eBay '72 Sprint...

[JimE]

Awful (not in my eyes); the reflective plate is a legal requirement from 1 January 1973.

[Grizzly]

Seems the car is now up for Auction...... http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C853220

[S3FHC]

it'll be interesting to see the final price acheived...

[Grizzly]

Me too.... There are some more pictures on that link below and tbh it looks a decent project. The Auction house have the estimated price around ?23,000 - 25,000 which is still on the hot side but we'll see (i would have thought high teens)

https://www.swva.co.uk/classic-car/lotu ... rint-1972/

Just flicking through the other cars the auction house is selling and i'd like the SM

[trw99]

This white Sprint was supplied new by Hargreaves and Bailey of Blackpool to its one and only owner in April 1972.

The VIN plate is interesting. The car came off the production line in Jun 1971, a full ten months before it was sold. However, the VIN plate indicates May as the production month. This must be an error on behalf of the factory, since Unit Nos 0381G to 0400G were all marked as June. There is also an over-stamp on one digit of the plate, so perhaps it was a new boy doing the VIN plates that day at Hethel.

The original owner confirmed to me nine years ago that the car came to him with the stainless steel side strips fitted. He also told me that he binned the original steering wheel within two weeks for the one now seen. So why were the side strips fitted to a Sprint? My theory is that since this was a mono colour car, a Series 4 body was used, one that was knocking around at the time. Its even conceivable that this car started off life as a Series 4, hung around waiting for delivery and then got retrofitted with the Sprint kit. Note that this would not make it a S4/Sprint, but possibly one of the Retrofred cars about which I wrote in a recent Club Lotus News article.

The auction house states that this car comes with a factory hard top. There was no such thing after he introduction of the Type 36 FHC Elan. The hardtop in the photos is almost certainly a Lenham aftermarket hard top.

Either way, its still a genuine Sprint and an interesting restoration case. If anyone on here buys this car and undertakes a full restoration, I'd be interested to know what crayoned numbers emerge on the transmission tunnel, bonnet, headlight buckets and elsewhere.

Tim

[S3FHC]

Tim,

are the numbers that you mentioned the same as those found inside the doors and under the headlining on coupes? I found a 4 digit body number on my S3 car when it was stripped.

Mark

[trw99]

Yes Mark, they got put in all sorts of places! Generally speaking, later S4 and Sprints tend to have the Unit Nos crayoned in. S3 numbers are varied, sometimes the Unit No, sometimes the Body No.

Tim

[Grizzly]

Bit of an Update........

The car sold for a frankly staggering ?28890

https://www.swva.co.uk/classic-car/lotu ... rint-1972/

[nmauduit]

Bit of an Update........

The car sold for a frankly staggering ?28890

https://www.swva.co.uk/classic-car/lotu ... rint-1972/

why is that so staggering ? the bodywork does not look too bad, you add a mere 10k in a paint, a bit of cleanup, a new dash and you get a 45-50k Sprint ...

[Grizzly]

Bit of an Update........

The car sold for a frankly staggering ?28890

https://www.swva.co.uk/classic-car/lotu ... rint-1972/

why is that so staggering ? the bodywork does not look too bad, you add a mere 10k in a paint, a bit of cleanup, a new dash and you get a 45-50k Sprint ...

I assume your joking? if you go back to page one you can see what you can get for ?32k........ That is hands down the most expensive full rebuild Sprint i've come across that has actually sold.

So buy this one for ?29k spend ?10k on a good paint job another ?5k in bits (maybe a new chassis, maybe an Engine rebuild too) and you get a car worth ?40-45k if you sell it in concour condition........ There is nothing really special about it?

This Paul Matty rebuilt car sold not long ago for ?40ish, be very similar when done http://www.albionmotorcars.com/sold/det ... print-1971

I'm actually very happy it went for so much as it's VERY similar to mine (same colour, mileage etc) just a year younger, geez until i saw that i'd have taken ?30k for my freshly Rebuilt Sprint.

[nmauduit]

well, if there is a chassis and engine that'd be pushing it far, but the way I glanced at it (...) it sure did look better than most "projects" I've seen where no matter how many hours and how much ?$? you spend you won't get close to a good original car, at best a pile of repro parts held together by elbow grease and said ?$?. I understand you may be frustrated by having let go of your car too cheap, but if it is to a genuine enthusiast you should not feel that bad as you passed along the spirit...

When I see the price at which TR3 go for these days, it's about time Elans get back on the top of things.

[Grizzly]

I agree that Elans should be worth more (or Triumphs worth less which ever way you want to look at it) but i've seen original Sprints that where complete, good trim, running and driving that just wanted tiding up for less than that (recently too). That must have been a privet buyer who is going to do a large amount of the work them self.

I work in the Classic car Industry and Elans still have that stigma of being Grp kit cars (even though it's wrong) so the value doesn't seem to have stuck with the Jags,Healeys etc plus the Grp can be high maintenance.

Anyway still shocked that a car needing rebuild would go for so much?? There are allot of good Sprints for sale between 30-40k right now so maybe who ever bought this Elan knows some thing i don't?

[pharriso]

I work in the Classic car Industry and Elans still have that stigma of being Grp kit cars (even though it's wrong) so the value doesn't seem to have stuck with the Jags,Healeys etc plus the Grp can be high maintenance.

Why do you think Elites have always had high prices?

[Grizzly]

Did they ever sell them as Kits?

I don't know much about Elite's but i didn't think in the scheme of things they are ridiculously expensive? I mean they are about the same money at the moment as the least desirable E-Type (s3 V12) i can't think of a purely Sports car manufacture thats most desirable car is sub ?100k? Lotus seems to be on par with Triumph or Mg etc but when you look at Ferrari,Lambo,Maserati etc of that era the Lotus's seem to be a long way behind.

That said...... I can only think of one GRP car i've seen sold recently that has smashed ?100k and that was a rare GRP bodied Ferrari (but you wouldn't know it was GRP to look at it the finishing was that good). If Lotus had made the Elite from Alloy i think it would be worth considerably more.