Wheel Reverse Ears Spinners

Post by: **Francisco** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 10:43 pm

: October 1967

: October 1967

Hi everybody. By a sroke of chance I received from the first owner of my FHC S3 a 1967 photo of it after a local race win. This picture reveal a lot of things about my Elan one of them is the strong possibility of it beeing a SE version.
I am working on that to be as sure as I can possibly be.
But the reason of this topic is another revelation of this photo. Can you spot the wheel spinners? They have the ears "bent" to the inside. When I bought the Elan the PO actully gave me these spinners as spares.
Can anyone tell me if these spinners are Lotus equipment, period acessory or else? The first owner does not recall ever having changed the wheel spinners.
Thank you all in advance
Francisco[img][/

Post by: **Francisco** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 10:45 pm

I posted two photos! Sorry for that. First time mistake!

Post by: **Francisco** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 10:58 pm

Here they are

Post by: **mbell** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 11:49 pm

I think they might be S3 super safety spinners. Certainly seen portions of that type of sooner before and certainly genuine lotus part.

Post by: **tedtaylor** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:55 am

I had them on my '69 Elan S3 "super safety".

Post by: **trw99** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:10 am

Yes, definitely a Lotus part. Used for a brief time, most notably on the SS Elan versions, as a nod towards Ralph Nader and his shrill antics about auto safety in the mid to late sixties. By the introduction of the S4 the more usual spinners were back in place.

Tim

Post by: **tedtaylor** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:01 pm

What WAS the big fear over them? That the spinners would cut your legs off, like the chariots in the movie Ben Hur??

Post by: **The Veg** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 6:08 pm

I'm all in favour of safety, but it seems to me that if you're close enough to be injured by the spinners, you've got much bigger problems! :shock:

Post by: **1owner69Elan** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 6:56 pm

Just to clarify.

Reversion to the normal 3 ear "outward" spinner on the S4 was not true for US export models. These received the non-eared "Nader nuts".

Interestingly, my original invoice (28 June 1969) for UK delivery at the factory referred to my S4 as a "super safety". Really a S4 Federal.

I should note that I considered buying the 3 eared spinners when I picked the car up at the factory but wasn't sure I wanted to spend the 5 pounds or so for each. Now, obviously a lot more.

Post by: **Francisco** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:38 pm

Thank you all for your answers and clarification. Now that I know what they are I feel a bit... unconfortable! A simple google search on Super Safety reveals all I asked about!
Always learning! A good thing to do!
Thank you again.
Francisco

Wheel Reverse Ears Spinners

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