Personal opinions on which Elan to Buy

[gearbox]

Thank you all for your learned advice, and I am so happy that no one has yet flamed out on me for asking stupid questions. I am extremely greatful in meeting all of you and enjoyed the pearls of wisdom from this group collective. Thank you all again. I have to say, I'm a bit of a purist. The cars I have have always been restored back to near showroom condition using as many NOS parts I can find or maticuliously restoring existing parts. However, with that being said, I am not opposed to adding certian tasteful mods for safety or what was common for the period. For example, I have a 68 OTS E-Type that I am restoring from the ground up, since this was a Federalized car, it has Strombergs. But the Euro version still had SU's in 68. So I had no adversion to converting the car to SU's, but that included getting all the other bits including correct valve covers, Exhaust manifolds, etc. The car would have been fine without these and many would have not noticed, but it would not be correct. Yes, I am anal lol. Please check out my website at http://www.TheLolaRegistry.com under "Project Cars" and you can see all the nonsense I get myself into. It is a true sickness with no cure in sight. But back to the Elans. I have driven them in the past and they are a blast. I had a Lotus Europa JPS that I had restored from a basket case a decade ago, and when I finally finished it, I quickly realized I could not drive it. The car was perfect, but being 6' tall and about 200 lbs. my head kept hitting the ceiling everytime I hit a bump (didn't realize this until I replaced all the foam in the seats lol). The car drove exceptionally well, but my sore neck forced me to sell it to a much shorter friend. So my dream Elan would be a Red and White Sprint roadster, skinny tires and all. But as I mentioned earlier, finding them here in the States with the correct Weber head is far and few between unless I want to spend $50K. But I would not be adverse to finding a standard S4 and converting it to a Sprint.

As you were guys...seems a decision has been made:

Quote: "here's a pic of the car I am buying"

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Cheers - Richard

Well.......... an 80% maybe. This is a S4 that is pretty much all there, but I have to say, the Flairs are killing me. The fronts are not so bad and follows the S4 "sqaure" arches, but the rears are sooooo big. I have no issues in doing fiberglass work, but finding reapair panels has been an effort. If I do get this one, It will be a Gold Leaf Sprint.

Welcome Allan!

Don't think Lotus made a bad Elan.

S3's are sooo pretty, but S4's represent better value.

By the way I have a friend in Canada with a very nice S3 dhc that maybe for sale - PM if you're interested.

All the best,

Mazzini

I am not opposed to the S3, I too think it is a pretty car, but that would delete my ideas of a Sprint which would not be the worst thing in the world. I gleen from your post that you say the S3's are more valuable that the S4's. Is that mainly due to the Weber head? I found a S3 that was fairly complete, but it had a Stromberg motor. Owner tells me that that was original, and that is why I asked early if all S3's had Webers, or were there some S3's produced with the Stromberg engine. I'm looking for a car that needs some resoration, this way I can make sure it is all correct after a thorough tear down, so I think your firend's car would be too nice. Plus the fact that the US dollar is worthless now, would make a currency exchange deal tough. But I have PM'ed you anyway, you never know lol.

[Elan45]

Allan,

Does Ron know you are referring to him as your shorter friend? LOL

I've had my SS since 1974 and we have shared many good times together. But I love my early pre-airflow FHC, in my opinion the prettiest of all Elans. I wish it were running, but it and my other S3 DHC (converted to 26R by the original owner) are both projects now. I also have a S2 project that will probably be for sale later in the summer, so you can see where my Elan affections are located.

And yes, Elans do dovetail nicely with vintage racecar disease.

Roger

[gearbox]

Allan,

Does Ron know you are referring to him as your shorter friend? LOL

I've had my SS since 1974 and we have shared many good times together. But I love my early pre-airflow FHC, in my opinion the prettiest of all Elans. I wish it were running, but it and my other S3 DHC (converted to 26R by the original owner) are both projects now. I also have a S2 project that will probably be for sale later in the summer, so you can see where my Elan affections are located.

And yes, Elans do dovetail nicely with vintage racecar disease.

Roger

ROGER!!!! Long time no see, I knew you were a Lotus race car guy, but didn't think did the road cars as well. How is the Formula Jr. running, and the Formula B, and all the other exotic Lotus race cars you have? Now, I was nice, all I said Ron was shorter. I didn't say shorter and rounder, that would have been just wrong lol. But I should be finishing up on the E type finally and even with 20 cars and counting, I still need to add to inventory. Unfortunately, the way I saw the economy going 3 years ago, I had to start a business in China, so my time back home is limited to 2-3 months a year, split between two trips. So vintage racing has been on the back burner, and I started to focus on the road cars so at least I get some seat time when home. Bought a Cayman S last year and that is a great modern car, but I think my son has put more miles on it than I have at this point, and I may have to fight him to get it back. But the urge for a no nonsense, fly by the seat of your pants, painfully connected to the road and feeling every pebble form of driving has led me in the pursuit of an Elan. Remember when race car drivers were fat and race car tires were skinny? But send me some pictures of your cars, I'm in the market and will definitely be buying in June when I get back. You still in Michican yes? Thanks for reaching out and I will talk with you soon, Allan

[bast0n]

Does Ron know you are referring to him as your shorter friend? LOL

What does LOL stand for? I see it a lot and it can't mean lots of love - or can it?

[trw99]

'Larf out lowd' as the kids say; 'Laugh out load' as we might say - occasionaly, or 'You're 'aving a larf, mate'.

So I'm told. Hurumph!

Tim

[gearbox]

Does Ron know you are referring to him as your shorter friend? LOL

What does LOL stand for? I see it a lot and it can't mean lots of love - or can it?

Hi David,

Yes Tim is absolutely correct, but here are a few other acronyms that are commonly used, or at least I do:

LOL = Laugh out Loud
LMAO = Laugh my ass off
BTW = By the way
IMHO = In my humble opinion


There are more, but that's pretty much what I use. Allan

[Spyder fan]

Does Ron know you are referring to him as your shorter friend? LOL

What does LOL stand for? I see it a lot and it can't mean lots of love - or can it?

David,
Further to the other answers, the LOL, IMHO, AFAIK originate from texting on mobile phones especially back in the day before Blackberry and iPhones. It was a form of shorthand that was necessary because you had to press the key up to four times to get the letter you wanted to write your message. typing L O L meant pressing 5 three times then 6 three times and 5 again 3 times and could be done in very quick succession. typing out IN MY HUMBLE OPINION would take around 40 key presses, people got really proficient at the short hand and some of it stuck for online chatrooms and forums like these.

As another bit of trivia, the old Vodaphone tone that was played when a message was received was Morse Code for S M S (Short Message Service) ... -- ... dit dit dit - dah dah - dit dit dit.


Regards

Alan

[peterako]

LOL used to sometimes mean 'Lots Of Love' which can lead to generational bloopers.

Such as when trying to comfort someone.....

[prezoom]

And if the story/joke is really good......ROFLMAO.

Rob Walker
26-4889

[types26/36]

HYG......http://www.internetslang.com/