Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I mentioned that Clark Lance sent these Elan introduction articles. The three that Jeff was missing in the Library section. They are Motor 10 October 1962, Autocar 12 October 1962, and Motorsport November 1962. The last is the only one that is small enough to upload, so here goes. I don't think I have posted this before but maybe I have. Anyway DSJ is one of the best auto journalists in my opinion and he make a great read.

Gary

Thanks for posting that, Gary. I now have a new entry in my British automotive lexicon: "knave-plate". I also had a chuckle at the characterization of the hood as a "rigid hard-top".

No doubt one would pay extra for a knave-plate vs a hub-cap

Well dug out, Gary. That must have been the first Motor Sport I ever saw which started my death by Lotus.

It's hard to believe that the early rear A-frame wasn't diagonally braced and combined with the six-segment doughnuts must have made quick starts and braking rather nervous. Gary's Motor Sport picture is identical in every way to the one used in the later adverts (as shown in the Things in Common thread 'The "Chapman" strut' by Elanintheforest on Nov 3rd 2012) apart from the latter having the definitive diagonal brace! Was it a publicity drawing error? It looks like more like a photograph, which could easily be retouched, and I believe a similar picture appeared later drawn in colour. And in the context of that thread even Jenks is calling it a "Chapman strut."

Quart Meg Miles wrote:It's hard to believe that the early rear A-frame wasn't diagonally braced

The chassis in the photo was in the British museum when I saw it about 30 years ago. I presume it is still there.

It was clearly made up as a show piece and perhaps the A frames were made specifcally for it without the diagonal brace for some reason. I have never seen any other A frames like it.

cheers
Rohan

Elan chassis at the London Science Museum (photo taken 1985)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lotus ... hassis.jpg

S-B

I did a double take when I saw that pic. I have an almost identical 4 x 6 Kodak glossy pinned to the cork board next to the computer. It has to be thirty some years old.

... but, on topic, in both your pic and mine you can clearly see diagonals on the a-frames.

Bud English wrote:I did a double take when I saw that pic. I have an almost identical 4 x 6 Kodak glossy pinned to the cork board next to the computer. It has to be thirty some years old.

The attachment Cork board.jpg is no longer available

... but, on topic, in both your pic and mine you can clearly see diagonals on the a-frames.

spanner wrote:Elan chassis at the London Science Museum (photo taken 1985)

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lotus_Elan_car_chassis.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Link added by VigLink" class="vglnk"><span>http</span><span>://</span><span>en</span><span>.</span><span>wikipedia</span><span>.</span><span>org</span><span>/</span><span>wiki</span><span>/</span><span>File</span><span>:</span><span>Lotus</span><span>_</span><span>Elan</span><span>_</span><span>car</span><span>_</span><span>chassis</span><span>.</span><span>jpg</span></a>

S-B

I don't know about the the two photos but not the same as the pdf chassis, that is unless someone "restored' it with knock-ons.

Seeing there are couple replies, I went and opened one of the other .pdf's that Clark sent to me and sucked out the pages as snapshots and copied to a new file and saved it as a .jpg, at approximately 1.65meg so I can post it, the .pdf is about 6.5meg. I lost some quality but I guess thats life. This is the October 10th 1962 article from"Motor", I think it has a lot more detail, it is also 3 pages so thats part of it. If you look at the rear of the differential you will notice that it looks like a prototype, the top ears appear to be bolted to the case and to the frustacones. All good stuff that should be on this forum I think.

Gary