As Bill has said, everyone has their own idea of what a Type 26 Elan is. There is no right or wrong here, the only wrong that I can think of is that they are ALL not up and running either on the street or on the track. With the limited number that were made (2200 to 2400) type 26 Roadsters (these are not drop head coupes) I don't think there are any more than a potential 1000 left in the world. My guess is that is the high end of the number scale. 600 to 800 would be a closer guess. The fact that Bob Herzog's S1 recently ended ebay auction only made $25,602 (not making reserve). With 7 bidders is some what disappointing, even with the poor economy.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lotus-S1 ... 2ea82d12bcThe amount of work involved in bring this car back for the dead is enormous and that top bid may have covered Bobs investment but not his time and blood and sweat. I was going to buy this Elan before Bob did, but he gets the job done fast and as well as any one I know. I know it would have sat at my house for a long time, as the funds to restore it are not available at the moment. To pour the dollars and time into it (for me) could not have been justified. I don't know what the reserve was but I would guess that for the amount of money and time that was put into it, $35K usd would not have pried it from my hands if I had done it. When I saw Stan put it on the market and looked at the photos, I had to decide within an hour whether I wanted to do the project. In my mind I could not get my head around the thought that I would own that car for a long time to get the price needed to bring it back to the level that Bob did. I would have to use the Elan to get the value back and then sell it as a well used, restored S1. All of my cars are like this early S1 and when the market wakes up to the fact that the fun that can be had for the dollars invested, my retirement portfolio will start to see more investment. The great thing is, the people that love these early Elan?s now have the opportunity to have them the way they were originally built or to have them as raced as 26r?s for a fraction of the price of other great cars of the same period. You just can?t have the kind of fun on the street or track for the money spent, not on anything?
Gary