Are you younger than your Elan?

Post by: **gordonlund** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:26 pm

Hi there,

When I was 21, England won the World Cup and I bought an Austin A30. As an impoverished student I was lucky to have that. Later on, when I was into Cortina Estates 2.4 kids and a thumping mortgage, a friend of mine won the pools and bought an Elan+2S 130/5. !0 years later I bought mine, a 1968 +2 with an MOT (just). 26 years later it's still running. Work out the maths and I'll see you at Woodvale this weekend, Rhubarb will be there.

Gordon

Post by: **DrEntropy** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:55 pm

I'll pap up to bump Morgan's thread again... I was 17 when my 1967 S3 was built, am second owner, having acquired it in 1971. The +2 came to me in '78. There was a '65 Mk-I Lotus Cortina in the stable for a bit over a decade, too: '78~'89.

Makes me another old fart.

Post by: **ElanSeries2** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:57 pm

Its my first post - how exciting! My car is a 1965 S2, and its new to me this summer. I've wanted one since I saw the first photo. It held prominent position in my first copy of Classic & Sportscar (Aug 1999, Car of the Century), and since then I guess I've been working my way slowly towards one.

Is it my imagination, or do prices (particularly for the early ones) seem to be on the up? Every time I looked, my dream S2 seemed further out of reach... Until the summer, when I created a BMW M3-sized space in the garage and spotted an Elan S2 up at auction for a manageable amount. One telephone bid form later, one opportunely placed "yes" and I was the owner of an Elan that I still hadn't clapped eyes on.

I'm 9 years younger than the car, and wearing better, I think

But nothing that a few weeks (read years) TLC won't redress. I guess the only age-related "What the ****" was when I turned up to drive the car home, and turned around to grab the seatbelt... Only to find there wasn't one! I grew up with mandatory seatbelts. The first item on the agenda is a roll hoop and belts, therefore.

My only regret is that I didn't save earlier, and buy the Elan in place of the numerous vehicular disasters that have bled oil over various drives since I turned 18 - a Midget that never even drove, a Golf GIT that had the build quality of an Allegro, an MGB held together with papier-mache and pop rivets.

Anyway, hello everyone!

Post by: **john.p.clegg** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 6:47 am

Well welcome,from over the hills in Glossop,,,,

John :wink:

Post by: **Elanintheforest** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 1:11 pm

Great to hear of a young whippersnapper having a passion for the old S2!
They are fairly hard to get hold of now in the UK in anything other than ?mint restored condition?, and that means different things to different people.

Top restorations change hands between friends (they never go to eBay, Pistonheads or the auctions) and can command big price tags?I?ve heard of a couple recently in the ?20k - ?30k range, with some restorations by the ?big? names coming in at well over that sort of money. Projects seem to go for ?4k - ?8k, and the ?7k - ?12k roadworthy cars seem to be very thin on the ground, and often missing a few of the original bits and pieces. A vin plate with current V5 will sell for over ?2k!

It seems that the UK lost a lot of S1 and S2 cars in the 80s with ? : $ parity and the ? looked cheap compared to the Yen as well. They were also seen as the poor relation in the 70s?everybody wanted a fresh S4 or Sprint, and many S1 / S2 cars died a tatty death. Many others ended up being donors for race replicas?some probably even became ?original? 26R racers?surely not.

It seems that there are only a handful of individuals who really understand what makes up an original S1 or S2, and originality is everything with the early cars. I recently bought a project S2, a 65 car that was taken apart in 1978. A rolling chassis was built up for it using all new components by Mick Miller using a Spyder chassis and wishbones, and then the project abandoned in 1998.

In talking to the ?inner circle? of S1 / S2 owners, there is no doubt that the Spyder stuff has to be junked and the original bits re-instated on an original Lotus chassis?it makes a huge difference to ?value? on these models, and value in this context is more than ???, although that?s what it comes down to in the end.

So if your car has all the original bits like the woodrim steering wheel and yellow hornpush, decent crash pad, close ratio box, good metalwork around the doors and door glass, original seats and elephant skin rubber carpets, ally sill plates with the battery behind the passenger seat, you?re onto a winner. If not, these rare bits do turn up from time to time?eBay has helped considerably, and you?ll probably find most of them eventually. Even the round oil cap can reach silly money, as can the Marstone radiator.

Put some pictures on the gallery?we?d all love to see it. What condition is it in, and what are your plans? And I hate to say this, but the days of the oil drips on the drive may not yet be over!!
Mark

Post by: **ElanSeries2** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:26 pm

For me, it had to be an early car - I guess you just know which one you want, don't you? Anyway, I dropped a few picures onto the Gallery page, and hopefully I'll be able to keep you up to date with progress! As you'll see, I had to make some compromises to get a car that ticked the basic specification, and I imagine I'll be spending some time putting it back to something more original. Oh, well - I can think of worse things to be doing with my winter evenings... Hopefully, I've come to the right place for help!

Post by: **twincamman** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:21 am

well you know---- when your hard into a fast corner you dont really care if what is hung on the outside of the car is original --- :shock:

----ed

Post by: **SADLOTUS** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:44 pm

Twincamman! I can't believe you just said that!

Post by: **twincamman** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:14 pm

well really its all about driving the car at speed -thats the magic- of the car to me ----ed

Post by: **1964 S1** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 3:48 am

ed's right, cosmetics/original trim have almost nothing to do with performance, except maybe for that front bumper trim strip thingie.

Post by: **twincamman** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:00 pm

thats the best ---ed

Post by: **DJThom** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:30 am

I'm a bit late on this thread, but I am 8 years younger than my '66 Elan. Like ElanSeries2 I also "needed" to have a S2. I also never thought I could afford it until suddently, almost identically to ElanSeries2, I had a BMW 328i Cabriolet sized space in my garage.

Although I've only finished the car this year and driven it around 6 times I can confidently say NO REGRETS on the swap. That BMW was a beautiful car, but I couldn't do much beyond drive and wash it. There's nothing like being able to work on AND drive your sportscar, especially a vintage one.

Post by: **gordont** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 5:51 am

I am late on this thread but now that my S2 Elan is finally on the road I though better late than never.

My 66' elan is 2 months older than me AND it is it's birthday today! Alas a cold and overcast day today so no country drives in the sun with the roof down to celebtrate.

Gordon