Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Good evening

Looking all over Europe for the right Elan +2, I note three [LHDs] - in different countries - have dual servos. Two of them appear very poorly installed with pipework all over the shop, so I wondered if these were fitted as a popular modification at the time, or was a dual servo a requirement by any particular region/countries, and if so, where?

Has anyone driven an Elan with twin servos?

My federal, US market 1972 build/1973 titled plus 2S 130 has the dual servos according to the manual but this car came through Duchess motors where they put in air-conditioning kits in the later +2 130s and as part of that, the second servo was moved to the nose but I?m pretty sure the reason for the twins servos was to meet pedal pressure requirements that were part of Federal automotive requirements along with the things like headrests and seatbelt systems and bonded in windshields etc. Gordon Sauer

Dual boosters are required for car with dual circuit brakes, as remote boosters are used. This was certainly a requirement for US cars that required dual circuit brakes.

I am not certain on the requirement for other European countries but I think at least one (Switzerland?) required them. So I would expect the car you are finding are most likely ones exported back from the US to Europe or ones destined originally shipped to European counties that required dual brakes. A later conversion to dual circuit brakes is also possible but probably less likely.

For the later car you can identify which market the car was originally targeted for based on the letter in chassis number:
http://www.lotuselan.net/wiki/Intro_-_V ... rt_Numbers

US cars also had other feature you should be able to spot in photos:
- Seats with headrests
- Hexagon Wheel nut rather than spinners
- Stromberg Head , with cross over pipes (often removed)
- Dual circuit brakes
...
(Not these will vary based on the age of the car.)

Thanks. You have clarified one point for me: that US dictated dual cct brakes, and as you say, this requires dual servos. I have not seen the cars here in the flesh so I do not know if they are dual cct lines or dual servos have been used for extra boost.

The British were not good at working things out sometimes. The whole idea of remote servos was because of their insistance of using hydraulic clutch lines. Volkswagen, along with others, looked at the problem of dual cct brakes and promptly ditched the hydraulic clutch for cable making enough room for a direct servo of any size that could neatly take care of dual cct AND failsafe cct brake lines with ease! Result: Britain failed at mass vehicle design and had the MX5 thrown back at them as the best sportscar of all time! All thanks to the flare of Colin Chapman and Ron Hickman!

The thre cars I have seen are not re-imports from the US as they lack the side markers. You make sense in saying Switzerland and I do remember them having a regulation regarding spinner nuts. One of the cars I saw has federal octagon wheel lockers.

One of these cars I am very interested in. If I do take it, I might look at tidying it up by seeing oif possible to fit a direct servo and clutch cable...

I believe any later Plus 2 with alloy wheels would originally have been supplied with octagonal nuts, regardless of the market. Many people do fit spinners, as presumably they prefer the look, but I have read somewhere they should not be used with alloy wheels, unless maybe a different insert is used (sorry can?t remember the exact details).

One possible explanation for plumbing all over the place is that the original Girling servos have been replaced with later Lockheed servos (a common update due to the rarity of the Girling servos), and whoever did the work took the path of least resistance in plumbing in the Lockheeds.

Does it have anything to do with hammering on Lotus light weight alloy wheel
If one were to miss the spinner

awatkins wrote:One possible explanation for plumbing all over the place is that the original Girling servos have been replaced with later Lockheed servos (a common update due to the rarity of the Girling servos), and whoever did the work took the path of least resistance in plumbing in the Lockheeds.

Can I assume then that these are the original Girlings? These are on my preferred car which is slowly progressing into reality! (btw, the car is a Swiss export)

They are neatly installed with the brake lines well formed and hugging the body back to the M/C, unlike the other two.

Now you mention the word 'rarity' - do I take it then that these are irreplaceable? Can one still buy repair kits even?