Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I'm sorry if this has been asked before but i have searched the forums and can't seem to find an answer. Can anyone tell me which other cars shared the rear light clusters that are fitted to the S4 elan, not so much the actual lenses but the chrome/mazak fitting?

Jaguar e type series 2 see pic, Note that reversing light lens is not included.

Gordon Rhubarb & Custard

Lotus Europas (not the early ones though). They use them the other way up, so watch out for the foam gasket behind the lens - they have drain 'holes' which need to be at the bottom. I've seen a few cars with water sloshing around in the lenses....

Matthew

Simmo

If you have an early +2 (1967 to early 1968) then the back lights are from the Alfa Guilia 1750 but not the GTV as they have bigger rear lights (see pics below).

My +2 is August 1968 so I have the E-type lights. As I understand from a friend with a Guilia his rear lights are very cheap.

Jason

My +2 is #183 first sold on New Years Day, it has reversing lights that I don't see on the 1750.

In all honesty I can't see much of the 1750 rear lights,don't you have any better pictures of the lights?
(please)

John

Regarding the E-Type pictured - was there a difference between the UK and US models? I've had a couple of real helpful Jag parts places (in US) come up empty on this item (lens is all red). In fact I've even heard told that Lotus modified the Jag item to incorporate the back-up light (sounds farfetched) and this proves that story wrong.

If it is a UK-only item then I'm surprised that Christopher Neil doesn't have them and Paul Matty has reproductions for ?149.50... each! I figured these must be handcarved from giant rubies.

Keith
US69 50/1872

Picture of the Elan+2 (built August 1969) implementation (R/H lacking).

Keith

I might be able to help with this one!

I have a 1968 Alfa 1750 GTV. There were two types of lenses fitted - Carello and Altissimo and neither had integral reversing lights. I believe the Mazak "chrome" base plates were the same for both. The bulb holders have just started being remanufactured and are available from places such as HighwoodAlfa and ClassicAlfa.

http://www.classicalfa.com/shop/images/lt074.jpg
?65 each.

A full set of Altissimo ones has just gone on Ebay for ?200:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 030&rd=1,1

I have an old base plate at home which I will measure up if it is of interest to anyone but I really don't believe that Colin would have fitted Italian bits to his cars, and there is no mention of it in the R & R book.

I can confirm though that the light lenses are NOT the same as an S4 Elan. The ones pictured on the red 1750 above are the Carello lenses and attached below are my Altissimo ones. The red Alfa with the large back lights is a 2000 GTV.

HTH

I can't say if the Very Early +2 had Alfa lights, but I have never seen it or heard of that. The story in Authentic Lotus Elan (Robinshaw and Ross) is that the designer was inspired by the Alfa tail lights while driving behind and Alfa on the way home from work and then Colin convinced Jaguar to share the cost of tooling. It may be that early +2s had Alfa lights while the ones being shared with Jaguar were delayed in production or some such.

Anyway there are 4 different version of the +2/Just2S4/E-Type/Europa taillight. They all share the same casting for the pot metal and the same mold for the basic lens, but the holes for bulb holders are different plus the lotus version has a clear reverse lense where the Jaguar has red there.

Here they are:

1. European Lotus - Red and Amber main lens and reverse light. Three bulbs red above/below amber and separate tube shaped reverse.

2. USA Lotus - All Red main lens and reverse light. Two bulbs main centered in the red area and separate tube shaped reverse.

3. European Jag - Red and Amber no reverse light. Two bulbs amber above red.

4. USA Jaguar - All Red no reverse light. Two bulbs side by side.

Some early Lotus cars came to the USA with the European tailight since that was still legal, later ones had the two bulb version since at least one state made amber on the rear of a car illegal. The USA all red unit had a funky relay unit to combine turn, brake and hazard light functions into one bulb. Which side of the light and therefore what color was up on the red/amber units was determined by which car it was on. The Elan Just 2 was the odd one with the wide end down and therefore the amber side down.

Hope this helps.

Rob

It is possible to convert any one of these to any other with some metal cutting, rivetting, bulb holder attachment and a change of lens. I changed an all red Lotus unit to the red amber lotus unit without too much trouble. the worst would be a jag all red unit to a lotus red amber unit. The easiest would be a Lotus red amber unit to a Jaguar red amber unit since it would just involve changing the lens and removing the reverse light.

John here is some more pics.

I believe the early +2 shared the Alfa lights and the late +2 shared the Jag rear lights. The lenses are different but they are different for the federal car as well.

Forget the lenses, look at the shape and length of the castings.

Blimey. And I thought Alfa were bad for mixing and matching what they had lying about!

Doh...Well I am now fully in the picture and fully perplexed...

John

out of interest what car did the round S1 lights come from

Are S1 lights still available ?

James

I like the idea of fitting one Jag rear light so that with a bit of rewiring I can have one reversing light and one rear fog light. Would look much nicer than the 'old' aftermarket rear fog lamps my car used to have (fitted when they were 'trendy' in the 80s).

Carl