Lotus Elan Shapecraft

[twincamman]

Pe

[twincamman]

and the car was never in France -- --ed

[elansprint71]

Ed,
I don't think that I have questioned your car being/not being a 26R. We all know that of the 95(ish) units produced all 400 of them are still in existence.

What I'm interested in is the Shapecraft bit. Your car does not seem to have any of the features of what we have, for as long as I can remember, thought to be Shapecraft bodywork, i.e. alluminium fastback (with/without side windows, 26R/standard front bumper) and "frenched-in" oval headlight covers, well above the bumper line.

Unless I'm missing something, none of the photos you have posted (including the upside-down race details from many years after this car was built) have any bearing on your Shapecraft claim.

btw, be as curt as you like.

Cheers,
Pete.

[elancoupe]

http://www.tonythompsonracing.co.uk/newsletter.html

[twincamman]

ok good point ----well just have to see if any one else built bodies for elans ---to be honest when I first saw the thing I thought it was Ginetta ----but when I emailed 2 or 3 years ago to either Matty or Thompson [I forget which as it didnt seem a big deal at the time ] I asked and was told it was appeared to be a shapecraft and I was a lucky man to have it ---so another 'expert ' could be wrong ?- -----either way -its a dynomite car --and Im seeing if I can pursuade my Kid to give it to the Motorsport Museum here rather than shreading it --but no one of note ever sat in the car and it only raced club events here at 2 local tracks so there is no REAL history out side of Ontario --IE Daytona or LeMans etc etc -[and the vintage scene here just encourages me to race my vee when I get healthy again ]-Ill be interested to see what the 'experts' say --im surprised only 400 survived I would have thought many more were around ed

[elansprint71]

Did I say 400? I intended to say 1400....and rising.

Whatever, take care of yourself and as for Lotus history............ smoke and mirrors do not even come into it

[twincamman]

nice car in the news letter --its yellow too --your point is????ed

[elancoupe]

Someone earlier suggested that we get together and research this, -- merely showing that 26r S2 33 is racing in Europe.

I have no idea what documentation this Euro car has, but it apparently has some substantiation.

There were less than 100 of these built, and it benefits us all to be as educated as possible, don't you think?

If I owned your car, I would want real information on its' history, not for the sake of resale, but to show the car's rightful heritage and to clarify duplicate serial numbers.

[twincamman]

ok12

[twincamman]

ii

[twincamman]

uu

[mopho]

Yes, he said your car is a fake and built in 1982

I'd say the burden of proof is on you

[elansprint71]

ANY BODY HEAR FROM TONY THOMPSON YET ???????????ed

I'll probably be seeing him at a the week-end; am I supposed to ask if Shapecraft produced bodies without the fastback, with a front which is totally different from all known Shapecrafts and not like any other 26r, apart from that modified French one. Any or all of these questions?

Thanks for PM'ing me the scan of the letter from Lotus Technical Service saying that they could not confirm that your, or any other car was a factory built 26r, as they had no records, the chap did say that yours looked like one but that will hardly stand up in court.

[twincamman]

hmmmmmmm must be a chevvy then - --ed

[twincamman]