Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi Mark

Belt changing in Lotus cars - in my Vauxhall red-top engined Europa you get a nice little hatch between the seats to open and gain access. Very exciting.

David

I used to work at Dave Smith Engineering in the early 1970's and remeber Eric's +2 very well and remember Eric a very decent bloke. I have attached two photos taken at the time that shows Eric's car in the foreground and in one you can see the original reg VLK 2G. Eric it the one on the left in the white coat and Dave Smith is the one on the right in blue overalls.

Brilliant !! Thanks for posting those photos. Did the car have it's BDA fitted by then? I think that it was installed at the end of 1971, beginning of 1972, and perhaps you may remember the Escort Twincam that was driven from Athens (Greece) with a 100e pop sidevalve engine to get the twincam from Eric's car installed?! The guy needed an engine in a hurry as he was coming to the UK to compete in a number of rallys, and donating the engine was the spark needed to buy a new BDA from Ford for the Elan.

I bought the car from Eamonn Swords, who was selling it on Eric's behalf about 10 years ago. You will probably know him as well. Eamonn was agonizing about taking the BDA out and putting another Twincam back in as it would probably have been worth more like that, but I couldn't let that happen!

I hope to get VLX2G back on the car when it goes back on the road. Eric put a private number on the car, 1 ELU, and when that was taken off ion the 80s, an age-related plate was put on. VLX2G is still available, so should be OK.

Thanks again for making contact, and any further info much welcomed. You can get in touch through my website if preferred, Lotus Cortina Information, and as you're ex-Dave Smith, you'll probably enjoy looking at it anyway!

http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/

Edit....Just noticed when zooming in on the photo that it doesn't have a bump on the bonnet yet, so still has it's Twincam.,

Mark Kempson

What a fantastic couple of pieces of contemporary history - if I were you Mark I'd want to acquire those original photos for the history file.

Very happy with just the images, Steve. They look very good when played with!

matjack wrote:I used to work at Dave Smith Engineering in the early 1970's.

I don't suppose you remember my car by any chance?

I never have been able to find out if just the engine was built there or the car itself modified as well.

All I had to go on was a transfer 'Dave Smith Engineering' on one door and 'Cosworth' on the other under the Union flags each side.

They have faded away over the years. Rather like the paint and the owner!

I don't suppose you remember my car by any chance?

Sorry dont remember you car as such but I would guess it was just the engine that was done there as I can't remember any other real modifacations been carried out there during my (limited) time.

Never mind! I didn't have much luck with information even at the time I bought it in '75.

The engine was a bit of a mix of bits from Cosworth and BRM. Ran well........