Flares on an Elan

[groucho]

I just purchased my first Elan (A '67 Coupe Super Safety) and my car has the same flares. They were used to accommodate a larger 15" wheel and 195 tire. I do love the look too as it makes it look much more aggressive.

Congrats on the Elan! I hope it brings you many years of joy. The flares do look pretty similar to mine, as close as anything I've seen. This is one of my best shots for seeing the shape of the flares:



Don't be fooled by the prospective in the photo, the Elan is much, much smaller than my BRZ that's behind it!

I've got 205/60/13 tires on mine - which I like the look of, although purists don't approve of wide tires on Elans, but that's OK! The hard part is finding tires; the current Yokohamas are really old and my options are pretty junky tires... or Toyo R-spec tires. I'll be getting the Toyos, of course!

[MrBonus]

MrBonus (great name) Somehow I missed your posting. I agree, the Elan really benefits from more aggressive flares/wheels. Yours and Grouchos are the kind of look I like. How do you find the comparison between the Elan and the 911. I used to own an 83 911 and loved it for its steering and handling. The trouble was, I found I had to be doing 100 mph before it got interesting...


I found the answer to my question by doing a search-how surprising!
Photo #8 answers my question and photo #13 is how I feel about doing the job-photos 14-17 show why it should be done:
lotus-elan-f19/progress-far-t14299.html

I'm trying to find an analogy that's forum appropriate but the best way to describe it is the 911 is the girl you fall in love with and marry and the Elan is the stripper you leave her for knowing it's all wrong. The 911 is a tank, the build quality is stellar, after 6 years of ownership, I'd drive it on a whim anywhere, and it's a brilliant combination of vault-like construction and race-inspired engineering that you can drive violently or cruise comfortably without a second thought.

That said, I drove the Elan for the first time a few months ago and I felt my pupils dilate like I had experienced a new drug for the first time. The tach jumps around wildly, currently half the electronics don't work well enough to pass inspection, the interior is put together like a crack house, but I don't really care. The steering, turn-in, grip, and guttural wail of the Webers really drown out all rational thought. It's going to require love, more work than it will likely return in driving time but I don't care. I've driven and tracked a lot of cars but none of them feel like this Elan. None of them frankly even matter.

They will inhabit the same space and the 911 will be a faithful substitute when the Lotus fails in reliability and availability but deep down, I know which one I want to throw angrily into a turn all mechanical qualities being equal.

[MrBonus]

I just purchased my first Elan (A '67 Coupe Super Safety) and my car has the same flares. They were used to accommodate a larger 15" wheel and 195 tire. I do love the look too as it makes it look much more aggressive.

Congrats on the Elan! I hope it brings you many years of joy. The flares do look pretty similar to mine, as close as anything I've seen. This is one of my best shots for seeing the shape of the flares:



Don't be fooled by the prospective in the photo, the Elan is much, much smaller than my BRZ that's behind it!

I've got 205/60/13 tires on mine - which I like the look of, although purists don't approve of wide tires on Elans, but that's OK! The hard part is finding tires; the current Yokohamas are really old and my options are pretty junky tires... or Toyo R-spec tires. I'll be getting the Toyos, of course!

Very cool to see another set of similar flares! I made my introduction thread in the newbie forum but did a lot of searching for these flares before committing to purchase and found no other cars with them. That said, mine were put on in the late 90s and showed almost no stress fracture signs so I dove in with my purchase and am happy to see I'm not alone with them.

[groucho]

Funny, I missed the reply the first time, too! I'm glad I caught it; it's interesting to see another car which may have the same flares. Do you know where yours came from? I see that you just replied that they were put on in the late '90s. Mine were installed in the early '70s and came from a guy who the internet certainly doesn't know anything about, so it would be really something if they are from the same source, only 25+ years apart and virtually no other Elans have them.

The description of the cars is not far off from my experience. I had a 914 before the Elan and I liked it a lot - but the Elan is really something special. I've had mine for almost 20 years now (I think I'm it's longest owner, which is a somewhat shocking passage of time) and despite it not running perfectly right for one reason or another for nearly my entire ownership, I would never even consider selling it. I pulled the engine back in 2014 to fix a leaky water pump and STILL don't have it back together, but am really working on it now to get it back together ASAP, and I've found a mechanic very near me who races Kent-engined open-wheelers, so I'll finally have someone with real experience to do the tuning to get it really running right this time.

[Davidb]

How did his post slip in? Perhaps as a new member his posts are delayed while the intranet police check him out? :O

[MrBonus]

How did his post slip in? Perhaps as a new member his posts are delayed while the intranet police check him out? :O

Yes, I had to be confirmed as non-spam. I spent a day wondering where my post went!

[MrBonus]

Funny, I missed the reply the first time, too! I'm glad I caught it; it's interesting to see another car which may have the same flares. Do you know where yours came from? I see that you just replied that they were put on in the late '90s. Mine were installed in the early '70s and came from a guy who the internet certainly doesn't know anything about, so it would be really something if they are from the same source, only 25+ years apart and virtually no other Elans have them.

The description of the cars is not far off from my experience. I had a 914 before the Elan and I liked it a lot - but the Elan is really something special. I've had mine for almost 20 years now (I think I'm it's longest owner, which is a somewhat shocking passage of time) and despite it not running perfectly right for one reason or another for nearly my entire ownership, I would never even consider selling it. I pulled the engine back in 2014 to fix a leaky water pump and STILL don't have it back together, but am really working on it now to get it back together ASAP, and I've found a mechanic very near me who races Kent-engined open-wheelers, so I'll finally have someone with real experience to do the tuning to get it really running right this time.

I don't know where they came from. I did run through my records and it does include A LOT of invoices from the mid/late '90s when it was restored but I did not see any reference to the purchase or body work to put them on.

I may be able to locate the owner (owner prior to the previous one) and I do have some questions for him and if I do track him down, I will definitely send you a message.