Sports Car World - history of elan docs

[trw99]

Thank you Greg, that is tremendous

Tim

[PaulW]

Thanks for the archive information: I'm pleased to see any information on the Elan I currently own, having recently returned to the fold after a long gap. I'm wondering what else, if anything, might be 'out there' to know?
In the '70s, I did not collect any history on the S4 I owned and now regret that, having not even noted the chassis number!
PaulW.
45/8090

[Famous Frank]

Greg, nice find. That is a cool receipt. How do you keep coming up with all these cool papers, and yet when ever I stop by your house there is never a pile of stuff all over the place like my house?

Famous Frank

[Elanintheforest]

PaulW
The only info on the 'Sports Car World' list, a copy of the Lotus Day book, for your car is that it was invoiced on 8th July '68 and had engine number LP11825.

There maybe more info available from the Lotus Archivist, but that would be the garage the car was sold to, and maybe the original colour.

There is little other information available I fear!

Mark

[Thornts]

Tim, Mark, anyone. Do "we" have anything on 36 9412? The factory archivist drew a blank which was a little surprising. It would be nice for Elan.net to outdo the source!

Cheers

Rob

S3 FHC
S2 7
S4 FHC (going next week)

[PaulW]

The only info on the 'Sports Car World' list, a copy of the Lotus Day book, for your car is that it was invoiced on 8th July '68 and had engine number LP11825.
There maybe more info available from the Lotus Archivist, but that would be the garage the car was sold to, and maybe the original colour.
There is little other information available I fear!

Thanks Mark,
The engine number quoted is new information, as apparently it is not the unit now in the car/listed on the V5.
I see we are not too far away from each other?
Paul W.

[trw99]

[quote="Thornts"]Tim, Mark, anyone. Do "we" have anything on 36 9412? The factory archivist drew a blank which was a little surprising. It would be nice for Elan.net to outdo the source![quote]

Rob

Sorry no. There is nothing against that unit number in the records we have, it is blank (are you sure it exists! ).

There are a number of similarly aged cars with no info against them. I do not see anything to worry about as I suspect it is just a case of Lotus not having the information to hand when the list was made up that Frank then posted on Sports Car World. No doubt someone will tell you it was an under the counter, out the back door, black market, special built for someone famous, criminal or notorious.

I think we just don't happen to have the records for it anymore.

What I can say is that cars around yours were mostly invoiced in September or October 1969, had an engine number starting 20### with a prefix of G (Stromberg Federal), K (standard Stromberg domestic) or L (SE Stromberg domestic).

Tim

[Thornts]

Thanks Tim
Spot on and pretty much what the guys at the factory said. No sniff of it being Colin's personal and most loved car I'm afraid.
1st Registration date of 1st October 1969 ties in with your data for other cars. Engine number is given as K20693 and it does seem to be a non-SE Strobie. V5 says yellow and though it was repainted (in 1979) to, I assume, make it look a bit more Sprint like (it is the car on the front of the Osprey Elan book) it appears to have been yellow originally. Any idea what the correct yellow for 1969 should be or is it not that simple?
I have just passed the car on to a good friend of mine (for a huge bag of cash given the steering wheel issues it has that Mark so kindly pointed out) and it is about to be totally restored - just in time for Donny!
Thanks for looking anyway.

Cheers

One-Elan-Rob

[jono]

Rob,

Which Donny?

Jon

[trw99]

Any idea what the correct yellow for 1969 should be or is it not that simple?

Rob

It could be Lotus Yellow (L07). That colour was introduced in mid 1967 and was a popular Sprint colour too.

Or it could be Bahama Yellow (L10) which was introduced in October 1968. It only lasted 2 years as an official colour 'till October 1970.


Tim

[bast0n]

Tim - do you have anything on 45-6277? The colour listed in the green V5 just says white. Is there any other description of what colour it was when it left the factory? Cheers, David.

[trw99]

David

Afraid the colour was not recorded by Lotus until the changed the VIN system in January 1970, so for your Elan and all made 1962-1969 there is no official record of original colour. If you have the original invoice from the dealer, then it would probably be on there. If you are one of the fortunate few who has a Works Order sheet for your car, it may be on there.

We simply have to acknowledge that at the time little or no notice was taken by Lotus concerning the future historical interest in the car as it left the factory; the record keeping was poor in comparison to what goes on today, but not exceptional for small volume manufacturers of the 1960s, I suspect.

Tim

[Thornts]

Thanks Tim

Could be a bit imaterieal as the new owner quite fancies Pistachio... Picture of it as it is now.
On a slightly different tack, I had assumed my S3 (Registered April '67) was LO7 but it sounds a bit early for that from what you are saying. The Buckland Bible suggests it was Bahama which doesn't stack up at all...
Any ideas?

Cheers

Rob

[Elanintheforest]

I think that L07 was introduced a fair bit earlier than mid 67....Tim Mees had SAR120D, the first S/E Coupe and press car from June 66, and that was L07 from new. I think that the colour goes back into S2 production...maybe 1965 ish.

Jim Clark's Coupe was certainly L07, and I would guess that Graham Hill's twin would be the same.

Trouble with these Sprint boys....they think that nothing really happened before 1971

Mark

[trw99]

Hurumph!

Are we getting confused with Fiesta Yellow? Never given a Lotus Part No but available from the S1 as an option.

Tim

PS 1971 - The first year of the rest of our lives!