Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

For many months I have been wrestling with my choice of colour to paint my Elan S4 FHC.
I was keen on the Lagoon Blue, then moved to Red.
There are 2 reds, Calypso and Carnival.
From the paint code dates (my car is 1970) I thought Carnival was the colour to go for but when the body shop received a 250ml sample it came as an orangey red - a colour I am not keen on at all.
Does anyone have experience with Calypso Red, and is that a purer Red colour.
I presented all the info I had on Carnival Red paint codes but modern paint suppliers struggle with them.
Looking at images of cars in Lagoon Blue and Wedgewood Blue there seems to be several shades of those colours knocking around, although some of that could be due to different cameras/lighting etc.
How have any of the members with "recent" paint experience managed.
Any advice greatly accepted.

I agree there is a lot of orange in Carnival red. I think any period colour suits an Elan. Lotus for a fee, would paint an Elan in a colour specified by the customer. Somewhere on this forum I uploaded a colour photo of the production yard at Cheshunt in '63 or '64, in the photo there is an Elan in what looks like Jaguar Golden Sand on a transporter headed to the docks and presumably north America. I thought it looked pretty good, but then I like Colorado orange too.

Lotus used BMC Tartan red on Elites and I think some early Elan's...well that that was my excuse

I am not aware of Lotus using a Calypso Red on any Elans.

There was a Carmen Red used on 1600 Elans, which was a Jaguar colour. There was no Lotus colour code for it.

L05 Carnival Red was used by Lotus from mid 67 to Jul 73; it was a Rootes colour, no 39. The Nexa Autocolor Code is 8385; the PPG Code is LOT0388 and the Glasurit Code is L05.

The other red used by Lotus on the Elan was LO11 Regency Red, sometimes called Maroon, Burgundy or French Burgundy, used from Oct 70 to an unknown date. The Nexa Autocolor Code is 9053; the PPG Code is71791. It was a Jaguar colour too.

The Tartan Red Rob refers to was only ever used on the Type 14 Elites. However, as he said, colour was up to the owner, so go with whatever pleases you!

Tim

Chris Parker has his Sprint in Calypso and when my S4 in Carnival sat next to it there is an obvious difference.
On its own the Carnival looks plenty red enough, and looks right, but the Calypso is a deeper , richer red. ( which also looks right on the car)

Tim is absolutely right Calypso was an 80's colour I think, but it's your car, you get to decide.

Lets not forget probably the most famous Elan of all, Mrs. Peels S3, was in a Jaguar colour.

Gents
Thanks for the input.
I'll try to get a Calypso Red sample, as Graeme identified it being a deeper Red, and see how that goes.
As Tim said many cars are painted to the owners preference, so that gives me confidence to find a Red that I am happy with.
If I can't, I'll switch over to blue probably.

I had my Sprint painted Ardent Red, an Elise color. No orange in it, that I see and it's still a Lotus color,
although not totally period correct.

Looks great Greg.

I've seen Greg;s Ardent Red. Simply put, it looks outstanding. Not as good as the Wedgewood Blue on my S2 SE but it looks terrific anyway!

I also have an S3 that was in full primer by another body shop when I got it. It's been in primer for almost a decade and the body shop installed 26R Flares. I too had a half dozen color ideas going through my head. Then it hit me that I'm in my 70's and I had better hurry up and come up with a color. I decided on the BRG it left the factory with. Time from dragging the body home to finish paint was two weeks.

I'm extremely happy! And I'm getting gobs of compliments.

Frank

Frank
It's a great finish.

Awesome Frank! Can't wait to see it in person!

for reference here is a regency red S2 I painted a while back -

cabc26b wrote:for reference here is a regency red S2 I painted a while back -

Fabulous colour! Do you have any photos of the car built up?

I had my S4 car painted in Regency Red about 5 years ago and had the bumpers done in gold. I have been very pleased with it but I would comment that because it is a dark colour it does tend to show up any marks.

HI Rob ,

Last time i checked the body was still on the dolly un-touched and completion of the project TBD - anyways here is Carmen Red on a 63 S1