Lotus Elan "replica"

[reb53]

Hi Skittle,

How intriguing!

I got involved with a local guy about 15 years ago who had plans to make replica Elans.
He borrowed an S4 bodyshell, spent a lot of time tidying it up and then took some excellent moulds off it.
You're right to be worried about potential damage to your car if used to make a mould.
The bloke was assured by the local rep that the release wax he was selling was the best thing there was. Yep, you've guessed it, it wasn't. The original shell looked like it had been parked in an Iraqi street for a few years after the stuck on mould had been torn off.
Holes big and small everywhere.

At the time he made one shell, and a Spyder type chassis, but as far as I know it was never finished.
The moulds were lent to a bloke in Auckland who still has them, though doesn't own them.
Perhaps this car was made using them.

I see it is very close to reserve and I suspect someone is going to get a bargain.
As long as they never say they "own a Lotus"....

Cheers
Ralph.

[skelteanema]

Hi Ralph,

if you look at the detail of some of the molded parts (such as the door details and under bonnet), they look pretty good and close to the genuine article. Maybe they did come from the molds that you mentioned, as there can't be too many arround in NZ. The central spine seems wider than the original, and the door attachment mechanism looks to be different. The modified chassis design may be to give the body/chassis combination more rigidity.

From the looks of the auction, the reserve seems to be around NZ$3000, which would be a good price as you would expect to pay at least 10 times that for a genuine article (look at the Plus 2 up for auction at $27500).

I read some where that one of the Lamborgjini replicas, maybe the NZ Countess mouldings version was moulded from a genuine Countach that was "borrowed" by a guy posing to be a a motoring journalist, and he hurredly took moulds of all the panels. Maybe just an urban myth though.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

There's a Guy in GB, Mr. Merrilees (or something like that) who took molds from a Dino 206; yes the Alloy bodied one, to make a replica Body to go onto his Lotus Europa running gear.
Now that's doing the almost impossible.
The job (eventually, it seemed he had problems with cracking Windscreens) turned out great & the Car's a real head turner.
I saw it in the flesh at a Club Lotus track day at Castle Combe.
Mark my words, one of our honorable Members will have Photos
I wanted to buy it when it was for sale due to his Back problems but fortunately for him he got well again.

Cheers
John

[elansprint71]

I visited Chris Neil when they were selling the "Sprint" kits, they told me that I would need a donor car to supply the zillions of things which were not in the kit- it was intended as an upgrade or refresh, rather than new- build.

There were basically two Evante "styles", pre and post litigation (I'm not sure if the case actually went to court, maybe the threat was enough). The very few early cars looked exactly like the Elan, the later ones had front and rear spoliers, squared off headlamp pods, 26/R-type wheel-arches, no window frames, different interiors..... etc. There were a number of engine options, starting with re-furb standard TC (Vegantune Spalding were factory-appointed TC refurb agent, before the unpleasantness), thro' their own eight and sixteen valve-headed units, to, iirc turbo-charged units. The company seems to have gone thro' a number of incarnations since the Robinson days in Spalding.

[billwill]

The Vegantune engine was hardly a refurb of the Twin Cam, more of a complete re-design.

It had a different head and camshaft belt drive instead of chain drive, and no pesky interior waterpump.

It did use the Ford block.


=======================

George Robinson did tell me, I think, that he was involved in the design of the original Lotus twin-cam, but I've not seen independent verification of that.

I don't know quite how Robinson's Vegantune & Evante Cars ended, but I know that Richard Marshall bought the Company and some of its assets & a non-exclusive right to repair Evantes and he opened as Vegantune in Finchley. In the 90's his main engine-expert was Rob Morely (Now Pro-Tune) and Vegantune Finchley did a full engine refurb for me in 1998 (?) and major body repair on my Elan when I crumpled the front against an XR2 in 2001.

I did a design of a website for Richard, including a forum facility similar to this, but he didn't take it up & went for a flashier non-interactive brochure type.. Shame really.

Richard moved Vegantune out to bigger premises in Borehamwood (?), but alas the company did not last long after that and the name and some assets have been bought by Symon Nicholas Jago mentioned on this forum last year or the year before (time flies).

His website is:http://www.vegantune.com/