S.M.A.R.T Elan

[elansprint71]

Have I seen a photo of this car with the registration SM1... or was it in a dream?

Anyway; I overtook a car registered SM1 on the motorway last year; not driven by the hero but by a shaven-head beer-monster, the car it was attached to was a low-rent Japanese 4x4.

[elanfan1]

The reg no on the Cortina 'M7' if genuine would be worth a fortune today - I don't think any single singles as they are called go for much less than ?100K.

Shocking a plate can be worth almost as much as a 26R

[elansprint71]

The reg no on the Cortina 'M7' if genuine would be worth a fortune today - I don't think any single singles as they are called go for much less than ?100K.

Shocking a plate can be worth almost as much as a 26R

Amazing isn't it? There is an ordinary car running around here (so ordinary I can't even remember what it is) with a single single on it; presumably they have had it for ages, at one time it was on a diesel Peugeot 206.

[elansprint71]

Well, I've hardly made any progress on the trail of the SMART Elan; in fact the only thing I have found might be a red herring but... have a look at the Elan on page 20 of this document. Does anyone know what it is? That roof looks very much like the SMART roof to me.

http://fanaticosdorally.files.wordpress ... p_1080.pdf

[Fred Talmadge]

Getting caught up on some of my reading
http://peterwindsor.com/2013/06/01/from ... f-mosport/
and was curious about this Elan a quick search brought me here.

[elansprint71]

............................. Here is a photo of the SMART car in Angola in '65:
http://motorsportinangola.blogspot.co.u ... -1965.html
"Standard" front end; can't get my head around when the Costin nose was fitted- was it removed at some point and replaced by the standard nose job?

Here is another shot from Angola, standard now but car now has local registration and some stripes on the body:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nite_owl/ ... 455723124/
if this shot was taken in 1960 then it must have been in the Tardis!

These Angolan shots show the SMART car again with stripes and a 26/R being re-shaped, unintentionally:
http://motorsportinangola.blogspot.co.u ... -1968.html
I believe that this could be the one referred to by Dave Hughes earlier in the thread, now back in the UK.

And finally... here is a shot taken in Luanda 27 Nov 1965:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nite_owl/ ... ateposted/
also wrongly dated as 1960 by the flickr poster.

Has anyone got any photos later than 1965, or any other info on the original SMART for two?

[bigvalvehead]

Lotus FerreiraPires2 (1).pdf

(172.21 KiB) Downloaded 403 times

Hi Pete
here is anther pic from Angola. Alongside is the 26R I have recently purchased and brought back from Angola.

Can you enhance any of the other pics to see if the reg no matches my car AAM-20-20.

Dave Hughes

[elansprint71]

Lotus FerreiraPires2 (1).pdf

Hi Pete
here is anther pic from Angola. Alongside is the 26R I have recently purchased and brought back from Angola.

Can you enhance any of the other pics to see if the reg no matches my car AAM-20-20.

Dave Hughes

Hi Dave, I'll see what I can do! Not many of the photos I've found are brilliant quality and most are quite small, so it's not easy. Also several cars don't carry registrations. Do you know what colour your purchase was when it was racing back then? I can see two red "26/Rs" along with the SMART, plus some other Elans in B&W shots.

Looks like I have a new project- perhaps if anyone has access to ANY Angolan Elan photos they could post links here? Probably we'll get duplications but that does not matter.

What I can't really fathom is just why so many exotic sports cars would be over there- Ferrari 250SWB, GTO, GT40 etc. I'm not quite old enough(!) to remember the history of Portugal and it's colonies in that period; any info would be helpful.

Was your car on the "missing" list or did you already know where it was some while ago? If you could give me a PM regarding "African mysteries" perhaps I can find more photos; they turn up in the most unexpected places.

This thread: lotus-carbs-f40/lotus-elan-26r-carlos-gaspar-t1888.html might be part of the jigsaw.