Elan Owner Again After 14 Years

[Stevie-Heathie]

Hi Everyone,

14 years after my beloved +2 sadly went up in flames on a rural Cheshire road, I'm delighted to have finally acquired another Elan. This time finances allowed me to stretch to a lovely 1967 S3 SE DHC and I am a proud owner once again.

The new car is the best driving Elan I've come across, and I'm pleased to say that the previous owners have optimised it for driveability and reliability. It was formerly run by a senior suspension engineer at McLaren and he dialled in the handling beautifully. Engine upgraded to big valve Sprint spec, Mick Miller CV joints, etc, etc

Looking forward to getting to know you all in the years ahead!

Best
Steve

[Mazzini]

Welcome! Photos please

[S3DHC]

Hi Stevie,

Welcome back to Lotus ownership.
Appears you have acquired a really well sought out Elan.

Colin.

[Stevie-Heathie]

Thanks for the warm welcome. Here is a photo of the new acquisition taken just 15 minutes after the purchase. Was smiling then and I'm still smiling now!
Best,
Steve

[Elanconvert]

hi steve....congratulations and welcome!

very friendly and helpful bunch of enthusiats here!

fred

[persiflage]

Now, that's a true Elan smile ....

[Mazzini]

Brilliant picture! I have an almost identical S3. More photos please

[The Veg]

Congrats Steve!

Looks and sounds like you got a good one, and the kid looks as happy as you do, which is always a good thing!

I wish you many great miles of smiles with it!

[Europatc]

Welcome Steve, Happy motoring

[deryck]

Hi Steve

car looks fantastic, well done

welcome to the forum!

best wishes
Deryck

[RichardHawkins]

Steve,

Do you have details of the suspension optimisation? Lots of people talk about what to do, but if yours has been done by an engineer working for McLaren then it is probably worth copying.

Richard Hawkins

[Stevie-Heathie]

Hi Richard

Well it has Tony Thompson Racing adjustable shocks on all corners which were dialled in by the chap from McLaren. He did such a good job that nobody dares touch them now! I have a few pages of handwritten calculations from him which came with the car I can scan them if anybody might be interested???

Best
Steve

[Mazzini]

Interested? YES!

[Stevie-Heathie]

Ok here we go. My take is that the car was most likely brought into the McLaren works to use the superwhizzy rolling road scales thingumajig at the weekend and these are the rough and ready calculations which resulted. The final page covers a steering anomaly (it's written in fountain pen on the back of a memo from McLaren automotive pension team - love it)

I'll be honest I don't understand pretty much anything that's here. However I do know that my new Elan drives and handles like no other I've come across. Pin sharp.

Can anybody interpret these engineering hieroglyphics and perhaps summarise?

Note: photos are presented in reverse order sorry!

Best
Steve

[jabingb]

Steve,
Congrats on the your recent acquisition! I am very curious about the notes but they don't scale very well on this forum. Is it possible to get a full sized version of them either in an e-mail or some file sharing site? Suspect there are a number of us that would love to have those data points to ponder. Thx
Jerry

Ok here we go. My take is that the car was most likely brought into the McLaren works to use the superwhizzy rolling' road scales thingumajig at the weekend and these are the rough and ready calculations which resulted. The final page covers a steering anomaly (it's written in fountain pen on the back of a memo from McLaren automotive pension team - love it)

I'll be honest I don't understand pretty much anything that's here. However I do know that my new Elan drives and handles like no other I've come across. Pin sharp.

Can anybody interpret these engineering hieroglyphics and perhaps summarise?

Note: photos are presented in reverse order sorry!

Best
Steve