Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

My favourite elan, my faithful S4.....where are you now? rebuilt with a longblock twincam,

Listed by DVLA as first registered on 2 Oct 67 (in Chelmsford), last date of liability 28 Jun 93. So it's probably either sitting in a barn/garage somewhere, or has gone to Japan!

Tim

If that registration number had been on your old Lotus Cortina some folks would have looked twice.

A similar registration number was used on the trial and setup Lotus Cortina car used for the London /. Sydney Marathon. When they killed it on Bagshot testing ground, they 're-shelled' it into an Escort GT shell, creating the Twincam Escort.

Any ideas of the early history of the Elan?

Whatever you do don't sell it

DOH!

Mark

BN wrote; My favourite elan, my faithful S4

Looks like an S3 to me.

Leslie

Actually, I got it in a swop! You have seen my black mk2 Lotus Cortina, after the rebuild, I went to Cornwall in it. Driving through Hayle, i espied a couple of chaps on the forecourt of a Peugeot garage peering into the engine bay of the Elan pictured. It was running like a out of tune tractor, spitting banging. Loving anything twincam, I stopped to chat. I liked the look of the S4, already owning the Sprint, and thought that it would be nice as a daily runner. I offered to do a swap, at that time the Cortina was running like a dream, having just been rebuilt. I had done a fair amount of work on twinks and thought that the problem with the car could not be that serious. the owner was reluctant and so I left him my number and continued my holiday. I'd been home for two weeks when I got the call, he couldnt sort it and was prepared to swop.
We met up at Gordano and swopped cars and logbooks. I set out for home in the midlands and the drive was horrendous, lurching banging and spitting no power etc etc.
Finally got it home and started to investigate. Checked everything, timing, fuel, compression etc. Took off the cam covers to look at the chain and cam timing. Everything looked OK superficially, then EUREKA! Inlet cam had sprocket marked EX on it, and exhaust cam had IN engraved on it. Split the chain swopped the sprockets set up the TDC on the cam timing marks and bolted it back together... ran as sweet as a nut.
Used it as a daily for a couple of years, without issues. Then on a whim, decided to build a longblock Kent based twink, just because it was there. It ran well and I used it for a while, then along came a skirt and apparrently I could only keep one Elan and "we" needed a family car. The rest is history as they say.

512BB wrote:BN wrote; My favourite elan, my faithful S4

Looks like an S3 to me.

Leslie

May be, it was a long time ago. The side vents look S3 but as I remember it the rear lights were S4

Early S4 with those style vents. The S3 coupes had no vents. The later S4 and sprints had same vent as ventilation inlets on the Plus 2 and had a lip in the leading edge of the body

cheers
Rohan

Interesting, front arches look s4, rears look more rounded like s3......
I think later s3s have vents? Mine (36/6858) does.....
Robert

rgh0 wrote:Early S4 with those style vents. The S3 coupes had no vents. The later S4 and sprints had same vent as ventilation inlets on the Plus 2 and had a lip in the leading edge of the body

cheers
Rohan

Ahem.. My S3 coupe has those vents:


Ignore the fact that it now has S4 arches they are a later mod it originally looked like this:

do you still prefer the s4 arches bill? back in 81, when i bought my s3 i also wanted an s4 but couldn't find one (nor a sprint) BECAUSE of the more modern looking arches. later in my and the cars' life i changed my mind and would even go for a s1 if i had the time - lovely car no matter which arches! 36/4982 (dhc!!) sandy

rgh0 wrote:Early S4 with those style vents. The S3 coupes had no vents. The later S4 and sprints had same vent as ventilation inlets on the Plus 2 and had a lip in the leading edge of the body

cheers
Rohan

I'm no expert on S3's, but only the early ones were vent free, later ones had the vents as per the S4 and +2.

I got this bit or trivia from Adam (PastaPesto) as he owns a "Pre Airflow" S3 and he was keen to clue me up on the history of S3's and the crossover to the S4 models.

el-saturn wrote:do you still prefer the s4 arches bill? back in 81, when i bought my s3 i also wanted an s4 but couldn't find one (nor a sprint) BECAUSE of the more modern looking arches. later in my and the cars' life i changed my mind and would even go for a s1 if i had the time - lovely car no matter which arches! 36/4982 (dhc!!) sandy

I need the S4 rear arches as I use the slightly wider tyres. & they rubbed on the S3 arches at the back.

The S4 front was put on by Ian Walkers after my first prang in 1969 so has been there almost all its life. I think at the time they could only obtain an S4 front and anyway at that time there was more emp[hasis on looking more modern rather than looking original.

Spyder fan wrote:

rgh0 wrote:Early S4 with those style vents. The S3 coupes had no vents. The later S4 and sprints had same vent as ventilation inlets on the Plus 2 and had a lip in the leading edge of the body

cheers
Rohan

I'm no expert on S3's, but only the early ones were vent free, later ones had the vents as per the S4 and +2.

I got this bit or trivia from Adam (PastaPesto) as he owns a "Pre Airflow" S3 and he was keen to clue me up on the history of S3's and the crossover to the S4 models.

Alan

I think what I must have tried to explain but failed (sorry!) was that the first S3's had no vents & then once they had worked out how to do the airflow properly they were given the "rounded" vents (only found on S3s), then when they moved on to the S4, Chapman had the "cheaper to make" vents from the +2 and so they were used instead of the "rounded" type. I think, although I may be wrong here, that all S4 coupes had the +2 style vent which also saw the mould changed to incorporate a lip around the the leading edge of the vent. The S3 type vent just had a hole cut into the "B" pillar with a small recess at the bottom to let rainwater run out.

I think that is how it is, please tell me if I have all of that wrong.

Still think that the pre-airflow looks the best of the coupes, IMHO.

A

Early S4's ( including my 1968) had the early style vents that I now know first appeared on S3's.

cheers
Rohan

Okay I used to be confused but now I'm not so sure

Here's a pic of my early Aeroflow S3 (April 1967 according to the database) with square vents, flush fitting, no lip on bodywork
......NEXT!!!!