Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hello,

For some reason I'm having a hell of a time finding the answer to this. Do any of the elans have a roof that folds down? or are all of them removable hoods? Thanks for the help.

-Esk

The hoods BOTH fold down and are removable. Not sure of your confusion.

Lol. Tyvm for the info. This all stems from talking to a guy with a s2 at a car show who said his just came off so he never ran anything but a hardtop or nothing. That lead to me looking for a video or even discussion of someone putting the roof down, coming up empty, and completely second guessing my impression that the DHC was, you know, an actual drop head....

Follow up question, how long does it take to put the roof up and down? Is it the kind of thing that is convenient enough to do when you get to work for the day? Better yet, is it doable at a stoplight?

I can only speak for an S4. Not doable at a stop light. Without disapproval of the people behind you.
Need to pull over and doors have to open to locate the side rails and tuck the front behind the alloy trim. I would guess at 2-3 minutes unless you have entered a competion for speed and practised.
Cheers Mike

Mine is not semi attached on the studs like the factory as i like to be able to stow it in the boot and not mark up the windows.

S1 & S2 have a roof frame that needs to be assembled made from various GRP mouldings and steel rods, there are no window frames and no clutter on the bodywork when the roof is off . S3 onwards have a folding pram style hood frame that is fixed and stowed in a tray on the rear deck forwards of the boot lid and covered by a tonneau when not in use, the doors have chromed windows frames to assist in simplifying the roof and making it reasonably weather tight. As Mike says, you can choose to keep the hood attached to the body at the rear and store it folded in the tray, or as most people choose these days you can totally remove it and store it in the boot which saves creasing the screens.

The S1 and S2 (type 26's) were roadsters and the S3, S4 and Sprint (type 45's) were drop head coupes (dhc).

Thank you very much everyone for the help. Sounds like putting the roof up and down, while not doable at at stoplight, isnt something that needs to be decided before you leave for the day at least. I was seriously second guessing my knowledge when I couldnt find a single video of someone putting the roof down

Interesting.

On my Sprint, the top is not attached to anything when taken off the frame. It uses the same mount studs that the half-tonneau uses. There’s a particular way to fold it, covered in the owners manual, so it fits under the cover with minimal window distortion. Or keep it in the boot with no distortion.