You have got to like driving an Elan to do 800,000 miles

[Spyder fan]

A couple of pictures of Brian Bucklands S3 FHC from yesterday.

Brian bought the car with 70,000 miles on the clock. It has now covered 870,000 miles. He says he has slowed down a little in the last few years only covering an average 15000 miles in the last 3 or 4 years.

I only manage 2000 - 3000 miles a year.




The car has a Spyder chassis, Spyder hybrid CV/donut driveshafts an alternator, electronic ignition, electric fuel pump, inertia reel seat belts and a host of other little tweaks all combined to allow daily use.

This isn't word for word, but is the gist of our conversation

Brian:- I changed that old junk when it went wrong and replaced it with sensible stuff that the factory would have used if they still made them, how the hell are you supposed to use the handbrake when you are strapped in with the original seatbelts, sod pissing about with points at the side of the road in the pouring rain, I like the heater on full, the radio up loud and the headlamps to be bright even when I'm stuck ticking over in traffic

[billwill]

Wow, I thought my 200,000 miles (approx) was a lot. It obviously isn't.

Same year of registration too.

[Elanintheforest]

I shouldn't think that there are many other cars of any type even approaching that sort of mileage, let alone an Elan. I also wonder how many Elans are used as everyday driver cars today...not many of those either!

Certainly a Lotus record. He doesn't write a bad book either!

I would love to listen to a conversation between Brian and Miles Wilkins about Elans, and their approaches to originality and general classic car philosophy. They are two of the world's acknowledged authorities on the car, but I would imagine that the air would turn blue very quickly, and there would be very few areas upon which they may agree.

Apart from the fundamental and fanatical love for the Elan.

Mark

[peterexpart]

He must be a Sales Rep I can't imagine anyone else doing 18000 miles a year for 45 years !!

[Tahoe]

I'm seriously impressed! Any idea how many rebuilds in that timeframe?

[Spyder fan]

I'm not sure whether the car has ever had a full rebuild, the last major work was 12 years ago when the chassis/frame was changed to it's current one. Knowing Brian, he probably just carries out continuous necessary maintenance and repairs as necessary.

Over here we say it's like "Painting the Forth Bridge", which used to be a continuous job for the Railways over here, basically they would start at one end and finish at the other, then they would go back to the other end and start again. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16137688

[Quart Meg Miles]

I would love to listen to a conversation between Brian and Miles Wilkins about Elans, and their approaches to originality and general classic car philosophy. They are two of the world's acknowledged authorities on the car, but I would imagine that the air would turn blue very quickly, and there would be very few areas upon which they may agree.

Mark

Having discussed this very subject with Miles a few months ago I think homicide, or at least GBH, would be involved in any future meeting.

He once rebuilt that car after a shunt so there is history.