New owner questions

[pamitchell]

My S4/SE has the repeaters and I've always suspected my USA car was actually a Euro model changed over to Federal spcs. The car no. appears on the factory build ledger as sold to Lotus East in Nov. 68 but always titled as a 69. It has white parking lights and orange turn signals in front
and the red rear lights have separate bulbs/areas for brake & turn lights. My hazard switch is a slide switch along the bottom of the dash below the warning lights. You have to move the turn signal L or R to activate the hazard switch.
Anyone else have a similar US car?
Rgds,
Phil

[elansprint71]

My 68 S4 Elan was a standard specification domestic UK delivered car and as far as I can tell never had the repeaters on the wings either. Did not have them when I bought it in 75 and no sign of any holes in the body where they might have been when it was repainted in 1981.

cheers
Rohan

My 68 S4SE did have the repeaters, so it looks like perhaps they were an SE fitment, as suggested.

Cheers,
Pete.

[elansprint71]

[quote="trw99"]
elansprint71 wrote:
The 1973 World Championship badge would only have been used on the Plus 2S 130.
Tim

and the Europa,of course.

my recently aquired late model sprint has the '72 badge.
I'd have thought they would need time to tool up and order badges.

Hey,
I didn't write that!
If the Sprint ceased production in August 73, I guess that there were quite a few with the 72 badge.

Pete.

[trw99]

Pete

Sprints were actually made on the production line from January 1971 through to December 1972.

Those cars with unit numbers indicating a 1973 January, February or March build date had their numbers allocated after they were completed and had come off the production line, in late 1972. There are no Sprints with VINs after 7303.

I now reckon that the 72 Champs badge appeared on Sprints produced from mid to late November 1972 onwards, allowing for production time and run out of previous stock.

Tim

[robcall]

oops!
sorry pete!

[redskatejbf]

Just to confuse things a bit further I have had my S4 F.H.C 36/9681 from new Dec. 69 first registration 01/01/1970. It is not a SE but it has the repeaters on its flanks. I orderd it as standard Elan and thats what I got, the engine is the type with the lower compression, but 2 ring cams for the S E. on Strombergs
Regards J.F.

[redskatejbf]

Just to confuse things a bit further I have had my S4 F.H.C 36/9681 from new Dec. 69 first registration 01/01/1970. It is not a SE but it has the repeaters on its flanks. I orderd it as standard Elan and thats what I got, the engine is the type with the lower compression, but 2 ring cams for the S E. on Strombergs
Regards J.F.

[Elanintheforest]

I've had to resort to the books ....and I've found the S4 S/E road test by Motor April 18th 1970:
'Part of the SE extras are the side indicator repeaters and the 155 x 13 radials on knock-on wheels'.

Still not found anything in the factory brochures, but did see that the boot carpet was an S/E option for the S3!

So, J.F, are we to assume that your car was the exception that proves the rule? Did you order knock on wheels? Do you have the chrome strip on the sill, and (now) most importantly, did you get a boot carpet?!

I think that you should start a separate thread telling us all about your car...there can't be many one owner Elans left in the world. Lots of pictures old and new.

I didn't realise that the non-S/E was low compression...I thought that the engine mods were cams and jets and exhaust manifold only...back to the books.
Mark

[elansprint71]

Pete

Sprints were actually made on the production line from January 1971 through to December 1972.

Those cars with unit numbers indicating a 1973 January, February or March build date had their numbers allocated after they were completed and had come off the production line, in late 1972. There are no Sprints with VINs after 7303.

I now reckon that the 72 Champs badge appeared on Sprints produced from mid to late November 1972 onwards, allowing for production time and run out of previous stock.

Tim

Tim,
You may well be correct about the end of production, I'm not sure of your source of information, the price-cut in mid '73 may be a clue about slow sales; but that makes books and magazine pieces which are on my shelves (and my collection is by no means complete) quoting August '73 for last down the line by John Bolster, Paul Robinshaw, Christopher Ross, Mike Taylor, William Taylor (neither of these folks are my relations, afaic), Chris Harvey; and Jabby Crombac (Feb '73), Autosport (Feb 73) somewhat wide of the cut-off. Who knows?
An old friend of mine bought a Lagoon Blue/White FHC Sprint new from Sports Motors, Manchester in May '74, btw.
Cheers,
Pete.

[trw99]

Pete

The production run for Sprints from January 1971 to December 1972 has been confirmed to me by the factory.

However, cars were clearly allocated unit numbers and so-called build dates in January, February and March of 1973. Sprints continued to be listed and available up to August 1973. Certainly some Sprints carry the M plate in the UK, indicating they were registered after 1 August 1973. I know of one Sprint that was first registered in January 1975.

I am aware of a 1st June 1973 price list, but of none later than that date. In other words, there continued to be stock of cars from the dealers for some time after final manufacture. Lotus World of August/September 1973 has a cover with the title ?Farewell to the Elan?.

So the books are right, the Sprint was killed off by the factory in August 1973. It is the production run on the factory floor that I refer to.

Tim

PS Do you think that, somewhere on this earth, an as yet uncompleted factory component Elan kit still awaits assembly? What a barn find that would be!

[Elanintheforest]

Tim...whilst you're in archive mode, any idea how many 'batches' per month, and how many in each batch?

I'm interested from the perspective of the S4, but I guess that the same principles may apply...if there are any!

And a supplementary...why was the Sprint killed off so long before the Plus 2? Was it not being able to meet U.S crash test targets?

Mark

[trw99]

Mark

As it happens, I do have an incomplete table of batch numbers for the two years they were used (70 & 71). It is difficult to extrapulate any firm answers to your questions, as you can see:

Batch Numbers
1970
Jan 01, 02, 03
Feb 05
Mar 06
Apr 09
May 12
Jun 13, 15
Jul
Aug 15, 16, 17, 18
Sep
Oct 20, 21
Nov
Dec 23

1971
Jan 01, 02,
Feb
Mar 05
Apr 06, 07
May 11, 12, 13, 14
Jun 14, 15
Jul 17, 18
Aug 18, 19, 20
Sep 22, 23, 24, 25
Oct 24,25, 26
Nov 27
Dec 28, 29


If any S4 or Sprint owner would like to furnish me with any missing batch numbers, that would be great.

The Elan line ended because kit cars were phased out with the introduction of VAT on 1st April 1973, in addition to which the Sprint did not conform to 1974 safety regulations. I do know that the Europa passed tests to satisfy the 1974 regulations, but I do not know if the Plus 2 passed, one has to assume it did.

Tim

[garyeanderson]

Mark

As it happens, I do have an incomplete table of batch numbers for the two years they were used (70 & 71). It is difficult to extrapulate any firm answers to your questions, as you can see:

Batch Numbers
1970
Jan 01, 02, 03
Feb 05
Mar 06
Apr 09
May 12
Jun 13, 15
Jul
Aug 15, 16, 17, 18
Sep
Oct 20, 21
Nov
Dec 23

1971
Jan 01, 02,
Feb
Mar 05
Apr 06, 07
May 11, 12, 13, 14
Jun 14, 15
Jul 17, 18
Aug 18, 19, 20
Sep 22, 23, 24, 25
Oct 24,25, 26
Nov 27
Dec 28, 29


If any S4 or Sprint owner would like to furnish me with any missing batch numbers, that would be great.

The Elan line ended because kit cars were phased out with the introduction of VAT on 1st April 1973, in addition to which the Sprint did not conform to 1974 safety regulations. I do know that the Europa passed tests to satisfy the 1974 regulations, but I do not know if the Plus 2 passed, one has to assume it did.

Tim

Hi Tim

I have 7004090078E in the U.S. It was a RHD SE that I converted to LHD and it had the side marker repeaters with it when I got it. I got it from a person in Rhode Island who bought it in the U.K. when he was stationed there in the military. I do not know if it was bought new by the person in the service or as a used car. I know it had some of the registration numbers out lined it dirt on the back, If I remember right it was a L reg. I wish I had written the numbers down, but they are long gone now.

Gary

[Elanintheforest]

Interesting stuff, Tim. Any idea how many in a batch? Obviously at least 78 in the case of Garys car. 29 batches for the 'Sprint' year vs 23 for the 'S4' year indicates an appropriate demand pickup on launch of the Sprint...but if the number per batch were the same, I'd have thought that there may be a few more batches in 1971.

Extrapolating the numbers, If there were 3000 S4s made, and 1928 of those were before 7001 (start Mar '68# 7896, Dec 69 # 9824), that leaves 1071 cars to be made in 1970...over 23 batches is 46 / batch. So I guess there was no fixed number per batch given Garys car.

Perhaps it makes more sense that a batch was a group of similar cars? A batch of federal dhc, a batch of domestic coupes, etc.

Mine are both 7001, one is 01 0003, and the other is 03 0025.
Mark

[elansprint71]

PS Do you think that, somewhere on this earth, an as yet uncompleted factory component Elan kit still awaits assembly? What a barn find that would be!

Tim,
It's out there- not only that, it's a Shapecraft 26R

Thanks for all the detailed info you've posted.

Cheers,
Pete.