Overpriced? Sprints, & Register of Dodgy Stripes, Arches & D

PostPost by: trw99 » Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:31 pm

Mmmm.

Nothing dodgy about these stripes, the grand daddy of the Sprint ones (as it were):
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PostPost by: Elanintheforest » Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:52 pm

It works on the 49!

I think that it's the fussiness that jars. The thick gold of the front bumper leads into a thinner multi-part gold of the main stripe, then a solid thin stripe crashes into a thick gold bumper at the rear...at an angle.

There's no flow or continuity, so for me it breaks up the symmetry of the overall shape of the Elan somehow. I?m sure that someone with an artistic eye would be able to articulate this a lot better!

Mark
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PostPost by: GrUmPyBoDgEr » Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:56 am

On the 49 it's almost forgivable, that car is an absolute legend & even looked good in blue, but it was only "just perfect" in green with those thin yellow stripes.
Sponsorship in F1 has had mixed blessings; but that's not really an Elan subject.
F1 Lotus cars started looking great again when they switched to JPS colours, once again, just one base colour.
Great photo of the most magic F1 car ever Tim but it won't convince me about sprint stripes or any "duo-tone" car :wink:

Sprint Stripes + Duo tone = Dinky Toy

Now running to take shelter! :lol:

Cheers
John
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PostPost by: Elanintheforest » Wed Sep 07, 2011 6:49 am

I like the colour-over-white of the Sprint...it's just the stripe that looks wrong to me! I wonder what it would look like in colour-over-white without a stripe?

I have a photo somewhere of a powder blue over white Sprint, which looks just stunning....I'll dig it out.

I also love the black and gold of the JPS plus 2 cars, and of course, Lotus goes back a fair way in doing 2 colour cars....here's another that works for me. Simple and understated, it doesn't shout out 'look at me', but looks just right with the silver roof.

Sublime Lotus.

Mark
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PostPost by: GrUmPyBoDgEr » Wed Sep 07, 2011 7:16 am

Ah yes, even back then the Super 95 had to have that bloomin' silver roof; it didn't cut it for me at all.
How could they do that to perfection? :wink:
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PostPost by: Spyder fan » Wed Sep 07, 2011 7:48 am

Mark,
The 'Duralan' as Gary calls it, will have it's fresh paint in a couple of weeks, the stripes won't be going on until right at the end of the build as the car won't be mopped until then in case of incident. I will take some photo's without stripes and post them on here for comment.

There are lots of companies doing vehicle graphics, wraps and partial wraps these days, I could probably have saved a bit of money getting the car painted mono tone and then applying a partial wrap for the stripes if I didn't like the single colour. My teenage years were in the mid 1970's therefore the duo paint and stripes thing is appealing to me.
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PostPost by: trw99 » Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:11 am

Alan

Hear - hear!

Mark wrote: "I like the colour-over-white of the Sprint...it's just the stripe that looks wrong to me! I wonder what it would look like in colour-over-white without a stripe?" and I think Mick Miller probably liked it that way too. I've posted this before but Susan Miller still drives this Sprint with Mick's take on the stripe. Erase the 'Elan Sprint' script and you would get some idea.

Tim
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PostPost by: Robbie693 » Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:17 am

I think the problem with the stripes is that the car wasn't designed with them in mind (were any cars?), so they don't really fit - the top of the front and rear bumpers are at different heights so you can't draw a straight line between them. Perhaps it would have been better to have the rear stripe flare out so as to encompass the whole of the bumper... Then again that would probably have made it even more bling (ducking as I type).

I have to confess to finding most Lotus graphics a bit too 'in your face'. I hesitate to say vulgar! Speaking purely about road cars of course.

Robbie (wincing about my last comment!)
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PostPost by: elansprint71 » Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:20 am

JPS Elan anyone?

Image

My S4SE in the 70s, it looked fantastic, even better than Brodie's... except some prat had badged it as a Sprint; it was quicker than that. :wink:
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PostPost by: Elanintheforest » Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:33 am

I do like the JPS treatment, Pete, probably because of Brodie's Elan. You needed flaired arches (and jeans) though!

I think that the Sprint gets its stripe style from the 'Sidewinders' that were popular in the U.S in the mid 60s on the Mustangs and the like, and came here in '66 on the works Lotus Cortinas. And the Sprint wasn't the first Elan to have stripes! For a few months in '67 all S3 Elans had sidewinders fitted, just under the chrome sill strip.

My S3 still had them in 1976, but they were very tatty and I ripped them off! I'm looking to get some re-made now, if I can find a decent photo of them.

Here's Graham Arnolds 'Black Beast' Elan back in 1967 showing the sidewinders. It was his 'dream' Elan, with black paint, red leather interior and a BRM Phase 2 engine. Only 132bhp, but balanced to perfection so it revved and went like a scalded cat apparently. It was his favorite ever Elan.
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PostPost by: elansprint71 » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:06 am

My nostrils flared when you writ flaired instead of flared. :roll:

Of course we all know where Brode's Elan came from don't we?

http://www.mountgreen.co.uk/1970.htm
Same folks who put a V8 Buick in the back of a Mini and kept it FWD.
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PostPost by: GrUmPyBoDgEr » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:40 am

Now that I quite like, it seems to give the Elan a bit more wheelbase & stretches the whole car nicely.
Interesting bit of history, I don't remember those cars on the road; but that's nothing new :roll:

Brodie's JPS Elan was a mean looking machine & the mention of it reminds me of a mention about such cars making a return to the race tracks.
Not wishing to hijack this most interesting (and intellectual?) thread maybe those in the know could kick it off again in "Racing"?

IMHO the JPS gold lining worked really well on the Europa, it being more "angular" rather like the F1 cars which they were originally applied to.

Maybe it's the more "rounded" lines of the Elan that make me dislike the effect that duo-tone paint & Sprint stripes have on it?

However the Elan's lower sills have to be painted matt black in order to enhance that "curvy" appearance, so maybe I'm up my own ar-SE in moaning about duo-tone :lol:

Cheers
John
Last edited by GrUmPyBoDgEr on Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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PostPost by: GrUmPyBoDgEr » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:43 am

"Of course we all know where Brode's Elan came from don't we?"

I don't :oops:

What page of which book should I consult please?

Or should that be:-

Which page of what book?
or
Which page of which book?
or
What page of what book?

:lol: :lol: :lol:


Cheers
John
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PostPost by: elansprint71 » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:50 am

Having done a load of research I was unable to find a reference in any book; however, follow the link, scroll down and you will see a piece from a magazine; I saw this and did some more spade work. Brodie bought the car when it was advertised by BVRT and the rest, as they say...

Somewhere, lying about in this train-wreck I have copies of the advert and other stuff. :oops:

Now, about the Jon Fletcher 26/R... :wink:
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PostPost by: elj221c » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:58 am

elansprint71 wrote:
Now, about the Jon Fletcher 26/R... :wink:


OK, so what about it...........?

Bad boy Pete. OT! :wink:
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