1971 Elan Sprint Project North Carolina USA

[EdT]

1971 Lotus Elan Sprint

Type 45
Unit No 7102040140K

Engine no T/24390

Lotus Big Valve Engine
Colin Chapman Signature Steering Wheel
Colorado Orange original color
Last driven c.1978
Stored indoors for MOST of its' life


New (in 1996) Wooden Dash, Soft Top (Sports Car World)

Chassis/underside looks pretty nice, MANY more pics available.

No title- sold with Bill of Sale

PM for more pics, or with any questions.

[Ianashdown]

Looks like a good and worthwhile project!

Someone go for it, quick!

Ian

[TBG]

Black bumpers also - must be good.....D

[SENC]

Where in NC are you?

[pharriso]

To be accurate, this car is too early to be a factory Federal Sprint, I think it is probably an S4 SE converted by Lotus to Sprint Specification. We refer to these cars as S4/Sprints.

There is a way to know if this car is one of the factory converted cars, but I'm not going to publicly post it here.

Looks to be a good deal, wish I had the space / wife / time...

[m750rider]

I'm in Asheville, where is this located?

[trw99]

As Phil has written above, until we have the information we need, this car is a Series 4 Elan.

It does look like a good and mouthwatering project, as others have said.

Tim

[EdT]

The car is in Cary, near RDU Airport. You are welcome to take a look....

[SENC]

pm sent

[Andy8421]

To be accurate, this car is too early to be a factory Federal Sprint, I think it is probably an S4 SE converted by Lotus to Sprint Specification. We refer to these cars as S4/Sprints.

There is a way to know if this car is one of the factory converted cars, but I'm not going to publicly post it here.

Looks to be a good deal, wish I had the space / wife / time...

Phil,

Robinshaw / Ross says Unit number: "71.01" Comment: "Sprint manufacture commenced for February announcement / availability"

So unit number 7102040140K would be after Sprint production started, and the "K" identifier would be correct for DHC Federal market.

Why do you think this may not be a Sprint?

[trw99]

Time to get the anorak on!

Firstly, I acknowledge that the Robinshaw & Ross book has been and indeed continues to be, an excellent reference to the Elan and Plus 2, particularly for folk wanting to know about the cars but who have little prior knowledge of them. However, since the advent of the internet and some additional information coming to light over the years after the book's second edition in 1995, we can now be a little more defined about some of the data.

I and some fellow enthusiasts have been able to build up a database of all Elans built, which is shared in full with Andy Graham at Lotus. You may know that a large batch of Elan records were destroyed in a flood at Hethel in the late 1970s, so our aim is to attempt, in as much as we shall ever be able, to recreate the original Lotus data.

As part of this process, which has been ongoing in my own case for some twenty years now, we are able to be more definitive regarding the different Elan Types, the dates of production as well as some of the Lotus anomalies we know of.

Which is all background to answering your question. Let me straight away state that we have more detailed data on the UK domestic Elans than we do on those types made for the Federal and Rest of the World markets. We continue to garner data so this must be presaged as a WIP. In the case of the introduction of the Federal Sprint, Types J (FHC) and K (DHC), we know that production was between April 1971 and August 1972. (The J FHC Federal Sprint is the 'rarest' Elan variant made.)

We are also aware that several (ten at the current state of play) Federal S4 J & K Type Elans were amongst the batch of Elans converted by the factory to Sprint specification. These S4/Sprints came off the production line well before the start of Sprint production in most cases; some Federal S4s were also built alongside the Sprint in the spring of 1971. Those Federal S4/Sprints that we know of have one particular defining feature which allows us to verify them as factory Sprint specification.

Thus in the case of this particular Elan that is for sale and detailed in the post above, we would seek clarification of that point before we could declare that it is indeed a S4/Sprint and not a S4 done up to appear to be a Sprint. That is to take nothing away from this car being an excellent looking project, regardless of its type.

I have written on several occasions about the S4/Sprint and what I term the Reftrofred Elans. An article is attached that gives some further detail.

Tim

[SENC]

Thanks Tim!

[pharriso]

Phil,

Robinshaw / Ross says Unit number: "71.01" Comment: "Sprint manufacture commenced for February announcement / availability"

So unit number 7102040140K would be after Sprint production started, and the "K" identifier would be correct for DHC Federal market.

Why do you think this may not be a Sprint?

The Robinshaw/Ross comment is based on UK production
G engine code = Stromberg Federal = not big valve Sprint
Silver wheels...

& according to data that Tim & I have collected & shared with the Factory Historian the earliest verified Sprint is 0164K.

[trw99]

I have now been in correspondence wit Ed and am happy to confirm that the Elan he is selling is indeed a S4/Sprint.

Another one added to our database, for which many thanks.

Tim

[gjz30075]

Many thanks to Tim, Phil and Andy for keeping the Registries and detailed information about our
cars and it matters in the marketplace, too.