Sports Car World - history of elan docs

[Elanintheforest]

No....Fiesta yellow is a BMC colour, used on S1 and I think some S2 Elans. It's a very washed-out pastel colour...more green than yellow . See Minis below.

Some early Elans also used Conway or Sunburst Yellow, which was also used on the Elite. This was more a Primrose yellow, also with a green tint, and was a common sight on Anglias, Consuls and Prefects of the late 50s / early 60s.

Lotus yellow is a very strong yellow compared to the other two, and not easily confused, although when you look at a few Lotus Yellow cars together, they always seem to be different!
Mark

[stugilmour]

OMG Mark. The Fiesta Yellow Mini's take me back as I had an 850 'woodie' that colour. Never would have thought to call it yellow though!

[Thornts]

Thanks Mark.
For my car ('67 S3 SE FHC "twin" to Clark's) I had allways thought it was Lotus Yellow LO 7 and the factory indicate that was the case but the picture of the Clark car in BBs book has a caption indicating Bahama, hence my confusion. I doubt I'll get around to painting it before the week end so I have a chance to research it a bit more. I believe LO7 is very nice, not too orange and think the Europa boys have quite a good thread showing a lot of colours "in the plastic" which is a good reference.

The S4 goes on Thursday (leaving a nice Elan shaped space in the workshop...) and will be restored to fairly original spec but I guess the new owner will go with whatever colour he likes as long as it is sort of period correct. It will certainly go back to one solid colour and I think pistachio and Bahama are the current favorites.

Thanks all.

Rob

S3 SE FHC
S2 7

[Elanintheforest]

Bahama is another of those colours that isn't really yellow!

Here are two Elans...one Bahama (foreground) and one Lotus Yellow......

Mark

[gjz30075]

Mark, is the Bahama yellow the same as Colorado Orange (L 14)? Colorado Orange is pretty much an S4 color, as the car shown in your example.

Greg Z

[Elanintheforest]

They are different Greg and I'm often getting them mixed up...might have done here! Bahama looks quite orange in bright sunlight, but Colorado looks VERY orange in the same light.

Here's a couple of different pics...one Bahama, one Colorado.

Mark

[Thornts]

Great references Mark.
I'm now convinced the S3 should be Lotus Yellow LO7 and BB had a slight glitch with the Clark car. I had a Colorado Sprint and that was a nice colour but think it had faded a bit.
Do we think Pistachio works as a one colour car or does it need the white to break it up a bit? Think you need to be very brave to actually pull the trigger on the spray gun...

Thanks

Rob
S3 SE FHC
S2 7

[gordont]

hmmm flash back to the 70's guys, no matter which way I look at it they are both orange to me - look suprisingly similar in colour to a 76' VW Golf I had...

sorry but I would be thinking respray!