New Sprint FHC Owner - Servicing Q's

[Barney]

My experience?

Many, many years ago (c1982/3?), gatecrashing a Club Elite ONLY track day at Goodwood.
I was invited by a member - HONEST!

Barney

[garyeanderson]

Several years (2001, I think) ago my friend and I stopped by Miles Wilkins for a Look see. We wandered around looking at various Lotus Elites and other delectibe wrecks about. Miles was on the Phone with Lotus, giving and getting an earful about some such order. After a while, 15 or 20 minutes Miles came round to see who we were "Ah Yanks", shows us about and the goods in stock and then went back to business. Miles gets your business if you deal direct or with one of the other suppliers, so whats your point...

Gary

[Pastapesto]

Yep, I have found him to be extremely rude & offensively patronising in the past & just because he supplies parts to all the other suppliers does not excuse him from having a little courtesy sometimes, which after all costs nothing.

Anyone else have any interesting anecdotes about Miles?

[richardcox_lotus]

Miles has looked after my elan for the last 10 yrs or so. Must get round to getting him looking after the paintwork (!).

Yes, he can be rude, belligerent, etc, but at the end of the day he's a Lotus enthusiast, so through the bluster he's always got the best interests of the car at heart - he wants to see them looked after by people who enjoy them as much as he does.

He has maintained a love/hate affair with the factory for years as well (!) - it's not just his customers !

Never had a problem with the quality of his parts or workmanship - but as mentioned earlier, if you want him to look after your P & J for him it's his way or the highway.....

However, I've heard similar tales about Tony Thompson & the late Derek Dean, so maybe its endemic when working / dealing in Lotus's ?

Having said all that of course, I think Paul Matty & Susan Millar have a more modern Custoemr Relations approach.

[jimbo]

However, I've heard similar tales about Tony Thompson & the late Derek Dean, so maybe its endemic when working / dealing in Lotus's ?

Having said all that of course, I think Paul Matty & Susan Millar have a more modern Custoemr Relations approach.

That tallies with my findings. I've been impressed with everyone I've dealt with at Paul Matty's and have found Susan Miller to be a pleasure to deal with.

I spoke to Tony Thompson at Stoneleigh as I was after a new airbox and back plate, and he had a very nice pair sat on his stand. He pretty much told me not to be so silly as to spend that much money on an air box and if I insisted on spending money, to buy some of his driveshafts instead. I came away a bit bemused and feeling like a school child who had been told off!

That's not to say I didn't value his advice. Fair enough, the driveshafts probably are a more worthwhile use of my cash, but given my local metal repairer had told me my old back plate was non repairable and the airbox could at best be desribed as a lash up, I needed a replacement and wasn't adverse to buying 'the best'. I fully appreciated it would be overkill, but I bought the Elan to make me feel good, so surely it was up to me if I wanted to over embelish the airbox?

I had the appropriate cash in my pocket and had what I considered to be a fantastic looking airbox in my hand, but there was no way I could buy it from him given his response ... not that it will stop me buying a roll bar and driveshafts from him when I get round to sorting them out.

[r.agnew]

Hey FritzPasadena , did you get the car ? Any sign of those photos ?

[FritzPasadena]

I certainly did! Unfortunately the weather down here has been so bad the car hasn't ventured out of the garage since arriving. All I have for you at the moment is this rather poor quality offering. As pictured it's missing the sail panel grilles and World Championshp wing badges (currently being cleaned).

It's a one owner car from new and was first registered on February 1st 1973. It was ordered with the optional Mono Paint in Lotus Yellow with Air Horns and a Heated Rear Screen. Cosmetically it's not perfect but I fully intend to use the car for a few years before getting it restored.

Incidentally, is anyone prepared to guess what percentage of Sprint's were completed with the Mono Paint option?

Will post some more photos when the weather improves - unfortunately rain is forecast fr the next two days though.

[FritzPasadena]

Here's the earliest piece of documentation I have for the car - thought some of you might be interested in seeing it considering the absence of any detailed photos.

[robcall]

Monotone Sprint with airhorns also.
Does yours have a line to the inlet manifold feeding the horns?

Thats fantastic having the complete car history altho' I'm not sure what the thousand pounds is on the invoice is for as that is less than half of the 1972 price

[robcall]

............unless bought as a kit with the sub assemblies billed seperately

[rgh0]

Interesting piece of history.

Looks like some sort of Lotus tax dodge with the engine being billed by a separate company !

cheers
Rohan

[trw99]

Thanks for the interesting piece of history you have given us with the original bill of sale. I shall look into Racing Engines Ltd and see what we can dig up!

With regard to percentage of mono colour Sprints produced, I doubt we shall ever know. A car ordered as a mono would have had that information on the Works Order Sheet (sometimes known as a Build Sheet) and of course it would have been on the invoice too. However, the factory does not have all the Works Order Sheets for Sprints, though they did have at some stage as recently as 1993. Apparently they were transferred to microfiche and the data has now "disappeared".

I hope one day that we shall get sight of the info again!

Tim

[FritzPasadena]

Just got back from a decent run with the car - everything seems to be fine although it could do with a bit of a tune up. About 2 miles from home the drivers side electric window decided it had had enough and is now refusing to go back up. Still, made it back just moments before a downpour so I guess it could have been worse!

Thanks again for the input guys.

[FritzPasadena]

Here's a couple of photos as promised. Bar the drivers side window which is still refusing to go up, the cars been trouble free. Should be getting the Workshop Manual from Paul Matty on Monday so hopefully next weekend I'll have the opportunity to delve a little deeper.

[Elanintheforest]

That's a great looking original car...and the best colour IMHO.

The pair of order forms were standard when a 'component car' Elan was ordered, as Rohan suggests, for tax purposes. Proof that the components came from two different business entities. I bought a Plus 2 last year from the original owner, who had kept all the paperwork...they look pretty similar, although a different address.

If you're not familar with Lotus in the 60s, don't be alarmed by the 'component form' type of purchase...this was just to overcome purchase tax, and save nearly 20% of the price of the car. The chap who built the Plus 2 that I bought completed the build on one Saturday. The car came needing the suspension, engine and gearbox, wheels and seats putting in. Not exactly a kit car, just a Chapman way of interpreting the rules.

If you don't have Brian Bucklands superb book on the restoration of the Elan, it's very worth while getting.

Mark