a five-pointed star. Why isn't that in the build record? Enough anorak stuff from me.

[garyeanderson]

Well that (4) stromberg S4 S/E Coupe's so far that are still around, 2 with webers now.

I wanted the table so that I could move the data by date, engine number and what have you. Frank has locked it down pretty well, it would take a lot of eye strain to duplicate it, doesent mean I woudn't do it but I must have copied it before he realized it was wide open. He has left out the body number and chassis number for some reason. What is shown is the unit number, engine number, # of gearbox speeds, color, invoice date. Not all unit numbers are chassis numbers early in production. I have started to fill in the columns chassis and body, I hope to find more as I go. My guess that Lotus started with an order for a car, that was a Unit # which consisted of chassis, body and engine. This was probably done for tax accounting reasons or to make up kits for sale , eventually chassis and unit became the same but in the begining of production it wasn't .

Gary

[1964 S1]

Here's a registry list that may help a bit. http://www.unibrain.org/motorsports/elan/
As far as an actual head count, good luck, this model seems to attract excellent driver introverts.

[tonycharente]

Thank you 1964 S1 - another excellent site that I didn't know about!

I did a sort on "model" and then counted how many S4 DHC's and how many S4 FHC's: 24 and 19 respectively, or 44% of FHC's based on this sample - but, as you suggest, it's not a very big sample - perhaps all the S4 owners prefer to be out in the sunshine enjoying their cars????

Anyway, using 44% on my 444 total I get to 195 cars like mine.

Any other bits to my puzzle anyone, please?

Tony

[garyeanderson]

You get a larger sampling counting all fixed head coupes on Jim Boones site, that works out to 53 out of 186 or 28%, if you count all type 36 you get 57 or 30%, if you count both type 36 and FHC you get 49 or 26%

Maybe the data is flawed by owner input or maybe it s that 8 FHC's were converted to DHC's

Gary

[tonycharente]

Gary,
Spot on -
I just counted the 36's shown as (converted to???) DHC - 8

They don't know what they're missing!

Tony

[garyeanderson]

removed

[mark030358]

Gary,
Hi there, just picked up on your old thread... My S4 as follows...
Just a note on the engine types. Mine is listed as a K18425, but has the S/E camshafts. Interestingly it was also fitted with a servo unit and hazard warnings system as standard. Oh and its on Strombergs...

cheers
Mark

[garyeanderson]

I was looking at the database that is derived directly from the Sports Car World unit number list for elans and noticed I had found a couple of late coupe in the original VIN numbering system and it may be the best at determining how many coupes were built. All Elans had body numbers when built, some were written in the production ledger but later on there are few (1969), however I did find one listed and added it a while back. the Coupes are listed below.

row 6672 unit 9686 engine G21065 invoice 18-Dec-69 body# 3116 type Coupe

row 6556 unit 9568 engine K18425 invoice 21-Oct-69 body# 3056 type Coupe

row 4513 unit 7502 engine LP8978 invoice 20-Sep-67 body # 2175 type Coupe

row 2527 unit 5520 engine LP5394 invoice 28-Mar-66 Body# 1289 type Coupe

this is where I start to reach a bit for some more info but this is all I have in the early and late numbers. So reaching as far as I dare I came up with the idea of over the 4000+ numbers from the row on the left of the database there is a difference of 1827 between the two extreme body numbers. My best guess is that coupe body numbers started at 1000 and continued until the new vin numbering system was implemented in January 1970.

So around 2100 plus Coupes pre 1970

The DHC is here (below) to show there body numbers were much higher having started production several years before the Coupe.

row 6192 unit 9185 engine G19576 invoice 16-Jun-69 body # 7922 type DHC

anyone got any more Coupe body numbers?

[rgh0]

My S4 coupe is 36/8555 made August 1968 and body number 2696 from the moulded in number on the fire wall

cheers
Rohan

[trw99]

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.

Tony

From the work I have done for Sprint production numbers, I can give you my best shots at final S4 unit numbers:

Type E UK SE FHC 0199 E
Type F Export SE FHC 0034 F
Type G UK SE DHC 7103 05 0298 G
Type H Export SE DHC 7012 23 0030 H
Type J Federal SE FHC 7103 05 0049 J
Type K Federal SE DHC 0163 K

(I have never collected Types A, B, C or D numbers as they were not relevant to my work on Sprints, though I must say I do not recall coming across very many of them)

However, some of those S4s were converted by the factory into Sprints. Numbers for those, as I am currently aware, are on my Sprint web site: http://www.lotuselansprint.com/document ... umbers.xls

Tim

[garyeanderson]

Hi Rohan

Thanks for the additional data point, they all help to understand what was built and add another piece to the puzzle.

Hi Tim
I have 7004090078E, Lotus Knows nothing of this Coupe. I believe that its one of the backdoor Elans of the day. It was an L reg coupe with the outline of the letters still on the white paint background but I neglected to write it down in 1993 when I bought it. The story that I got when I bought it from a bodyshop employee was it was brought into the U.S. by a member of the Navy stationed in Rhode Island and may not have come through propper channels (customs). It had an N cylinder head stamping (engine now gone) and was a great about town. I hope this adds one more to your list.

Does any one else have an early Coupe (pre 36/5500) to add?

Gary

p.s. its an S4 not a Sprint and all of the major panels had 0078E

[Pastapesto]

Gary

I have an early coupe, built Nov 1965 (production started in Sept/Oct I think), c/n 36/4970 and I think from memory that it has written on various parts of the body "1010". I say from memory because the body is away at the moment for paintwork but I think you may be right there with the numbers for coupe bodies starting at "1000". I have always thought it was in the first 100 coupes built but maybe that means it could be the "10th" body off the production line (does that mean 10th coupe built?).

I hope that helps.

Regards

Adam

[garyeanderson]

Looking at the limited real world data, the difference between Rohan's Coupe body number and Adam's early body number gives a difference of 1586 bodies over a 4 year period and 2106 bodies over 5 years. The total number of Elans (difference in rows of the excel sheet) is 4695 over the same 5 year period, this includes some number of type 26 Elans from 4970 to 5810, all of the S3's and a bit of the S4 production before the change in January 1970 to the new Lotus numbering system. This is a larger percentage than I would have guessed at 45% (2106/4695). More Early Coupe numbers are welcome, any other body numbers with the 36/xxxx format?


row 6672 unit 9686 engine G21065 invoice 18-Dec-69 body# 3116 type coupe

row 6556 unit 9568 engine K18425 invoice 21-Oct-69 body# 3056 type coupe

row 5563 unit 8555 engine D17310 invoice 19-Dec-68 body #2696 type coupe

row 4513 unit 7502 engine LP8978 invoice 20-Sep-67 body # 2175 type coupe

row 2527 unit 5520 engine LP5394 invoice 28-Mar-66 Body# 1289 type coupe

row 1977 unit 4970 engine LP4296 Invoice 14-Oct-65 Body# 1010 type coupe