Sprints Remaining In Existance

[trw99]

I know we have had some discussion over recent months regarding how many Elans may be left, or on the road and we have looked at the howmanyleft.co.uk site too.

As some of you may be aware I maintain a private Sprint register to help me with historical research. Aware that several Sprints have emerged from hiding during this year, I thought I would do some calculating.

So I have details on a total of 696 Sprints, out of 1405 produced; 49.5%. However, some of those may be duplicates, some have been written off and some are details of cars when first delivered.

Then I counted how many were/are in existence, using as criteria cars that I had a record of from the past two decades. 590 fitted that description, though again some may be duplicated. That's 41.9%. Now lets knock off say 5% of 590 for statistical error, we are left with some 560 Sprints either on the road, being restored, laid up or in a barn.

39.8% of all Sprints still knocking around, with a few more waiting to be re-discovered no doubt.

If we now apply that percentage to all Elans and +2s, a total of approx 14,000 (in round figures!) then some 5572 Elans must be around!

Now feel free to knock holes in all that, please!

Tim

[Spyder fan]

Tim,
A greater man than me once said

There are 3 types of lies, Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

Samuel Longhorn Clemens (AKA Mark Twain)


Sprints were produced at the end of the production run, they were more likely to be cherished by second owners a few years after new as they were in effect already a classic car and were probably the best buys available if you wanted a good Elan irrespective if it was the now perceived to be sought after Sprint model. Think back to1980.... you saw your first Elan in the 1960's, you were a teenager and couldn't possibly afford one, now it's 1980 and all those bright two tone colour shades are still in fashion, are you going to buy an S2, S3 or S4 over a Sprint? ........... thought not. These cars would not be every day use cars and would therefore survive in good numbers.

That's one shot over your bows

[elansprint71]

Tim,
Do you have details of all the Sprints in Japan? A few years ago they seemed to be going there by the boat-load.