Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi All
I am trying to make contact with any owners of Shapecraft Elans. Could any owners please contact me on [email protected].
Cheers
Dave

ok

Maybe its just me or maybe its the angle of the photo - but that doesn't look like a Shapecraft to me.

Happy to be corrected.

oookkk

Isn't this what a Shapecraft Elan is?

Yup!

The yellow one is not a Shapecraft as far as I can tell.

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123

Shapecraft made alluminium fastbacks which were normally fitted to 26r Elans for track use, these had a rear quarterlight, some were fitted to road cars which did not have the quarterlight and a few even had a Kamm tail with upturned spoiler.
They had faired in headlights of a different pattern from the 26r, some had 26r front bumpers and wings (fenders); some had the faired in lights with (normal) front end. The lights on your yellow car do not look like any of the published photos of Shapecraft that I've seen (they are lower- Shapecraft lights fit above the bumper line, not through it) and I've never heard of a Shapecraft without the fastback.
I think that I have just about every book published about the Elan and many contemporary magazine articles; I'm not saying that your's is not a Shapecraft, but you are bringing something new to the party, as far as I'm aware.
Please tell us more, it's always interesting to hear new stuff.

Cheers,
Pete.

Here's one spotted at Yokohama last year. I'm sure that I have some pics on one or two at Donnington back in the 80s...I'll hunt on...
Mark

oops.

In my post above I said that Shapecraft Elans had a faired in headlight different from the 26r; what I should have said was different from the majority of 26r's. Edit: Jan 2012 I have since learned that all three type of headlight were fitted to Shapecraft-bodied cars!
A few early 26r's had an oval shape light before reverting to the much cheaper faired in standard "D"shape. All these faired in lights were illegal in the UK and therefore some 26rs were fitted with the pivoting standard, but heavier) road type. There were also two different patterns of front and rear 26r wings, just to make things even more confusing!!
None of these headlamp variants look like the ones on the Yellow car, however.

Cheers,
Pete.

Here are a couple of Shapely Craft showing quite a few differences to each other. Taken at Castle Coombe and Donnington in 1986 (ish).
Mark

Thanks for posting those shots Mark- quite a can of worms, isn't it?

Pete.

D