The Formation of ?Club Lotus Elan Section"

[trw99]

A small team of us Elan enthusiasts have come together to form Club Lotus? first model-specific section, the Club Lotus Elan Section (CLES).

CLES will cover Elan types S1, S2, 26R, S3, S4, Sprint, +2, Plus 2 (Types 26, 36, 45 & 50). It will build on the wonderful legacy of the late Tim Mees and Charles Giles with the Type 26 Register, as well as my Sprint site and Trevor Sparrow?s +2 Register, bringing them together within one entity.

The aim is to bring together owners and enthusiasts of the original Lotus Elan and +2 worldwide, to encourage the preservation, restoration and running of all Elans, to gather and record appropriate archive material, to maintain registers and to organise social and sporting gatherings. An announcement to the wider Lotus community will be posted in the July edition of Club Lotus News. We wanted to give our friends in lotuselan.net an early heads-up.

So why do this with Club Lotus? Well, as I?m sure you will realise, setting up an organisation like this takes a good deal of time and effort. Our initial thoughts of doing so independently concentrated mostly on the framework of the organisation, rather than what we were trying to achieve. In speaking with Alan Morgan at Club Lotus, it became clear that he could provide that framework as well as the freedom for us to do what we were most interested in doing. It is also obvious to many of us that as time goes on Club Lotus will need to address the particular needs of each Lotus heritage model. CLES will blaze a trail as the first such model-specific section.

The organisation of CLES will be kept simple and virtual, with a web presence via the Club Lotus site and a dedicated page in each issue of Club Lotus News. Under Tim Wilkes (trw999) and Mark Kempson (Elanintheforest), the team includes Alex Black (alexblack13), Brian Buckland (elanman), Charles Giles, Jonathan Rawlinson, Norman Lupton, Norman Sheasby and Trevor Sparrow. Between us we have good knowledge of each Elan type, though we all acknowledge there is always something new to learn about these exquisite British sports cars!

Membership of CLES will be open to existing and future Club Lotus members, free of charge. You will be able to join via the new page (coming soon) on the Club Lotus web site. This will give access to a large and growing range of information and help, as well as a direct link to the forum here, courtesy of the resourceful Jeff. We hope all Elan owners and enthusiasts will join the CLES to help further its aims for present and future generations.

The team are taking things steadily to begin with and building the web site is the current priority. We will continue compiling a full register of all Elans and gathering archive materiel which will be accessible via the web site to members. We want to build evidence of originality and to investigate having hard to find parts made up if necessary. In time it is planned to organise CLES specific meetings, such as track days, socials and UK and European ?raids?, as well as having a presence at the annual Club Lotus Festival, of course. In fact the CLES will be co-located next to the Club Lotus stand at Donington this year, with a tribute to Ron Hickman. Then of course the planning is underway to find suitable ways in which to celebrate the Elan?s 50th anniversary next year.

We are excited to be able to benefit Elan enthusiasts with the formation of this new Section and hope that it is something you will all feel worthy of support. If you have your own ideas about what we can do, please feel free to let us know.

Tim

[gjz30075]

Thanks for the efforts, gents . Will the registry be a compilation of current registries? Please provide a link when it's ready.


Greg Z

[garyeanderson]

What a great idea guys, if you need any help please let me know. Don't forget the crossover models, the least understood Elan's of the bunch.

p-a

[Ross Robbins]

Well Gents,
With that esteemed "Faculty" to guide the site it should be a home run as we say on the Left Side of the Pond. Instead of CLES though, maybe it should be CLEVER ONES. Club Lotus Elan Virtual Experience of Real Ownership, Now Explained, Site.

[ken ob]

A brilliant idea. Thank you for doing it for everyones benefit.

Ken.

[Elanintheforest]

We want to do it for fun as well, Ken! But it seems like the right time to get more information established about the car, and most importantly to share it with others.

Establishing the information, for me, is going to be about collecting together the brochures and press photos, the adverts, the road tests and write-ups from the 60s and 70s and of course, to build upon the definition of originality and change points that has already been established.

Between us we have a huge background in these cars covering all models. But the rare ones aren?t left out, with two of the guys having completed the restoration of 3 26R cars in the last 5 years, and another having two of the BRM S3 Elans?.and Shapcraft Elans are known to the group. Between us we know just about everybody left in the UK who has had or continues to have connections to the Elan.

Having collected all the information together it seems that the best way to share it is via a structured library of information, much like the one I?ve started for the Lotus Cortina. See http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/ . This allows for an unlimited amount of information to be recorded and cross referenced?once and for all. Once it is structured correctly, information can easily be added into the ?buckets??with maybe a re-think every so often to tidy things up!

Timing is right. As I?ve been discovering whilst chasing down people for information for the Lotus Cortina website, a lot of the folks who were involved in the 60s are now gone, and I?m having to depend more and more on contemporary write-ups to get the facts straight. On the other hand, many younger folks are starting to buy Elans, and having the historical context at their fingertips via a website may just add to the experience of owning the car.

As Tim says, it?s very early days, and whilst I have a large amount of information to put on a website, I?ll be after much more!

Mark

[elansprint71]

Well... I'll have to be an associate member; I've just left Club Lotus for the third (or is it fourth?) time.
Who's that cheering at the back?


Edit: did you consider doing this as part of the Historic Lotus Register; just a thought.

[trw99]

Edit: did you consider doing this as part of the Historic Lotus Register; just a thought.

Hi Pete

Just seen your edit, so sorry for the delay in replying.

Our original thoughts had centred around a 'Club Elan' concept, clearly pinched from Club Elite. We did then look at other Lotus related groups with interest in the heritage cars; however HLR is quite clear in their eligibility criteria and the Elan does not fall within it (26R does though!). Pretty much concurrently Alan Morgan from Club Lotus suggested coming in under their umbrella and, since he is now an Elan owner, we felt it a convenient home for our idea.

The other point I would like to clarify is that we are happy to have Elan enthusiasts of all persuasions, whether they are Spyder conversion, modified, upgrade or originality fans; we'll even welcome those who like to turn their FHCs into DHCs!

Tim

[terryp]

Tim
As a member of Club Lotus France, we have a lot of Elans owners as members. Is it possible that we could join and perhaps other country's official Lotus Club or would it have to be via Club Lotus "Elise " UK?

Cheers
Terry

[garyeanderson]

My guess that The HLR does not want to become a much larger club. To add a potential 13,000 (approx, All Elan's and Plus 2's) to there membership would just over whelm the current membership and club leaders. My guess is that they may take the S1 at (850 max, the S1 and S2 26r's is already accepted) and a stretch to include include the S2 roadsters as there are another potential ~1300. I think the S1 should fall under the HLR, there were less built than Elite's and far fewer known to exist in any form, running or not. Give it time an all of this will shake out. My gut tells me that all of the Hornsey and Cheshunt built Lotus cars including the type 26 and type 28 should be under on umbrella. But that will probably never happen.

[trw99]

Tim
As a member of Club Lotus France, we have a lot of Elans owners as members. Is it possible that we could join and perhaps other country's official Lotus Club or would it have to be via Club Lotus "Elise " UK?

Cheers
Terry

Hi Terry

We shall have to look at your proposal. In principle we would like to be as inclusive as possible so I would hope that we could work with other national Lotus clubs to 'allow' Elan enthusiasts access to our section and site.

One of our concerns has been that Club Lotus might become increasingly Elise (and derivative) focused, leaving the Elan and other heritage types in the shadows. We hope that forming the CLES addresses this for the future.

Tim

[Spyder fan]

Edit: did you consider doing this as part of the Historic Lotus Register; just a thought.

Hi Pete

Just seen your edit, so sorry for the delay in replying.

Our original thoughts had centred around a 'Club Elan' concept, clearly pinched from Club Elite. We did then look at other Lotus related groups with interest in the heritage cars; however HLR is quite clear in their eligibility criteria and the Elan does not fall within it (26R does though!). Pretty much concurrently Alan Morgan from Club Lotus suggested coming in under their umbrella and, since he is now an Elan owner, we felt it a convenient home for our idea.

The other point I would like to clarify is that we are happy to have Elan enthusiasts of all persuasions, whether they are Spyder conversion, modified, upgrade or originality fans; we'll even welcome those who like to turn their FHCs into DHCs!

Tim

And there's me thinking that it would be a club that wouldn't have someone like me as a member Good job I read through the thread before getting all stroppy

[Jason1]

Hi Tim

Sounds great I am all for new Elan pages.

You will be able to join via the new page (coming soon) on the Club Lotus web site.

What happened with this? I seem to remember the site was being re-vamped and then there was an announcement in the CL mag that it would be ready soon and now it has gone quite?

I was looking forward to all the technical papers being available online.

Cheers

Jason

[trw99]

Jason

We have only recently made the announcement to elan.net listers that the CLES is being formed and that it would be 'officially' launched in the July 2011 edition of Club Lotus News. That is when we hope the CLES page/portal will be open on the CL web site.

Give us a chance!

Tim

[Hethel_Haus]

I'm all in favor of having more information on Lotus Elan's readily available since I just bought a +2S last year. When I bought the car, I also became a member of the UK Club Lotus. Certainly a fine publication and I scour each issue just for any Elan related articles. However, I question just how helpful it will be to have another website attached to Club Lotus just for this marque information. Isn't this website the perfect repository of all things Elan related? It covers everything from the 4 corners of the globe and your Search command works perfectly to find all types of obscure answers to problems that have been solved by the loyal patrons that frequent this site. The photographs posted by your members are wonderful also.

About the only thing missing here is a unified owner register. I have registered my car on the couple of websites out there and it would be nice to have them all together in one location. Otherwise, since it appears you are well down the path of creating a new Elan information site, I just hope this one continues as well.

Cheers!
Steve
'73 Elan +2S 130/5 Cabriolet