Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I've been trying to find an article on the factory in a German magazine. I came across this interview with Chapman and a small one with Barry Carter, who had taken over from Graham Arnold. It was in Autocar in October 1972.

Tim

The writing was on the wall, from that interview Tim. No wonder I'm not so keen on post 1974 Lotii !!

The previous picture showed the lineup of sales cars at Hethel....still with the '120' registration marks. And that Mk 2 Lotus Cortina was Mr Chapman's first Mk 2 company car...the first of many. There must have been a continued financial tie up betwen Lotus and Ford as the Team Lotus continued with two Mk 2 cars fitted with the FVA engine, usually driven by Graham Hill and Jackie Ickx.

Now I'm dipping into some of the photos a chum obtained from Roger Putnam back in '82 when he left Lotus to run Jaguar's sales division. I've had a few conversations with Roger recently trying to find out what some of the photos were about, but this one is pretty straightforward! It was taken in 1966, and continues to support Alan's theory that all post-type 26 cars were Coupes!

Mark

The publication of the photos which I took at Hethel in 1969 prompted quite a lot of interest. Here then are a couple more.

The first shows several bodies and bumper assemblies sitting on trolley?s and I suspect they are about to be moved into the paint preparation area. The bodies themselves seem to have been trimmed of all the excess fibreglass while some of the bumper assemblies have already had some sort of preparatory coat over the base gel coat.

I took this second photo standing looking over the roof of the Morris Minor van into which were about to be loaded the component parts of a drop head S4 Elan. The Elan body would be picked up by the forklift seen in the middle distance and then dropped on a car trailer which was attached to the van.

All the Lotus Europas were left hand drive for the right hand drive version had not been launched on the UK market. There must have been some arrangement with Renault which placed some sort of embargo on selling right hand drive models in the UK for when I ordered my Elan, for ultimate shipment to New Zealand, it was treated as an export order and I was offered, coerced perhaps, to consider taking a Europa for it would have allowed the factory to produce a right hand drive version and which would have been very visible in the UK for some months. I had my heart set on an Elan so I explained that there was no chance that I would consider changing my order.

Midst all these Europas are various Plus 2?s. There is a yellow kit version in the foreground, and to the right of the yellow Plus 2 sitting behind it (sitting on some form of pallet) is a yellow drop head S4 kit, the car which I suspect was loaded onto the trailer.

In the second row are a couple of grey Plus 2?s. I do not ever remember seeing that colour. The one facing the camera sits on its rear wheels but does not have the front wheels fitted. Both cars were finished as kits and ready for delivery ? somewhere!

I have now found the article, quite a long one, from an unknown German magazine. It would appear to have been written in late 1970. If any of our German speakers fancy translating it, I'm sure we would welcome reading it in English!

Tim

Just looking again at the article I posted above, I think I have the wrong date. The 907 engine was developed during 1972 if my memory serves me correctly. So between that and the first photo of a Gold Leaf F1 with the 1970 constructors display, my guess would now be mid 1972. Any one else?

Tim

I can't speak a word of German but every one of those pictures speaks 1,000 words in English. Thank you!

Here are some photos Frank, with English words too!

Autosport ran several annual Lotus supplements in the 1960/70s. They had an especially close relationship, championed in particular by John Bolster, who often got to test drive new Lotus cars before any other writer. For those of you unaware of Bolster, do look him up. He had a vicious little special called Bloody Mary and he and his brother were well known on the race circuits before and after WWII.

Tim

Elanintheforest wrote:Rohan's comments about 'as they came out of the moulds' triggered a little memory in my brain. Here's a factory photo from 1967 of a S3 Coupe shell fresh out of the mould, showing clearly that the Coupe shell was made as a whole, and wasn't a convertible with a roof glued on!

Mark

It was the other way round was it not, with the later open top bodies being coupes with the (partial) roof cut off?

Some factory promotional photos courtesy of Mike Ostrov...

Does anybody know what became of the moulds?

Frank Howard wrote:Does anybody know what became of the moulds?

Probably incorrect but I heard that Miles Wilkens got the moulds

Some more photos

More photos. I still can't believe their coveralls and coats could be that clean!

Those pictures were all taken at Bourne Plastics right?

Thanks for posting!