Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Prince Michael of Kent heard I had a nice Elan and asked me down so he could see it (see pic). Seriously, part of the Queen's 90th Birthday celebrations where there was a vehicle at the Palace for every year of her life. I represented 1973.

Love the Tawny Sprint!

As a previous S4Se owner, I noticed the white car has trim clips for the S4SE chrome trim that runs under the doors present..... as such is it really a Sprint or a late S4SE dressed as a Sprint (due to the flange under the boot area). If S4Se it would have had leather covered wheel v's sprints plastic covered etc.

Caveat emptor

Vaughan

JimE wrote:Tawny has to be the best colour. Here's mine (models not included). Look close enough and you will notice the headlights were still raising in the first photo.

Very nice car but how have you not ripped that Number plate off?

I believe that 1973/4 was supposed to be the cut off for the "new" style front number plates. Instead of white or silver on a black background the new front number plates were meant to be what we have now which is black letters on a whitish reflecting background. This was optional from 1971.

Because Jim's Sprint is so original I wouldn't be surprised if the number plate arrangement was as supplied from new.

I would be in a quandary as to whether to change it to the traditional white letters and numbers in the grill or leave it as is?

Spyder fan wrote:I believe that 1973/4 was supposed to be the cut off for the "new" style front number plates. Instead of white or silver on a black background the new front number plates were meant to be what we have now which is black letters on a whitish reflecting background. This was optional from 1971.

My October 73 +2 has very obvious holes/bracket mounts for a under nose UK number plate. So agree that this setup was quite possibly original on this car.

I have my current front us style plate in that position (on custom removable brackets) and have hard it scraping a number of times.

The fixed number plate was introduced, to my knowledge, on 1 January 1973. My car was manufactured in January 73 and registered at the end of March before VAT kicked in so I have the correct non grill plate. No issues with grounding the plate. On my Plus Two, which was built in 1974, and has the identical plate its another story as the plate is quite close to the ground so I have to be careful with speed humps. I'm a stickler for originality otherwise I would revert to the grill letters which, in my opinion, look better on both Elans. If I did so I would be shocked if the MoT station picked up on this. They still don't appreciate my Plus Two has sill members to check for rot which incidently I have replaced with galvanised ones. Jim

JimE wrote:The fixed number plate was introduced, to my knowledge, on 1 January 1973. My car was manufactured in January 73 and registered at the end of March before VAT kicked in so I have the correct non grill plate. No issues with grounding the plate. On my Plus Two, which was built in 1974, and has the identical plate its another story as the plate is quite close to the ground so I have to be careful with speed humps. Jim

Date is correct and my Plus Two was also registered January 1973 'L' and the plate was slung underneath. Kerbs in car parks took it off so often I left it off and stuck the letters on the grille but still had the yellow reflector on the back.

I too think bronze is great on Plus Twos but I may be biased, and that Elan looks sharp too.


Clearly, I had only just bought it!

This is mine today. I thought that Tawny looked good on all three (Sprint; Plus Two; Europa Special).

I don't much care for +2's, and I've owned one or two, but wow, in that last picture the car looks superb!

I like Bumpy too, but that's different.

Spyder fan wrote:I believe that 1973/4 was supposed to be the cut off for the "new" style front number plates. Instead of white or silver on a black background the new front number plates were meant to be what we have now which is black letters on a whitish reflecting background. This was optional from 1971.

Because Jim's Sprint is so original I wouldn't be surprised if the number plate arrangement was as supplied from new.

I would be in a quandary as to whether to change it to the traditional white letters and numbers in the grill or leave it as is?

IMHO it spoils the look of the front of the car. I'm sure it was original but it doesn't stop it looking wrong.

Chris,
I would second that thought if you hadn't already
( Edit, you deleted the duplicate post)

It doesn't look right to me either, But it's just what we are used to I suppose. Could the plate be a vinyl type that's stuck to the nose one above the bumper? Not sure how that would look and whether it's legal.

Jim's Sprint is lovely, and I can forgive it one little thing

If you look at John Bolster's road test for Autosport dated 8 February 1973, the new style reflective plate on KAH 604L is used so by then dealers were obviously strictly applying the new regulations. Come on boys it doesn't look so bad .

JimE wrote:Prince Michael of Kent heard I had a nice Elan and asked me down so he could see it (see pic). Seriously, part of the Queen's 90th Birthday celebrations where there was a vehicle at the Palace for every year of her life. I represented 1973.

Which must make your car the best car from 1973! Nice info to put in the car's history file.

Tim,

I got some additional photos/info of the Sprint that was advertised on eBay, I've sent three emails to you, but I'm not sure if they got through, you may want to check your junk mail folder.

Best,

Rob

JimiE,

It still looks awful, but does it act as an airdam and improve the terriible crosswind handling?